Sustainable Communities Network

Lexington, Kentucky

Summer 2007

An internship with the…

Sustainable Communities Network

“promotes, supports and networks community based

initiatives for a greener, healthier and more sustainable

planet” www.sustainlex.org

• Very new organization – formed a year and a half ago by Jim Embry, my supervisor for the internship

• At first, focused mostly on bringing speakers to Lexington (Julia Butterfly Hill, David Korten) and supporting other local conferences and sustainability efforts

• Began more active projects in Winter/Spring 2007

Summer 2007

• Youth Green Corps– Nelson Ave– WECEP– Cove Haven– St. James Apartments– Art installations, tree planting, small

gardens• Community Garden Tour• Cardinal Valley Community Garden

Day to Day

• Different parts of summer– Meetings and preparations for

speaker – Devorah Brous– Youth Green Corps – work on

projects with kids, sometimes meetings in the afternoon

– Preparing for garden tour and organizing Cardinal Valley meetings

My Experience

• Learned a lot about community organizing, and getting involved with and beginning local efforts on extremely limited budgets

• Learned through both successes and shortcomings of the SCN. It was a very good beginning for me to understand the nature of this type of grassroots work