Freedom to Ride - Youth Green Team Van Project
Help us purchase a van to transport our youth green teams so they can get out into their communities, teaching, working, and advocating for environmental awareness and solutions!
Leader
Quinn Yawger
Location
3280 N. Downing Street Unit E Denver, CO 80205
About the project
Groundwork Denver is raising funds to buy a 12- passenger van for our youth. This van will be used to transport youth on our Green Team to project sites across the Denver metro area and to explore natural areas outside of city limits, such as Colorado’s amazing state parks, Rocky Mountain National Park, or other sites in the mountains. Through the Green Team, Groundwork Denver provides paid job training and leadership opportunities for local youth to work on community-initiated solutions to community-identified health and environmental challenges. The program works with low-income youth of color and was developed in direct response to a community-identified need for youth jobs, leadership development, and support in addressing environmental health concerns.
The Steps
October – December 2021: monitor the vehicle market, and when the time and price are right, purchase a van!
January 2022: Own a van and begin transporting our youth outdoors!
Why we‘re doing it
People who love the outdoors often take for granted the ability to get there. Groundwork Denver believes that everyone deserves the right to enjoy the outdoors, whether within the bounds of our city or in our beautiful Rocky Mountains. Our Green Team youth often come from lower-income backgrounds and may lack personal means of transportation to project sites. Further, significant public transportation barriers to outdoor experiences make access to transportation alternatives vital; public busses and other low-cost transportation often do not service parks, waterways, and other outdoor spaces.
For the last few years, we have been renting vans as needed, but now we are growing too big to do that anymore. We need reliable, safe transportation that we can take across town and up the mountains. By purchasing a van to meet all transportation needs year-round, we will ensure each team member’s ability to attend, work for, and learn from the program. The purchase of one van will secure our transportation needs for the foreseeable future, enabling Green Team members to gain valuable employment experience for a potential future career while improving Denver’s public and natural spaces for all.