Clean and green organizing in urban neighborhoods: Measuring perceived and objective outcomes

ABSTRACT

One way in which urban community organizations attempt to improve neighborhood health is through cleaning and greening efforts. Few studies have evaluated how such efforts are related to changes in both residents’ perceptions of neighborhoods and objective community-wide cleaning and greening indicators over time. Drawing upon quantitative and qualitative data collected during an evaluation of a community-building initiative in two communities, results show how neighborhood changes in cleaning and greening were reflected in perceived and objective measures and how these measures compare across different time periods and sub-groups of residents within the two target communities. We provide suggestions for additional ways that future evaluations of urban cleaning and greening efforts can examine the impact.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecosocial Work
• Social Capital
• Green Space
• Civic Health
• Community Building

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We wish to thank the Baltimore Community Foundation for their support of this research, and gratefully acknowledge the work and partnership of the lead community organizations in each neighborhood who worked hand in hand with us to collect surveys and process survey results.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.