Walnut Way’s Blue Skies Landscaping program has been chosen as a finalist for The MANDI Awards. The MANDIs are Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation which celebrate improvements in Milwaukee communities. Walnut Way’s Blue Skies Program was chosen as a finalist in the Chase Economic Development Category. Read more about it in the article below..
Walnut Way uses green infrastructure projects to continue our vision of an environmentally sustainable community with an emphasis on environmental and economic justice. We are honored to be recognized by Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) with the Green Luminary Award, for our unique work connecting workforce development and green infrastructure. We demonstrate projects in clean energy and green infrastructure, train and employ community residents through our Blue Skies Landscaping Program in the installation and maintenance, spark neighbor-to-neighbor conversations and educational opportunities on the importance of the projects, and knit the new developments with existing green assets to form a cohesive sustainability pathway that is based on neighborhood strengths and interests.
Walnut Way partnered on an application with The City of Milwaukee’s Environmental Collaboration Office (ECO) securing a national partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). Partners gathered for a two day design session in February to begin the planning process.
Walnut Way has been invited to participate in the Institute for Sustainable Communities’ Partnership for Resilient Communities (PRC). City of Milwaukee ECO Department partnered on the application to increase green infrastructure projects. This award supports community-driven resilience projects. ISC will provide Walnut Way with customized technical assistance, access to ISC’s large and growing national network of sustainability and resilience practitioners, connections with peer organizations, and strategic funding to expand and accelerate our work on energy and water resilience.
It’s official, We’re the newest partner in the Institute for Sustainable Communities’ Partnership for Resilient Communities! Over the next 14 months, we’ll be working to implement projects rooted in community resilience.
Over the past 14 years, Tony Velez and his wife Dannielle have seen a lot from their home on N. 17th and North Avenue. It wasn’t always peachy on 17th street. The neighbors struggled with gang activity, gun-violence, fighting on the block, and abandoned properties. But one summer they saw something new that symbolized a rebirth of Tony’s childhood neighborhood, something that reaffirmed their commitment to stay put and raise their seven children in Lindsay Heights: a group of teenagers and elders in the neighborhood planting peach trees next to the restored Walnut Way house.
Jeff didn’t know a knock on his door in the fall of 2014 would be a “game changer” as he calls it. He was down on his luck, depressed, staying at a family member’s home that was almost condemned. Unemployed and still recovering emotionally from a recent stint in jail, life was bleak. But then two men from Walnut Way – Terron Edwards and Maanaan Sabir – knocked on his door, introduced themselves, and invited him to the next Men’s Wellness Peer Group.
Follow the Walnut Way Blue Skies Landscapers this season as they grow new roots around the city, planting and delivering young and eager trees around the city.
