This webinar was hosted by the Urban Waters Learning Network and recorded on Aug. 02, 2016

• Are you working to reclaim urban waterways while occasionally bumping up against waterfront properties home to former industrial uses?
• Ever wonder how to get a grassroots, community-driven effort to reclaim vacant and contaminated land off the ground?
• Thinking about heeding a community mandate to transform underutilized land into a park, trail connection or community garden, but you’re not sure how to get started?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, this webinar is for you! In this webinar recording, you will learn about free resources designed to support practitioners seeking a “brownfield for community benefit” project strategy. Kate O’Brien, who leads Groundwork USA’s EPA-funded Brownfields Technical Assistance program and Community of Practice, supports grassroots and municipal practitioners alike with coaching, tools, templates and strategies for implementing more inclusive visioning and planning processes, thereby assuring more equitable and relevant brownfield redevelopment in distressed communities across the country. Along with Kate, hear from Carolina Martinez, who leads National City, CA-based nonprofit Environmental Health Coalition, about their efforts to integrate meaningful community engagement in a brownfield-to-park project highlighted as a community priority in EHC’s recent Brownfield Area Wide Planning process. Through a Direct Technical Assistance (TA) engagement over the past 18 months, Groundwork USA helped build EHC’s capacity as a nonprofit resource and partner to the City of National City. In early 2016, EHC had a major breakthrough forging a productive and trusting partnership with City Hall for leading community engagement in brownfield-to-park visioning, as well as long-term maintenance and stewardship planning for the soon-to-be open space.

Presenters:

• Kate O’Brien, Director of Capacity Building, Groundwork USA
• Carolina Martinez, Senior Planner and Policy Advocate, Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) in National City, CA