PARTNERSHIPS
Click here to see examples of restoration projects in and around New Haven (Flash Player 7+ required).
The Community Greenspace program provides material supplies, technical advice, and classroom-based and hands-on training delivered by URI staff and Yale graduate student interns to support inner city New Haven residents who wish to reclaim and then maintain their distressed urban neighborhoods. Since 1995, we have completed more than 221 diverse urban restoration projects with an annual participation of more than 500+ New Haven residents. We have planted over 1000 + trees of ( more than 45+ different species) with an overall tree survival rate of 85 percent. Click the image to the left to see examples of restoration projects in and around New Haven (Flash player 7 required).

As a result of ongoing affiliation with Community Greenspace, residents report heightened membership in civic and voluntary organizations, rejuvenated feelings of neighborhood ownership, and lasting visible improvements in their daily environment. As one participating resident says, "the project brought neighbors into contact with each other who don't normally interact. It brought about a cohesiveness that did not previously exist."

One issue facing urban neighborhoods is the growing number of abandoned, derelict open spaces. These abandoned lands pose a current and future threat to the quality of life in our cities. They are patches of urban land–each less than one acre but totaling hundreds of acres together–that create great gaps in the landscape, or sinkholes where environmental, economic, and community potential is wasted. The issues concerning the assessment, restoration, and maintenance of these lands are priority concerns.
The Green Map System (GMS) is a locally adaptable program for environmental mapmaking that has been instituted in dozens of cities around the globe. Green Maps are locally made using common symbols (icons) of a shared map-making language, and chart local ecologically and socially significant sites. Click here to download a PDF of New Haven's Green Map.
The Community Greenspace program provides both material and technical resources. Supplies and equipment that are available through the program include: plant material (trees, perennial flowering plants, and shrubs) and gardening supplies (compost, mulch, soil, lumber, tools, etc.). Technical assistance involves the services of a community forester assigned to support and facilitate the development and implementation of a group's open space design. The community forester also helps neighbors conduct an inventory of existing trees; select and prepare sites for new plantings; select appropriate plants; and learn planting and maintenance techniques. In addition to the support of a community forester, training workshops are offered and landscape architects are available as needed. For more information, contact URI’s Greenspace Manager, Chris Ozyck: christopher.ozyck@yale.edu.

We invite you to apply for a Community Greenspace grant to support you and your neighbors' efforts to revitalize your community. Parks, abandoned lots, public and private housing associations, neglected front yards and curb strips are some of the spaces residents choose to plant and maintain.

Community organizations wishing to work with URI's Community Greenspace program should fill out a grant application. Click here to find out more about the application process. Click here to download a PDF of an application form.

Deadlines and Requirements
Grant support is offered to neighborhood groups, such as blockwatches, neighborhood groups, and youth organizations. Individuals are not eligible for support.

All groups applying for a Community Greenspace project must attend an application workshop (contact Chris Ozyck, Community Greenspace manager, for dates and locations). Submit a completed application plus four copies. All supporting materials (photos, letters of support, etc.) should be attached only to the original application.

All applications for the Community Greenspace program will be subject to a review process. The Community Foundation and the city will screen the applications for eligibility. URI reviews and advises during the selection process. The Neighborhood Program Committee then will review applications and make recommendations, and the Board of Directors of The Community Foundation will review the recommendations and make final decisions on funding. Successful applications will be notified by mail on the Board's decision in early March.

For more information on Community Greenspace, please call URI at:
203 432 6189
or email our Greenspace Manager, Chris Ozyck:
christopher.ozyck@yale.edu
©2005 Urban Resources Initiative.