Green your neighborhood this year

By Andy Meeks

Did you know that urban street and yard trees increase air and water quality, improve neighborhood livability, help mitigate stormwater runoff, boost property values, and help beautify neighborhoods?

Would you like to meet your neighbors, develop valuable organizing skills, and have fun while helping Friends of Trees reach our ambitious goal of planting about 6,000 street and yard trees in Portland and Vancouver this season?

If any of these possibilities intrigue or even inspire you, consider becoming a Neighborhood Coordinator with Friends of Trees for our 2010-11 planting season! The trainings will be held on Saturday, July 10 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. with a second session on either Tuesday, July 13 (Vancouver) or Thursday, July 15 (Portland) from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.  (See locations below.)

Neighborhood coordinators make a Friends of Trees planting event possible by talking to neighbors about planting trees, keeping track of homeowner inquiries and tree requests, and helping organize a neighborhood planting event with support from the Friends of Trees staff.

No experience is necessary! We’ll train you in all aspects of this role and support you throughout the planting season as you raise awareness of the planting event, help your neighbors order trees, and organize the logistics of planting day.

Neighborhood coordinators typically work in teams as adjacent neighborhoods are grouped into planting events together. Scheduling is very flexible and most work can be done at home. The typical time commitment is approximately 80 hours from mid-summer until the planting event occurs between November and March. (Dates vary depending on neighborhoods.)

If you have any questions or would like to sign up for these trainings, please e-mail Jesse Batty or call him at 503-282-8846 ext. 25.  We hope to work with you!

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FIRST SESSION: This session is required for all prospective neighborhood coordinators. It is intended to give a broad introduction to Friends of Trees and the Neighborhood Trees program, as well as information about the neighborhood coordinator’s roles, responsibilities and strategies needed to get the job done.

Saturday, July 10, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon at PCC Cascade Campus (Terrell Hall – Room 122) at 705 N Killingsworth in Portland.

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SECOND SESSION: This session will be an opportunity for new and returning neighborhood coordinators to meet each other, talk about ideas, and learn more about our online ordering system.

Tuesday, July 13, 6 to 8 p.m. at the Firstenburg Community Center – 700 Northeast 136th Avenue, Vancouver, WA – in Community Room A. This session is for Vancouver Neighborhood Coordinators only.

OR

Thursday, July 15, 6 to 8 p.m. at the Kaiser Town Hall – 3704 N Interstate Avenue, Portland, OR. This session is for Portland Neighborhoods Coordinators only.

Meeks is the Volunteer & Outreach Specialist with Friends of Trees.