sustainability

We Started Here

post from ioby.org We Started Here is ioby’s multimedia storytelling series exploring the work of neighborhood leaders across the country. Video and photography by Dan Lane and Erin Moore of GoodEye Video. Written by Tobin Hack. When Justin Moore thinks of his grandfather, he sees him hard at work on a “project,” pouring and forming concrete in […]

FREE Redbud Tree Giveaway October 17th! Sign up today!

Using funds from our 5×5 Indy grant and working with the Purdue Extension, Urban Patch will be providing FREE redbud trees for Mapleton-Fall Creek residents and businesses on Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Please use our online contact form to REQUEST A TREE. Below is the link  to inform you of the project and to […]

From Food Desert to Urban Oasis

We hear a lot about food deserts that impact many of our urban communities throughout the United States. At Urban Patch we are developing an initiative that will take on this critical issue with our local community and local farmers.  As we develop the program we hope to make a real and immediate impact on […]

We Started Here

We have had an incredible year at Urban Patch. Thanks to many friends, collaborators and organizations we think we have made real progress in making the inner city better.  One of our earliest collaborators and supporters is ioby.org, a national organization that does crowd funding and resourcing for urban and environmental projects. In fact, our […]

Re-Booting the Inner City: National Preservation Conference Recap

Last month we hosted as a part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation National Conference in Indianapolis a community-based field session. As a result of the workshop we wanted to share the results that focused on neighborhood partnerships  and preservation strategies. We hope that this might encourage further work both in the Mapleton-Fall Creek community […]

Join us at the 2013 National Preservation Conference!

Re-Booting the Inner City: New Partnerships for Historic Preservation October 31, 2013, 8:15am-1:15pm Urban communities often suffer from the demolition of historic structures and incompatible development. How do preservation-based strategies play out in the communities they are designed to improve? You’ll hear from residents in Indianapolis’ Mapleton-Fall Creek area on the innovative partnerships and grassroots strategies […]

Fundamental Education

In 1954 the U.S. Congress funded the Board of Fundamental Education, an innovate public-private partnership based in Indiana, New York, and Texas. The document excerpt below gives a summary of their model — one that we might consider recovering for the challenges that we still face today.  Click on the images to enlarge.     […]

So… what is this Urban Patch anyway?

We get a lot of questions about our name, the Urban Patch. We like to think it’s pretty cool and ‘catchy.’ But it does also have a serious meaning for our work, which is also inspired by our roots in urban community development. One of the project’s founders, Justin Moore, is an urban designer and […]

Preservation at the Crossroads

Urban Patch is proud to announce that we will be leading TWO sessions at the upcoming 2013 National Preservation Conference in Indianapolis.  We will lead a field session in our own Mapleton Fall Creek community highlighting the role of historic preservation in community redevelopment and partnerships. New Partnerships Re-Boot the Inner City Older neighborhoods that have suffered long-term economic and […]

Community Garden 2.0

Urban Patch has helped to start the Saint Nicholas Miracle Garden in Harlem.  During Earth Week the group of community members received their approval to turn a vacant city-owned lot into one of the city’s newest Green Thumb sites, and had their first work day cleaning up the garden. The site is small (like everything in […]