Mission + Vision + Equity

Mission

Metro Blooms partners with communities to create resilient landscapes and foster clean watersheds, embracing the values of equity and inclusion to solve environmental challenges.

Who We Are

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Vision

Engage communities to create resilient landscapes.

Values

Ecological health; environmental justice; education; inspiration; community engagement and partnership

Equity

At Metro Blooms, we work to create the conditions for all of a community’s members to be meaningfully involved in environmental improvement projects protecting clean water and habitat. We carry out our work using principles of equitable engagement and environmental justice so that those most impacted have the opportunity to take part in the decision-making. We intentionally reach out in underserved communities that include – but are not limited to – people of color, lower-income neighborhoods and affordable housing communities.

Our Commitment

We all have a stake in working together to address the most difficult environmental challenges of our time. We need as many people as possible to be part of the solution. Our work is based on the belief that everyone has a right to clean air, land and water, but we know that not everyone has the same access. This needs to change. Now more than ever, we confront the reality of inequity in our lives based on unacknowledged privilege and institutionalized racism.

We have been thinking deeply about how our organization can be more inclusive, intentional and transparent in our work. We affirm our commitment to environmental justice. We listen to, learn from and amplify voices too often left out of discussions about actions that impact a community’s natural spaces.

We are committed to creating opportunities that center equitable engagement and bring natural resource investment to underserved communities. In our work, we define equitable engagement as the intentional participation of a community — with emphasis on those most impacted, underserved (renters, people of color, low-income or otherwise marginalized), and underrepresented — in green infrastructure and other environmental improvement projects.

Metro Blooms promotes diversity to strengthen ecosystems in our landscapes. That same value carries over to our organizational landscape, where we strive to create a positive and inclusive environment. We accept differences and we thrive on them for the benefit and resilience of our employees, our programs, and our community.

We continue to build the capacity of our staff through regular conversations on equity and inclusiveness, how our shared experiences differ, and how that impacts our workplace and our work.
We strive towards inclusiveness and diversity in hiring for our staff and in our board representation, because this approach can only strengthen our organization.

In our programs, Metro Blooms strives to create and deepen existing connections within environmental justice communities.

We work to empower communities to shape decision-making on environmental improvement projects so that the work benefits those most impacted.
We work with local leaders, organizations and community members to plan, intentionally and thoughtfully, how to engage within the community.
We equitably compensate those involved in our projects (leaders, organizations and community members) for their valuable time and efforts.
We offer paid internships to youths and young adults who assist with engagement and installation. We are working to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships through our internship programming.
We are hiring local residents in affordable housing communities to work alongside our crew to learn about and implement green infrastructure projects where they live.
We prioritize local BIPOC contractors through our bidding processes, and provide training, so that clean water and habitat investments stay within the community.
We help communities build social capacity, deepening connectedness and helping people to feel safer.
We strive to be leaders in equitable engagement in environmental work, sharing our knowledge and experiences with nonprofits, agencies, municipalities, and other local and state governments.

Access to more resilient green space is important to everyone. Metro Blooms respects different approaches, and learns from these differences, building our own organizational capacity while helping to break down socio-economic barriers around environmental action.

This is a vital time, a difficult time, a time of adaptation. We can learn to overcome barriers. We all care about each other and our well-being, and the spaces where we live, work and play have a role in this. We are privileged to be part of creating solutions to help all of us thrive together.