Green Jobs

Wednesday January 25, 2012 by Aggie

NYSDEC Awards POC and Its Partners a 2012 Environmental Justice Grant

The Partnership for Onondaga Creek (POC) and Onondaga Earth Corps (OEC) are pleased to announce the award of $49,967 by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) to their joint project called “Growing Syracuse’s Next Generation of Environmental Justice Leaders”. Out of 123 state applicants, the POC/OEC project is the sole winner for the Central New York region. The award will be administered by the groups’ fiscal sponsor, the Onondaga Environmental Institute.

“OEI is pleased to serve as the fiscal sponsor on this project,” stated Onondaga Environmental Institute President Edward Michalenko. “The project’s goals to empower youth to be active participants in creating positive change for their communities and the environment aligns nicely with OEI's mission to advance environmental research, education, planning and restoration in Central New York. Amy Samuels, OEI’s Education and Outreach Coordinator, is excited to provide youth technical training and mentoring.”

Issue/Program:

NYSDEC awards Environmental Justice grant

Wednesday January 25, 2012 by Aggie

The NYSDEC granted $49,967 to the POC, the Onondaga Earth Corps and our fiscal sponsor Onondaga Environmental Institute. This two-year grant will help the POC run our Young Eco-'Cuse Explorer program.

Sunday June 19, 2011 by Aggie

POC strategy meeting

On May 21 from 9 am to 2pm, Partnership members reviewed its mission and the issues that it is committed to.

With facilitating help from Bob Graham and Jessica Maxwell, the POC examined its mission and the issues that the group wants to work on. We also looked at sustainability and community recruitment. Some useful ideas and recommendations came out of this meeting, namely, how to share the burden of various initatives and how to recruit more community members and train our future EJ leaders.

See the attached summary document for this meeting.

Issue/Program:

Onondaga County's Green Infrastructure "Save the Rain" Initative

URL/Address:

http://www.savetherain.us

By 2018 through its "Save the Rain" initative, Onondaga County will keep 250 million gallons of stormwater out of Syracuse's combined sewer system. This green infrastructure effort combined with the construction of grey infrastructure projects, such as combined sewage storage tanks, sewer separation projects and pipelines, will boast the capture of the combined system to 95%, up from 74%. This capture will markedly improve the water quality of Onondaga Lake and some of its feeder streams, Onondaga Creek, Harbor Brook and Ley Creek.

Onondaga Earth Corps

URL/Address:

http://www.onondagaearthcorps.org

The Onondaga Earth Corps (OEC) is a youth development and employment program for youth ages 15 - 19 living in the City of Syracuse. As youth work on community and environmental service projects, they learn valuable job and life skills, civic engagement, environmental stewardship and technical skills in urban forestry and other urban green infrastructure.

Everyone wonders "What is a green job"? Broadly, it is any job that conserves or preserves our natural resources, that restores or revitalizes our environment or that promotes healthy, sustainable living. Some green jobs are recycling waste, reusing through deconstruction, buying products that conserve the environment, weatherizing older homes, planting trees, building rain gardens, installing LED lighting fixtures, building solar panels, installing wind mills, operating a methane plant, teaching workshops on rain barrel installation, building an urban farm, selling farm p

About the Partnership

The Partnership for Onondaga Creek (POC), founded in 2000, is a non-profit, un-staffed, low-budget, unincorporated, independent grassroots citizens' group. The POC is dedicated to environmnetal justice and to water quality of Syracuse's waterways, especially Onondaga Creek.