Support the work of ACT affiliates in low-income neighborhoods and affordable housing projects across the country, planting trees to improve the health and safety of these often-neglected areas.
Trees in cities provide numerous environmental and health benefits, including reducing the impact of urban heat islands, cleaning polluted air, increasing property values, and encouraging outdoor activities. Residents of low-income neighborhoods suffer disproportionately from childhood asthma and crime, both problems that have been proven to decrease with the presence of more trees. Trees provide these residents with cleaner, greener, healthier and safer neighborhoods.
Throughout the planting season, ACT affiliates organize tree planting and stewardship events, engaging residents and volunteers alike. These community-building events give low-income residents a stake in caring for their own neighborhoods.
For moderate up-front costs, trees mitigate many of the problems that residents of low-income neighborhoods face. Their benefits increase, rather than decrease, over time. Few efforts can match urban reforestation for positive long-term impact.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
