Landforce, community wealth building

Landforce strives for self-empowerement for people wanting to have meaningful and stable employment while protecting the environment. 

Landforce not only trains, educates and hires adults (for a period of time and then helps them find long-term employment) who have faced structrual barriers to employment, but it also works toward a healthy environment. It works on different land stewardship services such as as trail construction, habitat restoration and stormwater management. It also creates and fosters partnership with potential employers, so that the trainees can find long-term employment. 

Since 2016, Landforce has hired over 100 people and contributed to over 50.000 hours of environmental stewardship in the Pittsburgh region. On average, 92 percent of those who start with Landforce, find employment within two-weeks of completing a season with Landforce. 

Landforce works with public and private agencies, and green space development experts on land stewardship services. ​​​​​​​

Culture, civic participation & social innovation

Capacity & capability

Community wealth building is the revitalisation of communities that often lack government funding, while taking care of the surrounding environment and providing enjoyable community spaces. As a result, underserved community members can gain skills and work on projects that affect their communities.  

Community wealth building also aims to provide local jobs, and provide communities and individuals increased asset ownership. It also tries to increase the funds from local institutions for the benefit of the community. This is the case in Landforce, where local organisations have provided funds to support childcare needs for workers and bought vacant land so that organisations like Landforce can work on them. 

Stakeholders:

• The Allegheny County Human Services Department- Provides grants to for example help workers pay for childcare support.   
• Heinz Endowments- Partnership with Landfroce. It buys vacant land for local organisations to work on. 
• Landforce- Oversees projects, trains individuals, provides other community wealth practices.  
• Trainees- Part of the projects, from Pittsburgh.

Network, governance and communication:

1. Weekly team meetings for crew and staff (trainees) to come together.  

2. Trainees meet weekly to identify barriers to employment and implement solutions and connect to permanent employment.  

To understand better the strengths of Landforce and spaces for improvement, a planning team was created to make decisions on a strategic plan for Landforce. 

1. A Strategic Planning Committee made up of some staff members, board members, and a consulting team, assisted in the planning work which began in March 2021.  

i. The Strategic Planning Committee focused on its work in the later stages of shaping the strategic priorities, the executive director, programs directors and full staff worked to develop a complete set of goals and associated action plan.  

2. All staff and board members participated in the planning process.

4. The consulting team engaged with internal and external stakeholders with interviews, focus group conversations and a staff survey to understand the strengths of Landfroce and how to establish more productive strategies.  

--> These show how Landforce aimed to include its workforce to strengthen its vision and work. 

Pros: 

1. Trainees receive soft skills training to build their resumes such as conflict resolution, first aid, effective teamwork and many others. They also receive individualised career coaching.

2. Engaging and training underserved community members.