Groundwork Erie Welcomes New Executive Director
Dear Groundwork Erie Community,
I’m writing today in gratitude for the opportunity to work with all of you and the Erie community as the next Executive Director of Groundwork Erie. I’m deeply grateful to Dr. Aaron Kerr for his stewardship of Groundwork Erie through its first growing seasons. The foundation built under his leadership has set deep roots for success upon which I hope to build. His emphasis on “operationalizing our values” as an organization will remain with me as we continue to grow while centering on why the work matters. I’d also like to express my gratitude to the Groundwork Erie Board of Directors for their support through this transition as we build Erie’s resiliency in the face of the climate crisis.
While I’m new to this role, the Groundwork model is not new to me. Working in the City of Erie’s Planning Department for the last six years, I had the opportunity to assist in the development of the Groundwork Erie feasibility study. This study was written over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but thanks to input and outreach from our committee members, it included voices and visions from all across the city in its development. It is humbling to now be in a position to implement the visions we could only dream of 4 years ago. The Groundwork mission is one that I hope to live by in my personal and professional life and I am honored to get to steward an organization committed to environmental justice that puts people at its center.
Over the first few weeks of leading Groundwork Erie, the words of Grace Lee Boggs (an author and activist from Detroit) feel ever more relevant in this particular “time on the clock of the world”:
“We need to grow our souls. We need to find that balance of life that respects each other, that thinks that the most important thing at this time on the clock of the world is not our accumulation of things, is not economic growth which threatens and imperils all life on this planet including ourselves, that the time has come to grow our souls, to grow our relationships with one another, to create families that are loving, and communities that are loving…”
I said yes to Groundwork Erie because I’m not only excited about the work we will accomplish, but I’m most excited about helping to steward the consciousness of young people, who are the next leaders, movement builders, friends, and caretakers of our community and Lake Erie. With a background in education and coming from a family of educators, I know that the deepest learning happens when we know the care of our teachers. The teachers who created environments that were safe enough to ask questions, to take risks, and to be challenged, were the teachers who I learned the most from.
However, this work cannot happen alone. Together, we can create youth programming that brings our city’s youth, and by extension all of us, to a deeper appreciation of the people, places, and resources of our city and our earth. In the words of one of our 2024 Green Teamers, “We are hard workers and we can make it happen.”
Together we can:
Employ young people in well-paying, dignified work that improves the environmental, economic, and social futures of our youth and our community.
Equip our neighbors with information and resources to build a more just environment in our city so that access to clean air, water, soil, and green space is not dependent on what neighborhood we live in.
Build our community’s power through relationship building and care of our neighbors.
Connect our young people to Erie– its land, people, and history.
Share our abundance– especially food grown here in Erie with our neighbors.
Our roots are planted deep here in Erie as we prepare for the work of raising up a grounded and loving generation of leaders. One step toward this work is through the 4th Street Community Farm: a project in collaboration with Bayfront East Side Taskforce, the Food Policy Advisory Council, Emmaus Soup Kitchen, and local farmers Stephanie Ciner and Kristen Weeks. This farm will provide produce for Emmaus Soup Kitchen as well as the Pay-What-You-Can-Stands. It will also give our Green Teamers a chance to work directly in our neighborhoods and directly impact the lives of our neighbors.
Join us in building this farm with our youth and our community with a donation here by December 15th, 2024: https://donate.seedmoney.org/10839/4th-st-community-farm. The Seed Money Donation page is open until December 15th, 2024 at midnight, but you can donate to Groundwork Erie’s Green Team work to create a more resilient Erie anytime here.
Moving into this role is deeply humbling and I’m excited to work with everyone who is ready to roll up their sleeves to grow the Groundwork movement here in Erie.
Gratefully,
Erin Carey
814-580-8573
