For decades, the City of Jacksonville had struggled with cleaning up its urban land and waterways. Much of the urban core is considered a brownfield, land abandoned or underutilized due to pollution from industrial use.
In 2013, a group of residents, community leaders and former City of Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown began the application process to bring a Groundwork Trust to Jacksonville. After an extensive feasibility and review process, Jacksonville was approved on September 16, 2014, with funding from the National Park Service and the Environmental Protection Agency through Groundwork USA. We filed our articles of incorporation with the State of Florida on October 24, 2014.
The Jacksonville Trust was formed primarily to respond to the environmental and community revitalization needs in the Historic Springfield and Eastside neighborhoods including the pollution and flooding in and around Hogans Creek.
In its Emerald Trail Master Plan adopted by the Jacksonville City Council in March 2019, Groundwork Jacksonville broadened the scope to encompass 16 square miles including 14 urban neighborhoods, downtown, Hogans Creek and McCoys Creek. Within these neighborhoods, 71% of residents are low-income and 36% are living in poverty.
In partnership with the City of Jacksonville, our vision is to transform our blighted urban areas into beautiful, resilient green spaces that promote health, social connection and quality of life; to encourage investment that catalyzes neighborhood revitalization, and economic opportunity; and, more than anything, to ensure long-term residents can stay in their homes and prosper.
We are grateful for those visionary citizens and city leaders who, a decade ago, made Groundwork Jacksonville a reality. They remind of us of the famous quote by Margaret Mead, “Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
