Urban Eco Group Opens Park In Houston

Harris County – Eco Justice: Restoring our endangered coastal prairie and young people simultaneously
On Saturday, October 23, 2010, at 12 noon, Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan will be the keynote speaker at the inaugural inner-city prairie park that has been created out of Great Plains Restoration Council’s Restoration Not Incarceration program. The County Attorney’s office is a pioneer in a new effort to create change in the lives of young adult offenders and ex-offenders using conservation work to help reduce recidivism.
Restoration Not Incarceration (RNI) is a furthering initiative developed by Great Plains Restoration Council (GPRC), a non-profit organization, which blends social work with prairie restoration ecology. In essence, workers “heal themselves through healing the prairie.” The formerly degraded land on South Acres Drive is now becoming a brand new park that will include a restored native coastal prairie, two wetlands, a meditation trail, and a small community organic farm at its entrance. The participants in this pilot project have become the program’s first generation, and are showing 100% success.
The objective is to have them in turn help new workers expand Restoration Not Incarceration. The goal is save the endangered native coastal prairie of Greater Houston, reduce recidivism, and create new Green Jobs in prairie wildland restoration that also removes carbon from the atmosphere, increases flood control, filters the water, helps clean the air, and creates critical wildlife habitat as well as new parks for people.
Ryan said that he applauds the efforts of Great Plains Restoration Council. “Restoring people’s lives and restoring our native prairie lands are great goals and I applaud the Council’s ingenuity in creating a program that accomplishes both. Our office looks forward to seeing all that will be accomplished. We will continue to work with this initiative as it expands and grows.”
Funding support for Restoration Not Incarceration has come from Houston Endowment, Inc, St. John’s Downtown United Methodist Church, George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation, Powell Foundation, Trull Foundation, and others.
The Open Park dedication is open to the public, and the community is encouraged to witness the hard work and dedication of the RNI class of 2010 at the park unveiling, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, October 23, 2010, Esteban Park, 5160 South Acres Drive, Houston, TX 77048
For more information please visit the website at www.gprc.org or Stephanie Ward at 214 718-1643 Red Lime Media. #30

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