Who We Are
We're one step away from making our own youth-grown, youth-owned jobs that will make our community greener. We are taking ownership of the space we live in and our futures. We are
Grassroots Ecology -- a worker-cooperative business by youth, for youth, growing green opportunity in Rogers Park, Chicago!
We specialize in stormwater solutions. In particular, how do we stop flooding as storm events get worse in Chicagoland? Two very important answers are rain barrels (collection devices for rain water that comes off roofs -- this water can be used to water gardens!)
and rain gardens (an innovative, ecological design solution that encourages the growth of plants native to Illinois -- plants that have been solving this problem long before we got involved!).
Our collective structure will be based on these two products, but the goal is to be able to incorporate new worker-owners in the future who can work on anything from solar energy to turbines to weatherization -- GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE is the name of the game!
Our Community
We have been working in the Rogers Park community of North Chicago for 3 years, working under the umbrella of LETS GO Chicago, a youth environmental leadership training collective. Our community networks have grown to include neighbors, the Center for Workplace
Democracy, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, ONE Northside, the United Church of Rogers Park, the Highridge YMCA, Loyola University Chicago, Westwood Manor and more! Each of these partnerships has been essential to our growth, and we're ready now to
do this work.
Our accomplishments include the successful installation of 7 complete rain gardens and 12 rain barrel systems! We're pretty pumped about that! Not to mention, we've been training in the process intentionally for 3 years now -- we're ready for business!
**ALL DONATIONS TAX DEDUCTABLE!** email [email protected] to inquire about documentation!
