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Ubuntu Green held a Spring Fundraiser event on Thursday, April 12, 2012 for an entertaining evening with friends of supporters of Ubuntu Green as we raise funds to support our work in the community.

The event was held at Pangaea Two Brews Cafe, a stylish venue that was named the top brew pub and dining establishment in the city by the Sacramento News & Review. The evening featured great music, food, drinks and cool raffle prizes.

A special thanks to all of our supporters and friends who attended the event, as well as our sponsors: Pangaea Two Brews Cafe, Loving Hut, Zuda Yoga, Mirth to Earth, Underground Books, Sacramento Tree Foundation, Revolution Wines, and Sacramento Yard Farmer.

Click here to view more photos from the event on our Facebook Page

On April 14, 2012, the G-squad and community residents planted trees in our garden at 44th Street and 14th Ave. Youth residents came together to learn about compost, planting and organic recipients to use in the garden. Workshop was provided by Soil Born Farms, Sacramento Yard Farmers and BHC AmeriCorps.

Click here to view more photos on our Facebook Page!

In February 2012, Ubuntu Green transformed a blighted lot into a bright spot for the entire community when they turn a vacant lot at 44th Street and 14th Avenue into a long-awaited community garden.

The project began last summer by Ubuntu Green’s Green Youth Leadership Team (aka The G-Squad), when they cleared a vacant lot of weeds, brush, trash and other hazardous items to make way for the community garden. The site is adjacent to Home Cash Market, a corner store that once was a magnet for criminal activity. Under new ownership, the Market has agreed to no longer sell liquor and has committed to sell fresh fruits and vegetables to help improve the health of its customers. This neighborhood revitalization will be capped off with the launch of the community garden on Sunday.

Ubuntu Green built the garden with the help of the Sacramento Yard Farmer and students from Loyola Marymount University of Los Angeles as part of their Alternative Spring Break. The project is made possible by the generous support of Alchemist CDC, Soil Born Farms, The California Endowment, Bank of America, the California Wellness Foundation, DoSomething.org and the Sierra Health Foundation.

Click here to view more photos from this event on our Facebook page

Before

During

After

Please join us on Thursday, April 12, 2012 from 6 to 8 pm for what promises to be an entertaining evening with friends of supporters of Ubuntu Green as we raise funds to support our work in the community.

The event will be held at Pangaea Two Brews Cafe, a stylish venue that was named the top brew pub and dining establishment in the city by the Sacramento News & Review. The evening will feature great music, food, drinks and cool raffle prizes!

A special thanks to our sponsors: Pangaea Two Brews Cafe, Loving Hut, Zuda Yoga, Mirth to Earth, Underground Books, Sacramento Tree Foundation, Revolution Wines, and Sacramento Yard Farmer. You don’t want to miss this event!

Click on the following link to register for the event and we look forward to seeing you there!

http://events.constantcontact.com/register/event?llr=vabjzjdab&oeidk=a07e5nkel4kf779bfed

Please join Ubuntu Green on Wednesday, March 28 from 5 to 7 pm, at the Sacramento Food Bank Community Room, 3333 3rd Avenue, as we discuss the 350 Edible Garden Campaign and share ideas on how we achieve our goal! Light refreshments will be served.

Click here to register and we look forward to seeing you there!

Ubuntu Green will be spending this Sunday afternoon transforming a blighted lot into a bright spot for the entire community, when they turn a vacant lot at 44^th Street and 14^th Avenue into a long-awaited community garden.

The project was begun last summer by Ubuntu Green’s Green Youth Leadership Team (aka The G-Squad), when they cleared a vacant lot of weeds, brush, trash and other hazardous items to make way for the community garden.  The site is adjacent to Home Cash Market, a corner store that once was a magnet for criminal activity.  Under new ownership, the Market has agreed to no longer sell liquor and has committed to sell fresh fruits and vegetables to help improve the health of its customers.   This neighborhood revitalization will be capped off with the launch of the community garden on Sunday.

According to Ubuntu Green President and CEO Charles L. Mason, Jr., “We have been looking forward to this event for a long time.  Not only are we, along with our partners, able to remove an eyesore and a danger to the community, but we are also able to literally sow the seeds of good health for this community.  Finally, we can’t underestimate the value of the “community” in community gardens – over the long term they have been proven to bring people together, and we expect the same to happen here.”

Ubuntu Green will build the garden with the help of the Sacramento Yard Farmer and students from Loyola Marymount University of Los Angeles as part of their Alternative Spring Break.  The project is made possible by the generous support of Alchemist CDC, Soil Born Farms, The California Endowment, Bank of America, the California Wellness Foundation, DoSomething.org and the Sierra Health Foundation.

Ubuntu Green Urban Garden Build At-a-Glance:

Date: Sunday, February 26, 2012

 Time: 9 am to 4 pm (rain or shine)

Location: 4330 14^th Avenue (at 44^th Street near Home Cash Market) Sacramento

Ubuntu Green was selected for a 2011 Local Vision Award by the Sac Valley American Planning Association.

Alvin Vaughn and Charles L. Mason, Jr. with Ubuntu Green's newest member of the Board of Directors Julia Lave Johnston.

Local Awards are giving annually by the Sacramento Valley Section to organizations and individuals that have made outstanding contributions to creating a better Sacramento Region. Winners all have challenged the members of the communities to think differently about the everyday decisions they make.

The APA at the national, state, and section levels have awards programs that recognize excellence in traditional planning activities. The Local Vision Awards recognize that sometimes you have to color outside of the lines to lead a community to plan for a better future. Winners all have challenged the members of their communities to think differently about the everyday decisions they make.

“We are incredibly honored to be recognized by such an outstanding organization as the Sac Valley APA for our work in creating sustainable and equitable communities,” said Charles L. Mason, Jr., President and CEO of Ubuntu Green. “2011 was a very successful year for Ubuntu Green, and the Local Vision Award inspires us to raise the bar even farther for 2012.”

2011′s Local Vision Award Winners included:

Brooks Truitt – Editor of Old City Guardian, Sacramento Old City Association

Stonebridge Properties – “Roots of the Past” books, lessons learned from the past highly relevant today: Stories of the Land, Sacramento Park Neighborhoods, and Sacramento’s Park Neighborhood Trees

Sacramento Tree Foundation – non-profit organization dedicated to building the best regional urban forest

Sacramento County Farm Bureau – instrumental in promoting public policy to preserve agriculture in Sacramento County

The award ceremony was held on Wednesday, January 11 at 5 pm at AECOM, 2020 L Street, 4th floor conference room and lounge.

For more photos from this event, visit our Facebook Page.

Ubuntu Green supports Healthy Development for Oak Park (HDOP) in their opposition to the planned construction of a McDonald’s restaurant with a double drive-through at 2nd Avenue and Stockton Boulevard in Oak Park.

A proposed McDonald’s restaurant at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Stockton Boulevard in Sacramento is being greeted with skepticism by some Oak Park neighborhood residents. Residents have raised a number of concerns about the project, including unhealthy food choices, plummeting home prices and traffic safety and congestion problems if the project goes through. In an ironic twist, the proposed restaurant would be located across the street from the UC Davis Medical Center, which among its many services, studies childhood obesity. The Oak Park Neighborhood Association and the Oak Park Neighborhood Land Use Committee recently came out against the project, and developed a matrix to quantify the detrimental effects it could have to the area’s quality of life.

According to Frankie Hansbearry of Healthy Development for Oak Park, more than 1400 signatures have been collected to be presented to the City’s Planning Commission at its meeting next month.

Read the full letter to the City of Sacramento Planning Commission below.

McDonald’s Letter to Planning Commission

Policy Recommendations for the Surface Transportation Authorization

Transportation is a crucial to ensuring opportunity for all—connecting us to jobs, schools, housing, healthcare, and grocery stores.

Inadequate and unaccountable transportation investments have stifled opportunity for millions of Americans, leading to social and economic isolation and health disparities. These trends threaten the economic prosperity of our nation and disadvantage low-income people, communities of color, people in rural areas, and individuals with disabilities.

The next surface transportation authorization is our opportunity to build a stronger, healthier, more inclusive nation. The transportation bill should work toward the following three priorities:

• Improve access to affordable transportation options that promote mobility and health.
• Expand economic opportunity to strengthen families and communities.
• Promote accountability and focus on results.

Improve Access and Health
Millions of lower-income families, people with disabilities, and people of color live in communities where transportation options are unaffordable, unreliable, or nonexistent. A robust, accessible transportation system can foster personal independence, economic security, and improved health for many Americans—particularly older adults, individuals with disabilities, people in rural areas, and the poor.

Recommendations:
• Preserve and expand programs that fund essential transportation options including public transportation, biking, and walking infrastructure—including greater flexibility to use federal funds for operating assistance.

• Coordinate existing funds used to support transportation options for people with disabilities, older adults, and people with limited incomes in a manner that provides greater flexibility to meet the diverse needs of rural areas and small urban centers. (These include the Elderly and Persons with Disabilities, Job Access and Reverse Commute, and New Freedom programs, as well as social service programs in other federal agencies).

Expand Economic Opportunity
Transportation provides access to good-paying jobs in both the construction and the operation of highways, public transportation systems, roads, and bridges. While one in 10 civilian jobs is in the transportation sector, women, low-income people, and communities of color lack equitable access to those careers.

Recommendations:
• Establish a construction careers demonstration program that would expand opportunity to middle-class careers in the construction sector by:
o Promoting work opportunities for local, low-income workers who live in the vicinity of transportation projects;
o Maximize the use of registered apprentices on transportation projects; and
o Dedicate transportation dollars for programs that help underrepresented groups gain access to apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship training programs.

Foster Accountability and Focus on Results
Our transportation decisions should be accountable to the needs of our most vulnerable populations—older adults, low-income individuals and families, communities of color, and people with disabilities.

Recommendations:

• Establish a strategic planning process for states and regions to focus on the outcomes transportation investments should provide the community:
o Compare the benefits and consequences different strategies, investments choices, and development patterns have on community goals;
o Evaluate scenarios to determine the region’s potential to meet broad goals, including how vulnerable populations are impacted by transportation, such as reducing household transportation costs, providing access to jobs, increasing walking and biking opportunities, improving air quality, and reducing injury risk to pedestrians and motorists; and
o Develop strategic plans through a consensus building process that considers alternative investment and growth scenarios with widespread public involvement.

• Strengthen civil rights enforcement to ensure fair and non-discriminatory use of federal transportation funds, by:
o Increase funding for the U.S. Department of Transportation to strengthen enforcement of civil rights provisions—this would enable timely investigation of discrimination complaints;
o Maintain funding for the Transportation Equity Research Program, which funds research projects to understand the impact of transportation decisions on low-income, minority, and transit-dependent populations.
o Conduct an Equal Opportunity Assessment to identify impediments to compliance with non-discrimination and equal opportunity policies.