Atlanta Watershed Learning Network (AWLN)

Atlanta Watershed
Learning Network (AWLN)

The Atlanta Watershed Learning Network (AWLN) evolved from the Green Infrastructure (GI) Advocacy Training program piloted in 2016. AWLN brings together residents from some of Metro Atlanta’s most highly impacted watersheds and seeks to spark change by helping these residents gain the knowledge and skills needed to revitalize their watersheds and advocate for equitable development. Residents are prepared to support projects that provide the greatest environmental, economic, and social justice outcomes for their communities, while also working to improve the health of the larger river systems in the Metro Atlanta area.

AWLN provides training modules to help residents understand the causes of flash flooding in urban neighborhoods and what solutions they can use to improve their community health, the local economy, and larger river system. Program training modules include Why We Organize, Watershed Education, Systemic Racism, Urban Planning, Community Driven Solutions and Watershed Management.

AWLN 2024 Program Schedule

Informational Session—April 6, 2024, |10:00am to 11:00am

Module 1 – April 20, 2024, | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Module 2– May 18, 2024, | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Module 3 – June 8, 2024, | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Watershed Tour – June 15, 2024, | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Module 4 – July 20, 2024| 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Module 5 – August 17, 2024, | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Module 6 – September 21, 2024| 10:00 AM—2:00 PM

Graduation– October 19, 2024, | 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Requirements to Participate:

Preference will be given to those who live in one of our three current focus river basins (the Chattahoochee, Flint and South/Ocmulgee Rivers) and/or the following creek watersheds: Proctor Creek, Sandy Creek and Utoy Creek in West Atlanta; Intrenchment Creek and Camp Creek in South Atlanta. Residents from Upper Flint River communities near Hartsfield Jackson airport along with those in South Fulton, Clayton County and other watersheds will also be considered.
Commit to participate fully in training sessions. This includes six 4-hour educational sessions, one Saturday a month starting on April 20, 2024
Agree to sign an MOU with AWLN and complete and present a capstone project as part of the series, which will involve additional time commitments outside the learning sessions.

Residents can sign up to participate by completing our Pre-survey and application form here.

Click here to enjoy our AWLN Newsletter, Vol. 7, Summer 2023!

For more information, please read our AWLN program brochure here.

ECO-Action has assisted 140+ community-based organizations in 95 of the 159 Georgia counties

In the spring of 2016, ECO-Action piloted Green Infrastructure Advocacy Training, a program for community outreach and engagement toward the development and use of parks and the application of green infrastructure (GI) to address stormwater issues in the Turner Field communities of Mechanicsville, Peoplestown and Summerhill

By training community members to be GI advocates, the pilot program increased community capacity for engagement with green infrastructure in parks as community assets that:

“If we don’t care and do not stand up for ourselves, why should we expect other people to care and standup with us?”
—Ms. Bernice Brown, Graduate of the Green Infrastructure Advocacy Training and lifelong resident of the Turner Field neighborhood of Peoplestown.

The initial project focused on the neighborhoods near Turner Field. An expanded version of the program Atlanta Watershed Learning Network evolved from this initiative. The Network partners residents of Intrenchment Creek with those of Proctor Creek to learn about their watersheds, collect samples for Citizen Science activities and advocate on behalf of watershed protection.

RESOURCE LINKS:

Resilience: It’s Not Just for Rivers

“In the wake of the Braves’ exodus, the Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition (TFCBC) surveyed almost 1,000 neighborhood residents, and determined that “A well-integrated, mixed use development” tops the list of community desires. The #1 answer to the statement, “The new development should…” was “…manage stormwater.” After discussing these results with the TFCBC, American Rivers considered how the benefits of green stormwater infrastructure could address several of the community’s top priorities beyond just managing stormwater.”

Beyond the Braves: Green Stormwater Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities Around Turner Field

“After reviewing these results with residents, we at American Rivers considered how the benefits of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) could address several of the community’s top priorities. So we offered to assist both the TFCBC and the LCI in crafting robust, yet realistic recommendations for the implementation of GSI for the redevelopment, as well as for the adjacent interstate highways—a major source of runoff.”

Building a Voice for Green Infrastructure

“The next phase was focused on providing a Watershed Advocacy Training to local community members, many of which are leaders in their respective neighborhood associations or community groups. The six monthly meetings included lectures and discussion led by expert speakers on subjects ranging from infrastructure and environmental justice to advocacy and community organizing. ” Other articles highlight ECO-Action and American River’s partnership with Climate Interactive and the Partnership for Southern Equity. Together these four organizations seek strategies to avoid gentrification as green infrastructure brings more greenspace to low-income neighborhoods:

New Challenges in Green Stormwater Infrastructure – How to Avoid Gentrification?

“We hear a lot these days about the gentrification of urban low-income and communities of color. These neighborhoods often don’t have much public green space, but that’s generally the least of their worries — they often deal with more dire environmental problems as well, such as pollution from industry, flooding, etc. However, when these problems are fixed — the greenspace moves in, the industry moves out, new and improved infrastructure is built — the neighborhood suddenly becomes appealing to a new, more affluent demographic. ”

How Can Atlanta Grow Greener For All?

“But there is one thing very few cities have figured out: how does a city ensure that everyone benefits — including those who reside in diverse, low-wealth communities — as city neighborhoods become more attractive? How, for instance, does a city make room for new people without disenfranchising and displacing the people who are there today? Not only that, how do the current residents get a place at the table where decisions are being made about the growth that is happening in their communities?”