GreenSkills Program Finishes Planting Season

We just wrapped up a phenomenal planting season thanks to all of our hard-working GreenSkills crews and support from United Way.  New Haven is now 533 trees richer than in the beginning of September!  The GreenSkills program, housed within the Urban Resources Institute (URI), is a green jobs program that employs high school students and ex-offenders to plant trees throughout the City of New Haven.  I am a crew leader for a group of 6 men from Crossroads, a long-term (several months) addiction treatment center.  Though planting trees is the name of the game, GreenSkills is so much more than that.  The program gives high schoolers and ex-offenders an opportunity to learn valuable leadership skills, get job experience, to learn about the environment, and to connect to their community and each other.

Throughout the planting season, I witnessed the development of great teamwork among my crew members and strides in personal growth from each of the men individually.  I was one of their supervisors, but I also became a friend and colleague.  Hearing about their daily struggles with addiction and small the triumphs over it was a rewarding and humbling.  These men were grateful for the steady work, and really learned to care about what they were doing and why it mattered.  For me, this work was more rewarding and inspiring than many other job experiences I’ve had.

After a long hard planting season, the community has been rewarded with an improved urban canopy cover and a host of newly motivated community members getting a second chance in New Haven.