On Saturday, July 16, 2022, Chicago Muslims Green Team (CMGT) and El Paseo Community Garden hosted the Tree Ambassador Training in Pilsen neighborhood to support the City’s Our Roots Chicago Project.
Besides CMGT and El Paseo, other organizations who attended the training include Sisters of Islam, Faith in Place, Lutheran School of Theology, Mi Villita Neighbors, Women for Green Spaces, Openlands Treekeepers, and a representative from 25th Ward.
The training is part of CMGT’s Tree Planting Project and contribution as a member of the Community Tree Equity Working Group who meets monthly since August 2021. The group is led by our trainer Raed Mansour, Director for the Office of Innovation at the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH).
The training started by info session to explain why and how the project works. The goal of the project is to plan 75,000 new trees in the target areas with low tree canopy in five years. To reach that goal, a member of community can actively participate by becoming a Tree Ambassador.
“The Tree Ambassador program was created to assist community-based organizations (CBOs) to equitably increase residential tree planting requests using the CHI311 mobile app in priority neighborhoods while they engage residents on the benefits of trees.”
Tree Ambassador Training Manual
At the info session, participants were trained to use the CHI311 mobile app step by step, including how to submit a special code that can be used to track the progress of our effort to plant the tree.
After the training, participants walked around the neighborhood to survey the potential planting spots. While surveying the area, the group identified trees that are not well maintained by looking at their roots.
However, maintaining trees requires another training. Anyone who is interested in this field can join Openlands Treekeepers community like Risa, Wendy, and Noah who were present at the training to answer questions.
To follow up the training, participants are expected to send a test request via the app and submit the tree request. The logistics for the project like door tags to be used in engaging the residents and spray paints to mark the potential spot for tree planting are available for free to those that completed the training with CMGT. (Note: please contact Caroline to request the logistics).
At the end of the training, we enjoyed meals and beverages, thanks to 25th Ward who sponsored the lunch ordered from Baba Pita Halal restaurant who has been generously sponsoring many CMGT events, from the the 2019 Iftar Ramadan with Zero Food Waste Challenge to the 2020 Introduction to Citizen Science Workshop at Nature Museum. Baba Pita restaurant was also kindly enough to fulfil our last minute request to avoid plastic containers and provided us with reusable cups.