Sustaining a Change: Sustain Charlotte Recognized for Sustainable Neighborhoods Program

(By Ryan Pitkin, Creative Loafing Charlotte)

Author Ryan Pitkin writes, "It's this self-motivation that made Reid Park a perfect fit for community engagement group Sustain Charlotte to offer a helping hand in the form of its Sustainable Neighborhoods Program. This grant program, funded by Wells Fargo, brings Sustain Charlotte organizers into lower-income neighborhoods to help residents create long-term sustainability plans for their community. With the help of Sustain Charlotte, Reid Park residents have now created a proactive plan to deal with issues like street safety, littering and park maintenance that includes short- and long-term goals with resources to help reach them.They say it has been a relief to start seeing projects get done, especially as they enlist the community's youth to complete them."

Wilmore resident, Kris Steele told Creative Loafing, "I think it comes down to people. We have a number of individuals who create a collective in this space that create a momentum for change, people who see things and rather than just talk about it they get behind it...Sustain Charlotte was the central piece of that, bringing people around to talk about what could be, and when those ideas get out and sit in a space, a cauldron, they brew and essentially we turn those ideas into a reality."
Read more about our innovative work with Charlotte's neighborhoods in this week's Creative Loafing.

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