Press
From the ground up
American Forests: Holton now manages a workforce development program at Louisiana Green Corps (LAGC), a nonprofit organization that connects environmental restoration with economic opportunity. The program trains young adults and adults for jobs in construction, green infrastructure and conservation. The work is both physical and public, with crews planting trees and installing green infrastructure that requires constant maintenance to ensure survival.
American Forests
Training locals, building capacity
What sets LAGC apart is who is doing the work. Rather than importing solutions, the program trains people who live in New Orleans, and experience flooding and heat firsthand, to protect the city they know best. Support from partners like American Forests, through the Catalyst Fund program, helps make this work possible by providing the flexible funding and technical support that allows LAGC to expand its workforce development programming and plant a total of 400 trees along the Lafitte Greenway, strengthening canopy where it’s needed most and preparing local residents to care for it over time.
NOLA.com : Tree Planting on Lafitte Greenway
A hundred trees will be planted along the Lafitte Greenway this week as members of the Louisiana Green Corps, SOUL (Sustaining Our Urban Landscape) and the Lafitte Greenway Partnership work to boost the tree canopy in Treme-Lafitte.