Class News

Chris Getman ’64 reports URI’s 25th anniversary

December 22, 2019

Colleen Murphy-Dunning

Chris Getman

Chris Getman, who champions the support of the Urban Resources Initiative by the Class of 1964, passed along the following annual report by Colleen Murphy-Dunning, URI's Director.

This year marked the 25th anniversary of URI’s Community Greenspace program and this could not have happened without all of the support from the Class of 1964!

With the help of our donors, our green job/tree-planting program began in 2007. Since then, 600 GreenSkills interns have planted 6,033 trees at the request of New Haven residents — trees that provide a host of benefits to humans and wildlife, including absorbing CO2 to reduce the impacts of the climate crisis.

In 2018-9 we built 100 bioswales downtown and in the Hill — beautiful miniature gardens at street level to absorb rainwater and prevent flooding. 2019 also commemorates a decade of URI’s partnership with EMERGE to provide green job opportunities to adults with a history of incarceration. At a recent URI event several of the men shared their personal journeys before an appreciative audience.

We continue deepening relationships with community members; we honored neighborhood heroes in Cedar Hill and Dixwell with tree plantings and, with state funding and generous individual donations, built amenities like gazebos, benches and walking trails. And, after two years of planning, and with help from URI to secure funding, families who lost their children to gun violence celebrated the groundbreaking on Valley Street for the New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence.

A citywide celebration at the Carousel in Lighthouse Point Park in September marked URI’s 25 years of working with 40-50 Greenspace groups annually to beautify their corners of New Haven while building community. As children rode the Carousel, gardeners from diverse neighborhoods came together in what felt like one big family reunion.

Colleen Murphy-Dunning
Director Urban Resources Initiative (203) 432-6570

URI's first fall tree-planting day; we planted 330 trees this season!
Visit our new map to see our New Haven tree inventory

Class of 1964 Bench ... The plaque says
"In gratitude to the Yale Class of 1964 for their ongoing support of Community Greenspace"