Hi all,

Yesterday I was able to speak to Natalie Fedie with the Department of Planning and Economic Development, and Erica Schumacher with the mayor's office, about coordinating a larger-scale service project in St. Paul for AmeriCorps week. This would replace the parks cleanup we'd originally planned (at least in St. Paul, due to their big parks clean-up event already scheduled in April... not sure about Minneapolis). However, they are very excited to partner with the ICC and AmeriCorps for the Invest St. Paul project.

There are four main neighborhood sites in the Invest St. Paul program: Dayton's Bluff, Frogtown, North End, and the Lower East Side areas. They also have 8 auxiliary sites in mind, including some "natural" areas (i.e. near the river) that could use attention. Our duties as volunteers would be much the same as they would be in a parks cleanup: mainly litter pickup on the blocks, around properties, etc. Natalie did mention they could develop other tasks to accommodate volunteers who might be unable to participate in the more physical aspects of the program. In terms of numbers of volunteers at the sites: they said it will vary but it seems as though each site can accommodate a lot... we can wait for Kaja to hear back from the program coordinators with estimated numbers of participants. The City of St. Paul will be working with district councils throughout the next couple of months to determine the areas of highest need within each neighborhood. The city will be responsible for any garbage pick-up after the event. They asked if we could supply most of the materials (gloves, bags) if possible, but can give us resources on where to go to get these things in bulk, for relatively cheap.

Natalie also mentioned that this will be an excellent publicity opportunity for everyone. As a member of the PR committee, I'll explore this as much as possible!

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