We’d like to take this opportunity to thank our funding partner, PNC Charitable Trusts, for supporting Neighborhood Allies with a $17,500 grant for our work with GTECH to create Pittsburgh’s first city-wide mobile resource trailer.

In partnership with GTECH Strategies, we will create Pittsburgh’s first city-wide mobile resource trailer, which will equip residents and community organizations with the landscaping tools, resources and expertise needed to target blight and vacancy in their neighborhoods. Once activated, this new mobile resource will support community efforts to implement and maintain community assets while fostering community capacity building among neighbors. This new local community asset is modeled after Cleveland’s Clean & Green Trailer, which supports landscaping, community gardening, greenspace enhancement, litter pick-up, seasonal clean-up, graffiti removal, natural resource conservation and other community projects.

For the Pittsburgh adaptation of the Clean & Green Trailer, registration for utilization of the trailer would be facilitated through the online portal: www.lotstolove.org at no or nominal cost. This would allow users to register their projects on the database and ensure linkage to necessary city processes, crowdsourcing fundraising opportunities, and other relevant resources. Ideally, deployment of the trailer could be aligned with further education and capacity efforts such as mini-Blight Bootcamp sessions, ReClaim Ambassadors, Love Your Block projects, The Resilience Generation (ReGeneration) Fund and other community based partnerships. Additionally, we will develop a naming contest to be introduced at our annual Blight Bootcamp so that the name of the trailer will be created by the community.

Anticipated Outcomes:

We believe that this mobile resource will further assist our efforts to collectively address and attack blight and vacancy around the city and in neighboring boroughs. Neighborhood beautification, blight elimination and productive reuse of vacant land are outcomes that we desire to see in our neighborhoods, facilitated through community clean-ups, landscaping, placemaking and further efforts. Additionally, we believe that the presence of this resource may also enhance future public vacant land maintenance programs as GTECH and its partners recently started working with the URA to redefine the process for facilitating public vacant lot projects. Increased community capacity to assist with the maintenance process should be a critical component of a new model throughout The City. Finally, we are hopeful that the activities supported by the trailer will foster community engagement, empowerment and participation by residents and volunteers.

Thank you to PNC Charitable Trusts for supporting this critical piece of Neighborhood Allies work serving Pittsburgh residents!

PNC Charitable Trusts is comprised of over 150 perpetual charitable trusts and private foundations with PNC serving as trustee.