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Park City Partnership Environmental Education and Career Center

The Park City Partnership has developed an initiative for educating urban and suburban students about environmental issues and to help prepare students for environmental careers. The Partnership includes Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust, the City of Bridgeport, Bassick High School, the Health Promotion Center at Fairfield University, Tufts University Engineering Department, the Workplace and others.

 

The Environmental Education Initiative is providing the following opportunities:

  • It will serve to train high school youth about monitoring groundwater, evaluating geochemical and constituent-specific data, the effects of physical and biogeochemical parameters on the fate and transport of constituents, and to manage the data using a special GIS system tied directly to soil and groundwater data which will allow accurate visual-based tracking of plumes. This effort will be organized and led in conjunction with top math and science scholars in the high schools and seek to incorporate these concepts into chemistry, biology and environmental science curriculums across the city.
  • It will serve to train those seeking environmental careers. Trainees will be taught sampling, data collection and analysis, testing of innovative technologies and gain first hand experience in environmental risk assessment.
  • It will serve as a base for a broad-based environmental and health education effort, helping residents to develop safe environmental health practices in their homes. The effort will seek to transfer best practices in lead screening, hazardous materials use and disposal, as well as other efforts intended to positively effect the health of children in the city.

Communicating Natural Biodegradation

Click here to see the award winning poster:
Communicating Natural Biodegradation
Involving Stakeholders in the Bioremediation Process.

 

 

Park City Partnership Green City Development Strategy

The Project:

The Park City Partnership (PCP) has initiated a process to implement a Green Development
Strategy for the City of Bridgeport. This is to be a comprehensive strategy with support from city
government, business leadership, and non-profit community. As in the City of Chicago, a
comprehensive green strategy will be developed to inform planning and development initiatives,
re-think energy alternatives and reduce carbon emissions, implement healthy neighborhood
initiatives, and generally remake Bridgeport as the Green City in Connecticut. This strategy will
provide specific recommendations and initiatives to be implemented across the city.

The Plan:

The strategy will identify goals, initiatives, programs and funding sources in three areas: Healthy
Neighborhoods, Green Planning and Development, and Energy. The measurable outcome
will be a plan ratified by the Park City Partnership, which includes the boards of BNT and member
groups and Bridgeport City Council. In addition, we will seek to have it ratified by the Bridgeport
Regional Business Council.

Three subcommittees will be formed to address each topic:

  • Healthy Neighborhoods- This subcommittee will discuss application of an ecological
    system of health in the city. It incorporates the goals of elimination of exposure to
    hazardous wastes, healthy homes, a health care provider network focused on causes,
    and possible enrollment in the World Health Organization’s Health City’s Initiative.
  • Green Planning and Development- This subcommittee will focus on templates for infusing
    green planning and development principles into public and private practices including a
    Green Building Code, improved community planning standards that incorporate 21st
    century environmental principles and a plan to improve the use and care of water
    resources in Bridgeport.
  • Energy- The Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, a federally funded energy
    research non-profit entity has completed an inventory of major sources and uses of
    energy in Bridgeport. This subcommittee will focus on energy efficiency, conservation
    and energy alternatives that are healthy for citizens and the global climate. A focus will
    be developing an implementation plan as part of the City of Bridgeport’s membership in
    the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (www.iclei.org).

For More Information

For more information about this project, please contact Ann Robinson at BNT at 203-332-7977,
Rina Bakalar at City of Bridgeport at 203-576-7676, Carolyn Gonzalez at the Park City
Partnership at 203-332-7977 or Michael Taylor at Vita Nuova LLC at 203-270-3413.