Greening the Inner city: Eco-Friendly Community Development

Abstract

The second WIRA Summer Institute - Greening the Inner City: Eco-friendly Community Development – was held from June 2nd to 7th 2003.

The WIRA Summer Institute is designed with a number of objectives in mind. The intention of each Summer Institute is to create a unique, shared learning experience for university students and community practitioners through a series of workshop-style sessions addressing a range of key issues related to community development in Winnipeg’s inner city. The Summer Institute aims to take a “hands-on” approach to learning, to combine classroom learning with “in the field” experience of Winnipeg’s inner-city communities, and to provide instruction that combines theory with practice.

The 2003 Summer Institute "Greening the Inner city: Eco-Friendly Community Developments" course is intended for community workers, residents and university students, and will explore issues of environmental sustainability in the inner city. By drawing extensively on case studies and field project work, this course will examine challenges and successes of environmentally-sensitive community development. Topics will include: strategies for ‘greening’ the neighbourhood, energy-efficient housing development, and the role of transportation. A focus throughout will be the potential to create jobs and build skills for community residents using environmentally-friendly community development.