Postindustrial Futures partners with communities to improve and activate underused green space through planning, workshops, and community-led action.
Auchentoroly Terrace
Partners: Baltimore Green Space | Greater Mondawmin Coordinating Council | The Neighborhood Design Center | The New Auchentoroly Terrace Association
Overview: A community-led green space planning project to identify priority sites and establish a realistic path toward community stewardship and ownership.
- Surveyed 60 residents and hosted a community workshop focused on the future of neighborhood green space.
- Documented community priorities including safety, activities/events, cleanliness, and neighborhood beauty.
- Developed a recommended pathway to community ownership, including Judicial In-Rem, transfer to GMCC, and a two-year trial stewardship period.
Status: A clear roadmap is in place for advancing the Whittier Avenue lots toward community control, with long-term preservation through Baltimore Green Space as a future option.
Central West Baltimore
Partners: Druid Heights CDC | No Boundaries Coalition | Sajeeda Urban Farm
Overview: A three-part youth workshop series focused on vacant land, neighborhood ecology, and community-led green space transformation in Central West Baltimore.
- Engaged 15 youth through the No Boundaries Youth Organizers (NbYO) program using an interactive model combining short presentations with site visits to parks, gardens, and transformed vacant lots.
- Featured local leaders from Druid Heights CDC and Sajeeda Urban Farm to connect youth directly with real-world transformation stories and community-rooted stewardship pathways.
- Developed youth awareness of how vacant land impacts neighborhoods, while sparking discussion about future engagement and stewardship strategies.
Status: Completed. The workshop model is now being carried forward through NBC programming and expanded through additional youth workshop partnerships.
Lower Gwynns Falls Park
Partners: Baltimore City Recreation & Parks | Gwynns Falls Community Association | Mill Hill Community Association | Mt. Olivet Community Association
Overview: A community-led effort to identify and advance practical, high-impact upgrades to an underused neighborhood park.
- Coordinated directly with BCRP to clarify which improvements can move forward now versus what must wait for future capital planning.
- Confirmed near-term “low-hanging fruit” improvements, including a picnic table, dog waste station, and trash/recycling receptacles.
- Advanced both immediate and longer-term priorities, including soccer goals (via donation agreement) and future environmental features such as fruit trees, bat boxes, rain-catchment systems, and waterway improvements.
Status: Initial improvements are now beginning to be installed, with larger upgrades to be revisited after BCRP’s Comprehensive Plan is complete.
Oliver Community
Partners: The 6th Branch | Baltimore Green Space | BMORE Beautiful | Civic Works | Clean Corps | The Community Group Inc | Historic Oliver Community Association | Knox Presbyterian Church | The People’s Association of Oliver | Wildside Nursery
Overview: A five-part youth workshop series designed to educate youth on the value of community green space while building long-term stewardship skills in the Oliver community.
- Engaged youth through a workshop model combining short presentations with guided site visits to community green spaces.
- Introduced youth to local examples of community-managed green space, highlighting how resident leadership can transform vacant land into long-term community assets.
- Built youth capacity through hands-on learning by engaging youth in the design and installation of rain gardens at Oliver Community Farm.
Status: In Progress. The workshop model is positioned to continue through partner-led programming and expanded youth engagement in Oliver.
