The Urban Forest Project is coming to Baltimore April 11th-June 28th!
On Wednesday, March 19 the first of 300+ banners was hung at the corner of Patterson Park Ave and Eastern Ave near Patterson Park.
This project by Tilt Studio Inc., brings together 200 artists, designers and College students, 75+ K-12 students, and another 100+ businesses to produce a visual story based on the image of a tree and the idea of sustainability. Each participant was asked to design a banner, to be hung throughout Baltimore City. The banners will lead visitors to Druid Hill Park, Wyman Park Dell, Herring Run Park, Patterson Park and Carroll Park. Each park will have installations and day long events that help to promote and drive traffic to the park.
Keep an eye out for the banners as they are installed in the next few weeks. Check out a map of where the banners will be hung and find out about upcoming events by visiting the Urban Forest Project.
Photo courtesy of Zoe Gensheimer.
Baltimore's Urban Forest Project begins!
Shape Up Parks! April 5, 2008
Plan or volunteer for a park service project in a park near you!
Join Baltimore City Recreation and Parks for Shape Up Parks, our bi-annual volunteer service day, and help get a jump start on spring cleaning.
On Saturday, April 5, 2008 from 9am to 12pm come out to mulch, weed, clean, and paint our parks and playgrounds!
If you are an individual volunteer or a school, church or business group, contact us so we can help connect you with a park project that fits your needs.
If you are a park stewardship group, get in touch with us and we can assist your group in registering your project, planning your activities, and finding additional supplies and volunteers.
This year Shape Up Parks and Project Clean Stream are working together to clean our parks and streams. Visit the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay to learn more about how you can get involved with a stream clean up in your area (including the surrounding counties!)
Student Volunteer Day - March 8, 2008
On Saturday, March 8, 2008, over 600 youth volunteers from the Uncharted Student Evangelism Conference spent their Saturday afternoon in the rain helping to mulch, weed, clean, sweep and edge in nine Baltimore City parks. Despite the rainy weather, they helped out the Department of Recreation and Parks and many park stewardship groups get a jump on spring cleaning in the parks!
Monday, April 7 GROWshop - Sustaining Community Involvement
Join Baltimore City Recreation and Parks and Parks & People Foundation on Monday, April 7 for the next GROWshop on "Sustaining Community Involvement", presented by Lane Victorson of the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Learn how to use community organizing techniques to keep the momentum going for your park!
Location: Baltimore City Recreation and Parks, Peach Room, 3001 East Drive, Baltimore, MD 21217 (in Druid Hill Park).
RSVP to green@baltimorecity.gov.
You can download a flyer for this event or click on the link on the sidebar.
The Growing Home Campaign
Greening begins in your own backyard. Increasing tree canopy one tree at a time.
The Growing Home program is an innovative way homeowners can help increase the tree canopy in our region. As part of Baltimore County's Green Renaissance and Baltimore City's Tree Baltimore Initiative, the Growing Home Campaign is a partnership between Baltimore County, Baltimore City, local retail nurseries and garden centers, and homeowners to encourge planting new trees on private residential land. The Growing Home Campaign provides homeowners with education about the multiple benefits of planting trees and a $10 savings on the purchase of qualifying trees.
Plant a tree today and visit the Growing Home website to learn more about this great program!
Mayor Dixon and County Executive Smith announced the campaign at the regional watershed conference on Saturday, March 1 - see the article in the Baltimore Sun.
Funding Opportunity for Youth-Led Groups
Grants available for youth-led community organizing projects
Youth As Resources, Baltimore’s youth-led grant making organization has funds available!
Youth (up to age 21) in Baltimore City and County who want to put their community building ideas into action are invited to apply for funding.
Grants range from $500 - $3,500 and are available for community organizing projects that are created and carried out by young people.
Youth As Resources is offering grant seeker workshops on: Saturday, March 15 at 10:30 a.m. and Wednesday, March 19 at 5:00 p.m.
Applicants are required to attend one of the two workshops and must be represented by one or two youth and no more than one optional adult. Application deadline is on Friday, April 18.
To sign up for a workshop and/or for more information, please call (410) 576-9551.
GROWshop - Presenter Announced!
Join us for our second workshop this spring hosted by Baltimore City Recreation and Parks and the Parks & People Foundation on Monday, March 3, 2008.
Join us at Alonso's Restaurant on the second floor (415 W Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21210) at 5:30pm for a fun evening of learning and socializing.
RSVP to green@baltimorecity.gov. Download a flyer here.
Presenter: Amy Coates Madsen, Director of Standards for Excellence Institute
Amy Coates Madsen is the Director of the Standards for Excellence Institute, a national initiative to promote the highest standards of ethics and accountability in nonprofit governance, management, and operations, and to facilitate adherence to standards by all organizations. The Standards for Excellence Institute is a program of the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations where Amy has served for more than nine years. Amy is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the association's comprehensive ethics and accountability program and efforts to replicate the program nationally. She serves as a trainer in the areas of board conduct, program evaluation, program replication, fundraising ethics, and nonprofit management. Amy also works with nonprofit sector measurement research initiatives. She teaches a course on nonprofit ethics and accountability at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies Certificate Program on Nonprofit Management.
According to the Maryland Nonprofits Standards for Excellence: An Ethics and Accountability Code for the Nonprofit Sector, nonprofits are governed by an elected, volunteer board of directors that should consist of individuals who are committed to the mission of the organization. An effective nonprofit board should determine the mission of the organization, establish management policies and procedures, assure that adequate human resources (volunteer and/or paid staff) and financial resources (earned income, government contracts and grants, and charitable contributions) are available, and actively monitor the organization's financial and programmatic performance.
Understanding the role of the board is the first key to successfully building one for your organization. The actual process will vary from organization to organization, but is always based on the premise of finding people dedicated to your cause that have the time, energy, and passion to grow and sustain the organization. This workshop will discuss the basic roles and responsibilities of a nonprofit board and touch on some ways to go about building that board.
Building a Board - GROWshop!
Join us for our second workshop this spring hosted by Baltimore City Recreation and Parks and the Parks & People Foundation. The Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations will present "Building a Board of Directors" focusing on the basic roles and responsibilities of nonprofit board members and tips for recruitment!
Join us at Alonso's Restaurant on the second floor (415 W Cold Spring Lane, Baltimore, MD 21210) at 5:30pm for a fun evening of learning and socializing.
RSVP to green@baltimorecity.gov.
Download a flyer here.
Change of Location for February 4 GROWshop
Please note - due to space constraints, the February 4, 2008 GROWshop will now be held at the Virginia S. Baker Recreation Center, located at 2601 E. Baltimore St., Baltimore, MD 21224.
Spring GROW workshop series
Capacity building workshops for park stewards!
Baltimore City Recreation and Parks and the Parks & People Foundation partnered in Fall 2007 on a workshop series for Baltimore City's park steward groups. Topics included event planning, marketing, volunteer and business recruitment. Over 50 participants joined us over the series, which featured hour-long workshops followed by a social hour, where park friends could mingle, socialize and network with each other.
The spring series will kick off on Monday, February 4, 2008, with Tim Almaguer, Executive Director of Friends of Patterson Park presenting on the process of forming a 501(c)(3) organization. Join us at the White House (27 S. Patterson Park Ave., Baltimore, MD 21231) at 5:30pm for a fun evening of learning and socializing. RSVP to green@baltimorecity.gov.
Welcome to greenerbaltimore.blogspot.com
Visit this page to find out about upcoming park service projects and park events sponsored by Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks and our partner park stewardship groups.
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