Hopeworks wraps up summer season of youth involvement with GIS in the community

In a recent newsletter from Camden, NJ-based Hopeworks, some interesting project updates were offered. During the summer Hopeworks served 56 youth who earned a total of 75 college credits, worked over 2,400 hours and were paid $23,800 in salaries. Of particular interest, Hopeworks' GIS and the EPA have teamed up to survey the trees in North Camden. The purpose of this summer survey was to provide youth with an opportunity to learn about the importance of trees in our community, as well as to gather an environmental dataset for our neighborhood. The Hopeworks youth surveyors spent one week learning how to identify different species of trees and how to use the equipment needed to provide this information. Hopeworks is planning to share this data with other environmental agencies. Finally the organization also attended the 35th Annual ESRI Conference in San Diego and  presented at the Education Users Conference.  The title of their presentation was Creating Hope For At-Risk Youth. Kudos to a fine organization - see hopeworks.org