Abstract
Thanks to funding from a competitive U.S. Environmental Protection Agency People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) $15,000 grant, DePaul students, professors and members of the Green Teen community group gathered to work on their yearlong soil testing project in a vacant lot on Chicago's South Side. The genesis of the project dated to a year earlier, when environmental science and studies faculty members Christie Klimas, assistant professor, and James Montgomery, associate professor, submitted their grant application outlining their vision to test the soil characteristics of several vacant lots, with the goal of determining what types of green infrastructure could thrive in those spaces. Since the lots belong to the Gary Comer Youth Center (GCYC), a community hub that offers extracurricular activities and college-readiness programs for youths in the Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood, the proposal aimed to strengthen an existing partnership between the two institutions. Thus, this project was not only about teaching students to test soil, but also about working with an anchor institution in a low-income, minority community to figure out solutions together.
Recommended Citation
(2014)
"Soil Sampling in the City: Growing Green Infrastructure on Chicago's South Side,"
DePaul Magazine: Vol. 1:
Iss.
22014, Article 5.
Available at:
https://via.library.depaul.edu/depaul-magazine/vol1/iss22014/5