Dear Neighbor,

This interactive site provides the residents of Chicago's 49th Ward with a place to share ideas and resources for building a more livable and sustainable community. While we meet here virtually, we hope this will be a vehicle that will encourage you to meet in person with neighbors who share your interests.

Note: If you have trouble joining this site, please email BobFuller71@yahoo.com for assistance.

So jump in! Start a group on beekeeping, bicycling with kids, gourmet local dining, greening your block, growing fruit trees in a park, or anything else that interests you. Launch a forum to discuss tips on how to conserve water, reduce your meat consumption or recycle absolutely everything. Post local and regional events that support sustainable living. Or invite your neighbors to join you on a spur-of-the-moment bike ride.

If you wish to post documents in the Group Documents folder, simply email BobFuller71@yahoo.com and he'll authorize you to help manage this virtual library.

Have some ideas on how to make the 49th Ward community more sustainable and need some help putting those ideas into action? Let us know. The 49th Ward Green Corps is built on the idea of putting the passions of one person or a small group into action with the muscle of other Green Corps members and friends, environmental experts, and 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore behind it. That's how Autumn Franger turned her idea of a community "free swap" weekend into a huge event with a warehouse full of items being exchanged by hundreds of neighbors, and diverting those otherwise unused items from our landfills. Imagine what you can do!

Come join us in person! Members of the 49th Ward Green Corps meet on the 2nd and 4th Sunday of every month, 2:30 pm, at Alderman Joe Moore's 49th Ward Service Office, 7356 N. Greeview (at Jarvis). These meetings are used to hear from experts in environmental science, to plan community education and outreach activities, and to put individual passions into practice. If Sunday mornings don't work for you, use this site to get involved! Many committees meet at other times.

We welcome you and thank you for your commitment to building a more sustainable, diverse and inclusive community where we can all live, grow and thrive.

Sincerely,

Alderman Joe Moore and Barbara Moore

Special thanks to Dane Watkins and other 49th Ward Green Corps members for the photos and images used throughout this site and to Flickr member Freschwill for use of the public domain photo of the dunes restoration used in our masthead.