Mission

The mission of Groundwork Milwaukee is to bring about sustained regeneration, improvement and management of the physical environment by developing community-based partnerships that empower people, businesses and organizations to promote environmental, economic and social well-being.

Board of Directors

  • Chair

  • Guy Smith - Milwaukee County Dept of Parks, Recreation and Culture

  • Vice-Chair

  • Tammy Belton Davis- Athena Communications

  • Secretary

  • John Schreiber - O'Neil, Cannon, Hollman, DeJong, S.C.

  • Treasurer

  • Lauri Gorton - CH2M Hill

  • Directors

  • Steve Adams - Community Development Management Partnerships
  • Chelsea Albucher - City of Newark, NJ
  • Beth Dufek - Local Initiatives Support Corporation
  • Josh Peeples - Potawatomi Bingo Casino
  • Anna Villarreal - Sixteenth Street Community Health Center
  • Kevin Ulrich - PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC

  • Ex Officio

  • Mary Beth Driscoll - Groundwork Milwaukee - Executive Director

Goals and Objectives

Grassroots Initiatives and Improvements: To cultivate and implement grassroots brownfield and other open lands initiatives and improvements in the city currently unaddressed by other greening organizations. This is the primary goal for Groundwork Milwaukee.

Education, Information Sharing and Capacity Building: To serve as an educator, information disseminator and capacity-builder of the network of environmental, economic development and municipal agencies and organizations committed to brownfield remediation and other open lands initiatives by increasing access to environmental consulting services and linking resources with organizational needs.

Staff

Mary Beth Driscoll - Executive Director

Peformance Measures

History

An outgrowth of a program developed by the National Park Service called Groundwork USA, the Groundwork programs in the U.S. evolved from a model developed in the U.K. The first Groundwork Trust was founded in 1982 in England to meet the needs to revitalize abandoned industrial sites in northern England. Since then, the Groundwork UK organization has grown into a network of fifty-two locally based groups. This committed network became a highly successful private-public-community partnership that combined all resources necessary to take abandoned, run-down areas and reclaim them as open spaces with an emphasis on recreation, beautification and economic development. Currently there are 50 "Groundwork Trusts" in the U.K.

In 1996 the National Park Service imported this successful program into three pilot communities, Bridgeport, Conn., Lawrence, MA., and Providence, RI. Since that point in time the program has expanded into more in-need cities.

In November of 2002, Milwaukee Community Service Corps, the Wisconsin Field Office of the National Park Service Rivers and Trails Program and a number of other local organizations, agencies and individuals formed a small committee to discuss to possibility of establishing a Groundwork Trust in Milwaukee. In September 2003, Milwaukee, WI was designated a Groundwork USA Pilot Community. With this designation the Groundwork Milwaukee Steering Committee received funds and technical assistance from the NPS and EPA to prepare a Feasibility Study and Strategic Plan assessing whether or not Groundwork is appropriate for our community. The strategic plan was approved in late 2005 and an Executive Director was hired in January of 2006. In March of 2007, Groundwork Milwaukee received its official 501 (c)(3) status.

As of January 2009, there were 16 established Groundwork Trusts in the US.

Click here to view a map of Groundwork Trusts in the US.

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