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This document is a student project created in connection with a course at The Colorado College. It has not been altered in any form from the original document submitted by the student and is here on the web for STUDENT USE ONLY. No parts of this document may be used or reproduced in any form without written permission of the instructor, Sharon Hall. To email Dr. Hall, click here

THE GARDEN PROJECT:

PROMOTING COMMUNITY AND SUSTAINABILITY IN COLORADO SPRINGS WITH A GARDEN FOR THE HOMELESS

An application for the Independence Community Fund

Project: The Garden Project, Colorado Springs, CO

Applicant: Hannah Hobbs, h_hobbs@coloradocollege.edu

Type of applicant organization: non-profit

Project category: sustainable agriculture

II. Abstract

This is a proposal for an Independence Community Fund grant, which will be used to start a non-profit organization, called The Garden Project, in Colorado Springs, CO. The purpose of The Garden Project is to start and maintain an organic vegetable garden in Colorado Springs. The garden will be run by volunteers from throughout the community, and by a staff of homeless people. All the produce from the garden will be donated to a homeless shelter in town.

The garden will offer to the city a wide range of economic, social, community, educational, spiritual and environmental benefits. There are several barriers to the completion of this project, however steps can be taken to overcome these barriers.

Introduction:

With the help on an Independence Community Fund grant, I plan to start a non-profit organization, called The Garden Project, in Colorado Springs. The purpose of The Garden Project is to start and maintain an organic community garden in Colorado Springs. The garden will grow vegetables for a homeless shelter in town. The garden will be staffed by poor and homeless members of the community, and by volunteers from throughout the community (hopefully including school groups, church groups, retirees, and other individuals). As an attractive place, the garden will provide open space amenities to the city, and will serve as a community gathering place. In addition, seminars and workshops will be offered at the garden on topics such as organic gardening, climate-appropriate gardening, environmental issues, homelessness and hunger issues, and community building. The garden will also provide a venue for Colorado Springs teachers to teach environmental education.

Background

II.A What are the goals and objectives of the project?

II.A.1 Goals for the first year of the project

Establish a core group of volunteers and board of directors for the organization.
Acquire 2-3 acres of farmable land, preferably near the downtown homeless population
Decide where to donate food, and establish a relationship with this organization
Establish support (monetary and volunteer) from the Colorado Springs community, including the homeless community, the business community, and the church community
Grow one acre of vegetables to distribute to homeless shelter in Colorado Springs.
Post educational signs around the garden.
Hold five workshops on gardening and environmental and community issues.

II.A.2 Long-term goals

Expand the garden to 2-3 acres.
Pay homeless people to work in the garden.
Expand community involvement in the organization.
Expand the education program.
Possibly start another garden in the community garden site at Confluence Park.

II.B How big will the garden be?

We have not yet started the search for land for the garden. Ideally, we would like 2-3 acres of farmable land. During the first year of the project, we will only cultivate approximately one acre. We plan to start with a smaller garden because much labor, compost, and topsoil will be needed to start the garden. During the first year or the project there will be a lot of work to do, and a lot on needed supplies. We feel that it is better to start by focusing our energy and supplies on a small area so that we can create a very productive and well-maintained garden.

In the future, we plan to expand the garden so it can feed even more people. However, we feel that even a one-acre garden will produce enough food to make a significant contribution to the food provided by a homeless shelter. According to one source on "Starting a Community Garden," a 40’ by 5’ (or 200 square-foot) raised garden bed will produce, on average, 500 servings of vegetables per year. Because a garden’s productivity will vary widely with different climate, soil quality, etc., to be conservative in the estimate of our garden’s productivity, divide that number in half, and assume that one of our 200 square-foot beds will produce 250 servings of vegetables per year. A one-acre garden will contain approximately 200 200-square-foot beds. If each bed produces 250 servings of vegetables, a one-acre garden will produce, on average 50,000 servings of vegetables per year. If these vegetable servings are spread evenly over a four-month (120 day) harvest season, a one-acre garden will produce 416 servings of vegetables per day, or 12,500 servings per month.

II.C Problems this project addresses

In this section I will explain the different social, economic, and environmental problems this project addresses. In section II.D I will discuss how this project will address these problems.

II.C.1 Lack of community

Recent history has seen a fragmentation of American communities. Our social structures (Americans today rarely live with, or anywhere near, their extended family), our city design (cities such as Colorado Springs are designed for cars not pedestrians), our housing design (single-family houses which are often separated by fences), and other factors have undermined the formation of community in America today. "Although the last two centuries may have nurtured such institutions as political freedom and the rights of private property, they have done little for the quality of relationship — the trust — that hold traditional (residential) American Communities together,"

II.C.2 Food is not grown locally:

In the article Our Ecological Footprint, the authors describe how to determine the ecological footprint, or environmental impact, a population has on the Earth. To do this, we have to ask questions about the population’s lifestyle and resource use. "Typical questions we can ask with this tool include: how dependent is our study population on resource imports from ‘elsewhere’ and on the waste assimilation capacity of the global commons?" In Colorado Springs, like most areas of the United States, a large portion of the food we consume is grown a long distance from home. Our globalized economic system means that the food we eat often comes from halfway around the globe. A typical meal eaten by a family in Colorado Springs might consist of potatoes grown in Maine, beans grown in Mexico, cheese made in New Jersey from Wisconsin Milk, orange juice from Florida, and a fruit salad that contains Costa Rican Bananas and New Zealand apples. One result of our globalized food system is that food is often transported long distances before it reaches a consumer’s plate. Most of this transportation is fueled by fossil fuels. For "one modern food calorie to reach your table, between eight and ten calories (mostly petroleum) must be spent;" this is the result of a combination of fossil fuel-intensive modern agricultural production and of food transportation. The burning of fossil fuels releases Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxides, Volatile Organic Compounds, Carbon Monoxide and Sulfer Dioxide. We are thus dependent "… on the waste assimilation capacity of the global commons."

II.C.3 hunger and homelessness

In March, 2000 the City of Colorado Springs Neighborhood Services Group and the Pikes Peak Consortium to End Homelessness released the results from a survey on demographics of homeless people in Colorado Springs. According to this survey, when the results are adjusted for potential undercounts, there may be up to 1,920 homeless individuals in Colorado Springs. This number of homeless is divided into two groups: "literally" homeless persons (numbering between 806 and 853) and persons who are at imminent risk of becoming ‘literally’ homeless (this group numbers between 972 and 1,204). According to these numbers, there has been a 234% increase in ‘literally’ homeless individuals in Colorado Springs since 1995. Why this sharp increase in homelessness? More than 80% of homeless individuals attributed their homelessness to the lack of affordable housing in Colorado Springs.

There is an additional group of people who have a home, but are living in poverty, often unable to feed themselves or their families. Individuals from this group also benefit from the soup kitchens in Colorado Springs. There are several soup kitchens in town (most associated with homeless shelters). There are five shelters listed on the internet but several more than this may exist. The statistics form one of these shelters, The Springs Rescue Mission, show that thus far in 2001 the shelter has served between 1,800 and 5,000 meals per month.

II.C.4 disconnection with food and environment

"With only two per cent of the US population farming the land, few Americans give a second thought to the source of their food and fiber. Fewer still pause to consider how agricultural practices affect the natural environment and rural communities."

II.C.5 problems with conventional agriculture

Since the beginning of the "Green Revolution" in the 1960’s, most food in the United States has been produced according to "conventional" agricultural practices. Conventional agriculture focuses heavily on efficient food production, which generally means planting large-scale monocultures of crops. The Green Revolution has resulted in an agricultural system so centralized and intensified that today in the United States "over half of our gross national farm production is generated by only 4 percent of our farms." The efficiency achieved in conventional agriculture comes with a large price tag that falls on third parties: the environment, and people living down-stream or down-wind from conventional farms and agricultural chemical factories. Some of the externalities caused by conventional agriculture are discussed below.

Because a single crop planted every season depletes certain soil nutrients, monocultures become reliant on inputs of chemical fertilizer. Fertilizer production requires the burning of large amounts of fossil fuels, which results in a high output of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. In addition to this problem, of the Nitrate fertilizer applied to crops, plants only use an estimated 40-60%, the rest is left in soil, or runs off. Nitrate run-off causes eutrophication in bodies of water, resulting in fish-kills, and at high levels nitrate makes water poisonous to humans.

Because monocultures are vulnerable to pests attack, they become reliant on chemical pesticides; 5 million tons of pesticides are applied to crops globally each year. Pesticides are toxic to humans, and, according to the EPA, some are carcinogenic, so the use of pesticides poses serious health risk to farm workers, and people living near farms. A US National Cancer Institute study found that "farmers exposed to herbicides had six times greater risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer." Pesticides kill non-target species, and can move up the food chain effecting higher trophic levels. Pesticides also run off fields, and can end up in water; 1988 study identified 46 pesticides in 26 states leaching into ground water as a result of normal pesticide use. Pests quickly evolve immunity to pesticides, so pesticide use selects for the survival of pests that have developed pesticide immunities. As a result of this, since the 1950’s pesticide use in the United States has increased tenfold, yet crop loss due to pests has nearly doubled.

Land planted with a monoculture has been shown to lose large amounts of topsoil. For example, a study in Missouri found that land planted with a monoculture lost nearly ten times more topsoil per year than land planted with a crop rotation. According to the publishers of this study, this lost soil "simply cannot be replaced within our lifetime or those of our children. The eroded soil is gone, depleting the fertility of the land." Not only does eroded soil deplete the fertility of the land, soil particles also clog down-stream reservoirs, reduce the net primary productivity of aquatic systems, and add to atmospheric aerosol content (which affects global climate, and adds to air pollution). The heavy tillage regimen of many agricultural systems, and the practice of applying chemical fertilizer instead of compost, has led to rapid loss of soil organic matter. which leads to a loss in the soil’s nutrient- and water-holding capacity. Because the soil can hold less water, agricultural production is reliant on more irrigation, which can depleted aquifer supplies, and lead to salinization (increased salt content), which further reduces agricultural productivity.

II.D Existing gardens

II.D.I in Colorado Springs

In the Spring of 2000 the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission (J&P) started a small demonstration permaculture garden. The produce from the garden is donated to the Bijou House shelter. The garden also serves as a site for the J&P to offer gardening workshops. The gardening workshops are the most highly attended of all the workshops the J&P offers.

In the spring of 2001 the Bijou House started a small vegetable garden on-site. The gardening work is done by a couple volunteers from outside the Bijou Community, and a few volunteers from the Bijou House. The Bijou house is unique among shelters in Colorado Springs, because the house requires residents to do some sort of work or activity for a set amount of time per day. It is because of this set-up that some residents of the Bijou House consistently worked in the garden. During the growing season, the garden produced some food for the Bijou House.

There is also a community garden located in Bear Creek Park. This garden is divided into plots, and each plot is leased to individuals. Each individual can cultivate their own small plot.

II.D.2 in other communities

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide eat food from urban gardens. There are close to 10,000 urban community gardens in U.S. cities. There are a handful of urban gardens in the United States growing food for the homeless, and/or with homeless laborers. Some of these are run by shelters some are run by non-profits, some are run by churches. Some urban community gardens are divided into plots and leased to individuals (such as the Bear Creek garden here in Colorado Springs). Some of these community gardens encourage individual gardeners to donate some of their produce to the poor. At least one garden (The Homeless Garden Project in Santa Cruz, CA) hires homeless people to grow food that is sold to the public. From the information available, it appears that all these gardens are relatively small, most are less than one acre in size, some may be as large as 5 acres.

II.D.3 Why does Colorado Springs need another garden?

While there are currently two gardens in town growing food for the homeless (The Bijou House garden and the J&P garden), The Garden Project is still needed in this city. First, both existing gardens are very small so they do not come close to meeting the needs of the shelters in town. The one acre garden The Garden Project plans to cultivate during the first season, will be much larger, and will therefore produce significantly more food, than either of the existing gardens. Second, we plan to place a strong focus on involving members of the entire Colorado Springs Community in out project. While the other gardens provide food for The Bijou House, we plan to expand on this by providing many community benefits through the garden. This will be discussed later in the paper.

II.E Benefits

II.E.1 Economic Benefits

Because the garden will provide some food for the shelter, it will save on the shelter’s food purchases.

II.E.2 Social Benefits

In addition to the tangible result of producing fresh healthy food for homeless members of Colorado Springs, the garden will provide intangible social benefits for the community.

Provide fresh healthy food for the homeless and poor

As discussed in section II.B, a one-acre garden will, on average, produce approximately 12,500 servings of vegetables per month during the four-month harvest season. This means that during the peak month at the Springs Rescue Mission (this year it was August, which conveniently also happens to be the garden’s peak harvest season) the garden could supply each patron of The Springs Rescue mission (there were 5000 patrons in August) with two to three servings of vegetables.

Offer activity/work for homeless

The garden will offer an attractive peaceful place for homeless people to enjoy, and activity for them to par-take in gardening, and opportunity for homeless people to connect with people in different economic situations. The goal for the program is that the organization will pay homeless people to work in the garden. This will not be attempted during the first year of the program, because the organization has limited funds, and these funds will be needed for the initial costs of starting the garden. At the end of the first year, the board of directors will look into the possibility of offering paid work to homeless people during the second year and into the future.

Offer opportunity for connection nature/ involvement with land to all participants

Garden volunteers will experience direct physical contact with nature, they will observe and learn about ecosystem processes, and they will gain experience in managing the land. "Gardens are the new form of American urban park because they allow people to participate in the making of the park and the management of it."

Gardens help build community

By bringing together different people from all aspects of Colorado Springs, the garden will offer an opportunity for the formation of connections between people, and the building of a sense of community. As this author so aptly explains, "community gardens build community spirit by providing people of different ages, incomes and cultures a common goal."

Community gardens lead to decreased crime in the surrounding neighborhood

A 1993 study reported that after a community garden program was started in a Philadelphia neighborhood, burglaries and thefts in the area dropped from about 40 incidents per month to 4 per month. In the year after a garden was started in the Mission District of San Francisco, the crime rate dropped 28 percent.

Encourage involvement of low-income people in politics, neighborhood, non-profits and more.

Garden projects "enable low-income urban residents to gain access to public policy, economic resources, and social interaction. Gardening projects can introduce residents to non-profit and governmental officials and vice versa."

Gardens that are built and maintained by community residents have "unique social and economic benefits… The spaces provide opportunities for neighborhood residents to develop and control part our their neighborhood, an advantage not afforded by traditional parks… Gardens are active places that people make themselves, use for work and socializing and can ‘love’."

Health benefits:

Gardeners may also eat more nutritious diets that non-gardeners. Gardeners in a Philadelphia Urban Garden Program study consumed significantly more vegetables than non-gardeners, and consumed fewer sweets than non-gardeners. In addition, gardening offers a chance for people of all ages to exercise.

therapeutic effects of gardening:

Research sponsored by the Center for Health Design looked at people using hospital gardens. The study found that 95 percent of people in the garden reported enjoying therapeutic benefits from the garden. "Studies at Texas A&M have documented that simply looking at a plant can reduce stress, fear, and anger, and lower blood pressure and muscle tension."

Gardening raises self esteem

Perhaps it is because gardens allow people to "control part of their neighborhood" and because gardens are "places that people… can ‘love’" or perhaps it is because garden work is very rewarding because it shows very tangible results, and gives people a sense that "they have power over their lives." Whatever the reason, several sources discuss the self-esteem-raising outcome of gardening.

II.E.3 Community benefits

It is our vision that the Farm will become a sort of community gathering place, where people of all ages, socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds will come to volunteer in the garden, enjoy the green-space, and learn from each other. Several reports discuss the community-building impact of gardens. Urban gardens "help create a community image that is perceived as positive by both residents and outsiders, and create opportunities for people to work together." "A community activity such as gardening can be used to break the isolation, creating a sense of neighborliness among residents." Community gardens can build among community members, "a shared feeling that they have power other their lives."

II.E.4 Educational benefits

City Farm will provide educational benefits in several ways

We will offer workshops on environmental issues, organic and climate-appropriate gardening, hunger/homelessness, community building and possibly other topics. We will offer five workshops during the first year.

We will offer the garden as a site for environmental education (school field trips, etc.). For students, working in a garden can teach more than gardening and environmental issues; teachers around the country have used gardens to teach "not just gardening but teamwork skills; not just gardening but empowerment skills."

The garden will also help to build connections between different groups, creating opportunities for people to learn from one another
Attractive educational signs will be posted around the garden to educate the community about who is running the garden, where the food is going, and the benefits the garden is providing.

II.E.5 Environmental benefits

The garden will provide a range of environmental benefits for the community. First, the garden will provide a green-space within the city. This will allow residents to enjoy nature here, hopefully reducing the car trips residents take to the mountains to enjoy nature. Second, the garden will increase the amount of food consumed in Colorado Springs that is grown locally. The produce grown in the garden will be grown without using any fossil fuels, and will be transported only a short distance to reach the shelter, drastically reducing the fossil fuels burned in the production and transportation of this food. In addition to decreasing the burning of fossil fuels, food from the garden will decrease the amount of packaging used on the shelter’s food. While produce that is shipped long distances is heavily packaged, the produce grown at the garden will be brought to the shelter without any packaging, reducing the amount of cardboard, plastic, and styrofoam waste produced by the shelter. Produce from the farm will also be organically grown, meaning that the production of the food will not result in the serious environmental problems caused by conventional agriculture. Because the garden’s soil will need a lot of compost, we will encourage individuals and businesses to donate yard waste and vegetable scraps, reducing the landfill space that would be required to accommodate these items. The garden will also provide ecosystem services: absorbing carbon dioxide, producing oxygen, "filtering out air pollutants such as ozone, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and airborne particles of heavy metals," cooling the city’s microclimate and absorbing noise.

The environmental education provided at the garden will hopefully result in changes in peoples’ lifestyles that will benefit the environment.

II.E.6 Spiritual Benefits

The garden will offer a beautiful, quiet, and peaceful place for reflection and introspection. A place where all residents of Colorado Springs can come to renew their spirit in an oasis from the hustle and bustle of the city.

For more fortunate residents of Colorado Springs, the garden offers an opportunity for them to do something tangible to help the poor (by donating needed equipment or money to the garden project, by doing garden work, or by making connections with the homeless community through the project, and helping in some other way). This should help them to feel good about themselves, and to feel more spiritually fulfilled.

Because the majority of the Colorado Springs community is strongly Christian, biblical reasons for working in a garden that grows food for the poor should hold some significant weight: "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger." Leviticus 19:9-10

II.F Drawbacks of the project

II.F.1The garden will take up space that could be used for another purpose (a ball field, for example)

The garden will occupy space in the city, and may space that would otherwise be used for schoolyard, or a city park. However, the garden will put this space to good use, providing a wide range of services to Colorado Springs residents. A ball field serves the needs of some members of the community, and a garden serves different needs. The garden will be open to the public, and all members of the community will be encouraged to take part in The Garden Project, and to enjoy the beauty of the garden. We feel that a garden is a useful and fair way to make a small piece of land benefit the entire community.

II.F.2 Water use

In order to produce food, the garden will require some irrigation. Colorado Springs is a desert environment, and much of our water is pumped here from far away sources (raising environmental and equity issues). So the fact that the garden will use water is a significant issue. In order to mitigate this issue, several steps will be taken.

We will use gardening techniques to minimize water use, such as using a thick layer of mulch and building up the soil organic matter. In the future we will look into the possibility of installing a water-saving drip irrigation system.
We will offer workshops on climate-appropriate gardening. Much of the focus of these workshops will be on gardening with minimal irrigation. By educating gardeners about how to minimize their water use, we hope to minimize the total amount of water used on existing vegetable gardens in Colorado Springs.
We will work in conjunction with Colorado Springs Utilities and with the Water Saving Group (Clarissa and Rachel) to educate the public about water use. Ideally the garden will be located in close proximity to a demonstration xeri-scape garden. Educational signs at the garden will explain that the water saved by xeri-scaping other areas has allowed for the irrigation of a food-producing garden.
We feel that the environmental, social and community benefits from the garden outweigh the drawback of using water.

Barriers/obstacles to the project and solutions

In this section, possible barriers to implementing this project will be mentioned, and the solutions used to overcome these barriers will be described.

Possible problem	Proposed solution
Land availability	We will begin our search for land by meeting with local schools and churches. We feel these groups have the most to gain (in terms of educational and spiritual benefits) from having a garden. We will also work with the City, and with private land owners to find land. Ideally, we will reach an agreement with a landowner to use a 2-3 acre section of land over a long term. Planning is underway to open a new park, called Confluence Park, in downtown Colorado Springs. The park’s plans show the park containing a small community garden at the South end of the park. We will discuss with the Parks Board the possibility of expanding The Garden Project to use this community garden site.
Poor soil quality	The project will start a major drive to acquire large amounts of compost by taking the following steps: conduct yard-waste and food scrap drives, ask local garden stores to donate soil or compost. Possibly buy some soil or compost. Building up soil will be a long-term project. The need for soil and compost is one of the reasons the garden will start on a small scale, and expand slowly.
Financial support	This grant will act as seed money to get the program started. More support will be needed to start the program, and to keep it running. We will solicit donations of money compost materials, tools, plants, seeds, fencing material etc. from local businesses, churches, organizations and individuals. We will apply for other grants: The USDA has a grant program specified for community gardens, and the Equity Trust is a grant-giving organization that has expressed specific interest in funding projects that combine community agriculture with feeding the poor.
Community interest (money and labor)	In order to promote and build community interest in the garden, we will: Use the media to promote awareness and interest in the program. Try to get involvement of Extension Service and extension-certified "master gardeners," work to get community church and school groups. Start by getting a core group of dedicated people, then work to get more workers. Eventually pay homeless folks to work (or offer some sort of incentive).
Vandalism	Establish set hours for the garden. If vandalism is a problem, put a fence around the garden, and lock it when the garden is closed.
Discrimination against homeless/poor (NIMBYism)	In order to address neigbors’ unease about having a garden for the homeless near them, we will hold forums with neighbors explain and discuss The Garden Project, and to emphasize the positive influence the garden will have on the neighborhood. Other urban gardens show that gardens caused surrounding property values to increase, and crime in the area to decrease.

Timeline

November 2001-January 2002

Recruit a core group of 5-10 dedicated people who are committed to working on the project to form a task force.

Recruit individuals from all stakeholder groups to serve as board members for the organization. (Someone working with the homeless community, an educator, an experienced organic gardener, someone from the city government).

February 2002

Delegate tasks to different core group members; task forces start working on tasks:

Search for suitable land (talk to schools, parks, church groups, businesses)
Decide where to donate food, develop relationship with the shelter
Build community support (talk to church and community groups, schools, environmental educators, people living near the garden site, homeless people, people who work with homeless). Use the media to build awareness about the project.
Build support of businesses, work on getting donations of needed supplies from these businesses: gardening tools, seeds and plants, straw mulch, fencing material, a tool shed and materials for educational signs.
Set up on-site compost piles. Work on getting compost materials. (Get barns to donate manure, breweries to donate hops, coffee shops to donate used coffee grounds, restaurants to donate food scraps, individuals to donate yard waste and vegetable scraps). Develop a system of compost pick-ups or drop-offs for compost donors. Get the compost happening.

April 2002

Break ground! With help of community members, begin to make raised garden beds.
Plan what will be grown, and where.
Garden expert: develop planting schedule for the season.
From planting schedule, designate major work days (one an month?)
With leadership of educator and garden expert, organize workshops (topics and dates).
Start getting community members to participate in garden work.
Develop schedule for the core group: who works when.
Garden Expert: begin educating core group about gardening.
Set up workdays for community groups.
Make and put up educational signs.

May 2002

With help of community members, begin to plant.

On-going November 2001- November 2002:

Collect compost material
Spread compost on garden beds
Recruit community members to work in garden
Advertise for major workdays and workshops.
Hold bi-weekly meeting with core group to discuss problems and evaluate what is going on.
Hold workshops (aim for 5 the first year)
Hold well-advertised major workdays (one per month) which will consist of several hours of work followed by a potluck.

Invite educators to hold environmental education classes at garden.
Develop relationship with homeless shelters, community groups, schools, church groups.

October 2002

Hold Harvest Festival to bring together community members, and share with them the happenings during the garden’s first season.
Board and Core Group meeting to evaluate the first season of the garden, and plan/discuss changes for the coming year.
Develop task force to take steps necessary to begin paying homeless people, or offering some sort of incentive, to work in the garden.

Conclusion

The garden described in the preceding pages will be an exciting and engaging way to address hunger and homelessness issues in our city while reducing our impact on the Earth and creating connections between people from different walks of life. Projects such as this have been succeeding around the country. It’s time Colorado Springs, and the Independence Community Fund, embrace this opportunity to improve our city.

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www.trailsandgreenways.org/TAG_active_pages/TechnicalAssistance/FactSheets/view_text.asp?SheetID=3