Groundwork New Orleans

The mission of Groundwork New Orleans (GWNO) is to bring about the sustained regeneration, improvement, and management of the physical environment by developing community-based partnerships that empower people, businesses, and organizations to promote environmental, economic and social well-being.

Groundwork New Orleans engages local residents, businesses and government officials to revitalize neighborhoods and transform community liabilities into community assets. By changing places, we change lives. Since 2006, GWNO has focused on building resilient communities by implementing projects that reduce street flooding, engage communities, and improve quality of life for all residents. These projects include installing rain gardens, flow through planters, bioswales, utilizing native plants, and bioswales, and planting trees. Groundwork New Orleans trains youth in green infrastructure implementation, as a result, youth get paid to learn how to tackle some of the City's toughest issues and help improve their communities. The Green Team employs youth ages 14-18, in environmental improvement and community development projects which focus on green engineering and help improve the quality of life in New Orleans. The Ground CREW (Creating a Resilient Environmental Workforce) program provides youth ages 18 to 25, with career training, hands on workforce development projects to prepare them for a career in environmental fields.

Testimonials

"We can't afford to pass up opportunities to build a pathway for our young people into high-wage
employment. Through this project and others like it, each of these training organizations and their
trainees receive hands-on real-time training in Green Infrastructure methodology and installation. By coupling the completion of the CWC and NCCER certification programs with hands-on application, we believe our model provides the most effective training, leading to high-wage employment in the sector while meeting tangible green infrastructure needs in communities throughout New Orleans."