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Special Initiatives

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES INC. APPOINTED TO NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOUSING AND REDEVELOPMENT OFFICIALS COLLEGE OF EXPERTS   GERI has won an appointment to the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) College of Experts.  Services will be delivered to NAHRO and Transpire Incoprorated, a NAHRO member service, including:   NAHRO faculty assignments NAHRO specialty training and technical assistance Transpire training and technical assistance   GERI. has developed an innovative training program that is a new integrated approach to brownfields which bridges sustainable development, public health, environmental cleanup and reuse goals for underutilized land with neighborhood revitalization objectives.  The curriculum facilitates setting a development agenda, building real estate development skills and techniques, creating public-private partnerships, and promoting stakeholder engagement.   Funded by a brownfields grant from U.S. EPA OSWER and a grant from the Houston Endowment, the pilot cities are Pittsburgh and Houston.  The first workshop was held May 4-7, 2004 in Pittsburgh.  The first Houston workshop  convened May 25-27, 2004.  Subsequent workshops convened in Pittsburgh and Houston July 13-15, 2004 and October 6-8, 2004.     The final workshop in the pilot series combines trainees from both cities and is scheduled February 16-18, 2005 in Houston.  The training brings together an ideal audience in terms of synergies, local community organizations and CDCs poised to or engaged in redevelopment issues and projects, governmental agency officials, and key private sector stakeholders.   Representing a key client, the Partnership for Sustainable Brownfields Redevelopment, GERI President, Deeohn Ferris, was appointed to U.S. EPA's federal advisory committee on brownfields All Appropriate Inquiry.  In a groundbreaking move, U.S. EPA appointed select multi-stakeholder group representatives from across the nation to negotiate this important federal environmental due diligence regulation.

INTRODUCING AN INNOVATIVE TRAINING PROGRAM

ON

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

BROWNFIELDS REDEVELOPMENT, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH

Global Environmental Resources Inc. (GERI) introduces an innovative training program that builds real estate and economic development skills in community based organizations tackling reclamation of contaminated urban and rural brownfields properties.  Funded by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, GERI piloted the training in 2004-2005 in the cities of Pittsburgh, PA and Houston, TX.  The program is a new integrated approach to brownfields that bridges environmental justice, health, cleanup and reuse goals with neighborhood revitalization objectives.  It’s an innovative teaching initiative designed to help a community preserve its cultural and historical resources, clean up the environment and, ultimately, lead to reuses of under-utilized properties that meet community needs. 

In view of the nexus between health and environmental impacts and the economic factors associated with brownfields cleanup projects, community-based constituencies involved in this program will gain an improved knowledge of these areas.  Community organizations are trained in ways that promote engagement in growth and development decisions, advance networking opportunities with key public and private sector stakeholders, stimulate tech transfer, cross pollinate the skills that local sectors bring to neighborhood revitalization, and enhance community leadership and coordination on local brownfields redevelopment projects. 

This program shows how a curriculum that integrates environmental justice, brownfields cleanup, land use, and community development can accelerate the learning curve of trainees as they tackle the triple ends of environmental and health protection, and sustainable redevelopment.

To deliver the curriculum, GERI works with local partners and the implications for involved organizations are addressed at each stage of the training.  We deploy interdisciplinary faculty that delivers the tools needed in managing a brownfields real estate deal including skills and techniques in project management, real estate financing and grants, economic development, environmental compliance and risk management, social and equity factors and public health.  Faculty consists of multi-stakeholder practitioners including environmental and health professionals, attorneys, corporate property owners, lenders, developers, and government officials in key agencies.  Our goal is to enable community leaders with differing levels of development experience to learn about and successfully plan, finance, and manage their own brownfields revitalization projects. 

Global Environmental Resources Inc. (GERI) is a WBE/MBE consulting firm established in 1997 by, Deeohn Ferris, the environmental attorney who introduced and led the successful national, grassroots campaign for the Presidential Executive Order on Environmental Justice (E.O. 12898), the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, and the federal Inter-Agency Environmental Justice Workgroup.  GERI’s team of experts deliver services in the public, private, philanthropic and community sectors including strategic projects, meetings and conferences at the national level, in several states around the U.S. and in the international arena.

GERI specializes in programs that address diverse populations including people of color, low-income communities and the underserved.   We build our clients’ expertise in sustainable development, smart growth, environmental justice and equity.   We are deeply experienced in implementing effective multi-stakeholder processes in communities.  Our goal in this training is education that helps develop leaders in communities who understand how private redevelopment works and can be used to address health and environmental concerns and social issues posed by brownfields.

INTRODUCING A NEW TRAINING CURRICULUM

ON

 HUD ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW REQUIREMENTS

Global Environmental Resources Inc. (GERI) introduces a training program on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development environmental review requirements.  The GERI curriculum teaches HUD environmental assessment and review basics in the context of various HUD programs including Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HUD HOME Programs. 

The workshop scope covers the duties of nonprofit community developers of affordable housing and other projects to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and relevant statutory and regulatory environmental mandates.  Trainees will learn how to identify whether or not environmental issues are integral to their respective development projects and how to assess them.  The focus is statutory and regulatory compliance.

This training provides in-depth coverage of environmental requirements.  It prepares individuals in institutions, organizations and government who have critical responsibilities involving planning, financing and construction of HUD projects -- public and private sector developers, community development corporations (CDCs), governmental staff and decision makers, civic organizations, faith based organizations and community groups.

Most recently, GERI conducted the training via a workshop organized for state and local government and nonprofit housing developers in San Antonio, TX by the National Association of Housing Redevelopment Officials and Transpire, June 2005.

Global Environmental Resources Inc. (GERI) is a WBE/MBE consulting firm established in 1997 by, Deeohn Ferris, the environmental attorney who introduced and led the successful national, grassroots campaign for the Presidential Executive Order on Environmental Justice (E.O. 12898), the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, and the federal Inter-Agency Environmental Justice Workgroup.  GERI’s team of experts deliver services in the public, private, philanthropic and community sectors including strategic projects, meetings and conferences at the national level, in several states around the U.S. and in the international arena.

AFRICAN AMERICAN FORUM ON RACE & REGIONALISM

The African American Forum on Race & Regionalism (AAFRR) is a collaborative initiative, which was established in 2002 by the Ford Foundation to work with African American constituencies.  AAFRR is a project of the Sustainable Metropolitan Communities Initiative directed by Carl Anthony at the Ford Foundation.  Global Environmental Resources Inc. is the AAFRR Secretariat.

AAFRR Co-chairs Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink, john a. powell, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and Robert Bullard, Clark-Atlanta University Environmental Justice Resource Center.  In addition to the respective leadership of their own organizations, they work collaboratively through the Forum to help broaden, strengthen and promote the involvement of interdisciplinary African Americans and African American organizations in policy development, decisions and place-based projects.

AAFRR is a means to share experiences and build broad strategic alliances that advance regional equity.  The Forum is working to strengthen and expand African American constituencies and the discourse on race, regional equity and smart growth.  Our objectives are to: 

• develop a national database of interdisciplinary practitioners, experts, leaders, institutions, faith based organizations, media, government officials, elected officials, associations and grassroots groups focused on such issues as growth and development, community and economic development, health, housing, education, sustainability, environment, taxes, markets, policy and governance; and

• network and broaden key constituencies, and share information regarding lessons learned about regional and metropolitan sustainability, regionalism, equity and smart growth issues and policy tools; 

• strengthen the conversation among communities of color about metropolitan regional sustainability, community development; environmental justice and equity;

• address the challenges of collating community assets, shaping and setting a sustainable regional agenda and inclusion of African Americans in the discourse, planning and policy implementation; 

• stimulate dialogue among key constituencies about differing experiences, definitions and benefits; 

• create a place for constructive conversation and healthy relationship building that leads to recommendations on strategies, projects and effective programs.

AAFRR engages in collaborative activities with organizations in regions around the nation.  Selected events include:

• A joint reception and workshop entitled “Race, Taxes and Regional Equity” with the Detroit Chapter of the NAACP at the NAACP’s annual national convention in Philadelphia, July 2004.

• A convening with the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, in May 2003 and February 2004, involving African American leaders, scholars and experts from across the nation.

• A symposium with Clark Atlanta University’s Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC) in Atlanta on a convening of African American scholars, researchers and authors from across the nation in April 2004.

• A session entitled “Promoting Sustainable Communities” at the May 2005 PolicyLink second national Regional Equity Summit conference in Philadelphia.

• Workshops entitled “Race, Space, Poverty and Equity” with a coalition including the Council of Baptist Pastors, MOSES and the Detroit Chapter of the NAACP in Detroit, October 2005.