Pew gives $1.15 million for a greening program in Nicetown and Tioga

The Pew Charitable Trusts has awarded $1.15 million over the next four years to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to support the next phase of its greening plan in the Nicetown and Tioga neighborhoods.

The grant will continue funding the “Love Where You Live” greening plan, including placing more plants, trees, and flowers, and programs aimed at building community connections. Those initiatives will include front porch beautification, adding solar lighting, signage, fence improvements, and more in the Northwest Philly neighborhoods.

The funding will also be used to study outcomes from the greening plan, and continue collecting resident feedback.

“We believe that Philadelphians need to be able to meet their basic needs, feel safe in their neighborhoods, and have access to public and community spaces and cultural enrichment. Only when these needs are met can people begin to think about gaining skills and finding quality jobs that lead to economic advancement,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Pew’s senior vice president for Philadelphia and scientific advancement.

PHS president and CEO Matt Rader said the greening plan began in earnest about a decade ago, when the nonprofit shifted its focus toward using horticulture to influence wellbeing.

“Our core thesis, our core strategy as an institution, is to put horticulture to work to transform the social determinants of health, so that everybody yields a healthier life,” he said.

After researching which Philadelphia neighborhoods could benefit most from a greening plans, PHS connected with Nicetown and Tioga residents who were enthusiastic about greening in 2019. PHS and community groups Nicetown CDC and Tioga United then collectively engaged with over 400 residents. Those residents identified reducing trash and crime in the neighborhood, and increasing access to healthy food and job opportunities, as their priorities for change in the area.

The groups developed a plan based on how greening could address those concerns. Beginning in 2022, they focused on cleaning and greening vacant lots, restoring the neighborhood tree canopy, supporting residents’ gardening and beautification efforts on their blocks, helping residents get green jobs, and mobilizing neighbors and local businesses to build healthy food access.

“It’s not really about [greening]. It’s about how it changes the social, economic and social environment of the neighborhood,” Rader said. He gave the example of the program’s curbside appeal challenge, which was a contest for residents to develop the best gardens and porches in front of their homes.

“You have whole blocks that have organized themselves by participating ... You have people that have gotten to know each other across the neighborhood by trading ideas ... it really has helped build a social fabric around gardening and greening,” he said.

Pew and PHS’s strategy is informed by researching that suggests greening and connective programming can have wide-ranging benefits, from reducing violence to improving neighborhood mental health and sense of community. A 2018 University of Pennsylvania study found a 29% reduction in gun violence in Philadelphia neighborhoods below the poverty line where vacant land was restored or greened.

Rader said it was critical to build sustainability and longevity for the social and greening impacts. Far too often, he said, nonprofit programming drives positive change that gets eroded as the formal programs end and the funding stops.

“We approach this as a long-term investment in Nicetown and Tioga, to support the residents there to do what they want,” he said.