Empowering residents to advocate for blue-green infrastructure investments

Chollas Creek Resident Training Program

Greenprint, in collaboration with Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek, facilitates a resident training program designed to empower participants with essential skills in infrastructure basics, community organizing and civic engagement. Now on its second cohort, this work aims to help residents turn neighborhood ideas into real-world projects and foster stronger collaboration between city planning departments and community members. 

Residents work in small teams side by side with Greenprint engineers, planners and landscape architects to develop blue-green infrastructure concept plans to meet the needs of their neighborhoods. For the first time, this year’s cohort of resident trainees included one team whose entire training was facilitated in Spanish to support linguistically inclusive community leadership.

The original training program delivered significant results: five fellows were hired into yearlong organizing roles, and multiple neighborhood projects transitioned from concept to implementation. City departments now engage residents earlier in planning, recognizing that stronger solutions emerge from direct community collaboration. Success in guiding participants — many new to green stormwater infrastructure — hinged on several factors: well-prepared, plain-language questions; a clear framework for desired project outcomes; and strong support during and between sessions. These elements were essential for efficiently managing the inherently iterative design experience.