Team Green

Groundwork ORV engages communities and employs young people to build climate-resilient projects in vulnerable neighborhoods.
Photographs Sybilka Storie

Flooding, extreme heat, poor air quality—these are just some of the ways a neighborhood could feel the effect of climate change. And some neighborhoods are much more likely to see them than others. Historical injustices such as discriminatory mortgage lending (known as redlining) have left certain communities affected by socioeconomic inequalities and more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Without the resources or know-how to adjust to major climate events, many marginalized communities are left bearing a greater burden.

But Groundwork Ohio River Valley (ORV) is changing that narrative. A local branch of the national nonprofit Groundwork USA, Groundwork ORV helps vulnerable communities recover and adapt to the effects of climate change through engagement, education, and resources. The organization works closely with residents to identify each neighborhood’s needs, helps outline the steps for implementation, and hires young members of the community to build and maintain green infrastructures. Through local partnerships and their growing initiative, Groundwork ORV has done everything from energy justice work to greenspace maintenance to influencing local policy, and continues to empower communities in the Cincinnati region with climate resilience.

Community-Driven Change
Groundwork ORV has been active in Southwest Ohio for 5 years. An interactive “impact dashboard” on the organization’s website shows a map of the neighborhoods they’ve worked in—Lower and East Price Hill, South Fairmount, and Clifton, to name a few. It also presents data like the number of trees they’ve planted (6,800) and how many acres of invasive species they’ve cleared (554.6). Their impact on the local environment has been undeniable. Yet it’s important to understand that Groundwork ORV doesn’t choose its tasks at random. Each project they take on is based on the wants and needs of vulnerable communities.

“Groundwork as a whole really believes that it should be community driven,” says Green Team Director Sierra Hayden. “The projects that we work on, we want to make sure they are being asked for and not just us deciding that this is what needs to happen.”

Three main programs make up Groundwork ORV: Climate Safe Neighborhoods, Green Team, and Green Corps. Collectively, these programs engage every tier of local communities, from teens looking for part-time employment to adults who want to see their neighborhood improve.

“Having elders of the community, having young adults of the community, and having youth of the community each have a hand in community beautification, this pride of the community, I think it’s really important,” Hayden says.

Each initiative starts with Climate Safe Neighborhoods. The program works to identify the neighborhoods that need the most support, then engages with those communities to hear their needs and educate them on possible solutions. They ensure residents are involved at each step, from initial ideation to data collection to leadership.

“It gives a lot of agency to those on the ground who are directly impacted by climate change,” says Climate Safe Neighborhoods Director Kelsey Hawkins-Johnson. “The program in itself gives leadership opportunities and connection to resources, funding, employment, and career building.”

Groundwork ORV works closely with other local organizations as well as city officials in order to bring their climate justice initiatives to fruition. The Climate Safe Neighborhoods program also includes a close partnership with Green Umbrella, Cincinnati’s regional climate collaborative. Together, the two organizations meet with underserved communities to uplift their voices and needs in climate planning, forming what they call a Climate Advisory Group.

Through tools like geographic data analysis and climate mapping, Climate Safe Neighborhoods identifies green infrastructures—assets like trees, green parking lots, or community garden spaces—that may be helpful in a given area. The residents decide which problems they want to prioritize and what they want to see change in their neighborhood. Then, Climate Safe Neighborhoods explains the different solutions that could mitigate these problems.

“When they go into these meetings, a lot of times the community members will already know what they want,” Hayden says. “They might not have the language, but that’s where the education comes in.”

Once the community decides on what green infrastructure they’d like to see and where, the Climate Advisory Group develops an action plan that involves funding, resources, and partnerships to make it happen.

Engagement at all Ages
Groundwork ORV has the capacity to facilitate many of its projects thanks to its other two programs. Green Team and Green Corps make up the workforce that steps in to tackle hands-on tasks like clearing trails and removing invasive species.

Green Team and Green Corps also exemplify another of Groundwork ORV’s primary goals: to create job opportunities and workforce development for young people from these communities. Green Corps employs people aged 18–26 to take on bigger, more complex, jobs like infrastructure and larger conservation projects. Green Team, on the other hand, is made up of kids aged 14–18 and generally does more of the ongoing work, like maintaining trails and parks. Both work programs are paid and designed to help prepare the participants for future jobs—whether or not they continue to work in environmental fields.

In addition to onsite job training and experience, the Groundwork ORV staff helps each employee build their resumes, and accompanies the teams on professional development field trips to places like urban farms, the Environmental Protection Agency offices, and even national parks. “[Members of Green Corps and Green Team] are typically young people from underserved populations that might not have access to these types of places,” Hayden says. “We want to instill in them a green mindset … and the knowledge that they have access to these spaces.”

Although the primary goal of Green Team and Green Corps is workforce development, Hayden sees it as an opportunity to inspire a sense of pride, confidence, and self-worth in young people from underserved communities. “My goal is to make sure that any young person that comes through my program realizes the value that they have to offer their community and themselves,” Hayden says. “A lot of times, young people can feel foreign in our green spaces—especially young people of color—and I want them to feel comfortable, confident to be able to go into these spaces with their heads held high.”

Initially, Hayden says, Groundwork ORV had to actively recruit for Green Team and Green Corps employees. But as the programs continue to grow, so does interest. Now they have people waiting for a chance to get their foot in the door as soon as applications open.

Green Team organizes three programs throughout the year. Spring and fall programs offer after-school employment, while an extensive summer program runs five hours a day, Monday through Friday, for 8 weeks. This summer, Green Team hired more than 150 youth and young adults who worked in Mt. Airy, Caldwell Nature Preserve, Madisonville, Lower Price Hill, Winton Hills, and other regional locations. Their tasks included removing invasive species, garden and trail maintenance, and litter pickup.

“It’s a lot of physical labor which can be tough, but the reward at the end is unmatched in my opinion,” says Brad O’Shea, a member of Green Corps. “It’s really awesome giving people a space to go out and have that connection with nature.”

Groundwork ORV also pays for the members of Green Corps to take trips to parks and natural environments in different parts of the country—not just for learning experience, but for fun. This fall, O’Shea and others from his team traveled to Yellowstone National Park to build new boardwalks for a portion of trail in collaboration with the National Park Service. By covering all trip costs, Groundwork ORV grants opportunities that many of these youths wouldn’t otherwise have.

A Climate-Resilient Future
Through equitable climate planning, Groundwork ORV is planting the seeds—sometimes literally—for a better, greener, more just future. “[The work] is connecting with those who are often left behind in neighborhood planning, or at least in city policy planning,” Hawkins-Johnson says. “It’s also about thinking about the history and visualizing a future that is envisioned in the resident’s perspective.”

Over the last five years, Groundwork ORV has engaged 11 of the 52 Cincinnati neighborhoods, along with a recent Climate Safe Neighborhoods launch in Northern Kentucky. In that time, they’ve managed multiple major accomplishments, including notable changes to policy. Between 2021 and 2023, they worked to keep community voices front and center in the city’s sustainable planning efforts and its climate-change initiative, Green Cincinnati Plan.

“We were able to advocate for their neighborhood plans to be considered and incorporated into the Green Cincinnati Plan,” Hawkins-Johnson says. “The city’s published sustainability playbook now has carbon-safe neighborhoods written into it.”

As Groundwork ORV continues to activate new areas, they are also focused on empowering residents of each neighborhood with the tools and know-how to get and stay involved. They began offering advocacy training this year, and hired two community organizers from the Climate Advisory Groups in order to keep local leaders involved in climate resilience work. This summer, they ran an air-quality program that paid residents to learn about air quality, monitor and collect air quality data, and participate in plantings for better air quality.

There are a lot of facets to addressing climate inequality and resilience in low-resource communities. Groundwork ORV is coming at it from all angles. But the biggest thing is always prioritizing the voices of the residents—those who are actually experiencing the disproportionate effects of climate change—and giving them the resources they need to make a change.

“I feel like the folks of Groundwork are just here as tools,” Hayden says, “to make sure that people can take the actions into their own hands.”