Social Aspects of Urban Forestry: Urban Greening and Social Benefits: A Study of Empowerment Outcomes

Article Figures & Data

Table 1.

Potential benefits from urban greening.

	Passive experience of a green environment	Active involvement in greening the environment
Individual	Shorter hospital stay, improved cognitive function	Sense of accomplishment, food security
Organization	Stronger business districts	More members, stronger ties to politicians
Community	Reduced crime	More external resources

Table 2.

Respondent characteristics.

	Greencorps perceived as success sites		Greencorps perceived as failure sites
	Halsted	Ashland	Pulaski	Jefferson Homes
Racial/ethnic composition	Black^{^z}	Black	Mixed	Black
Number of interviews	12	10	11	24
Gender	7 women, 5 men	7 women, 3 men	11 women, 0 men^{^y}	23 women, 1 man
Average age of respondent	47	41	34	46
Average number of children	3.1	2.4	1.8	3.7
Average household size	3.2	3.4	4.2	3.1
Average length of residency (years)	17	15.4	13.4	18
% homeowners	67%	60%	64%	0%
Education (% with education or training past high school)	50%	70%	82%	54%
Work status (% employed)	66%	80%	100%	42%
Income	58% <25,000	33% <15,000	44% <25,000	100% <25,000
	25% <15,000	44% >40,000	18% <15,000	54% <15,000

↵z I use the term “Black” rather than “African American” because that is what my respondents said they preferred.
↵y I had two informal interviews with men on the block; neither took or responded to photographs.

Table 3.

Photographs taken by respondents by site.

	Greencorps perceived as success sites		Greencorps perceived as failure sites
	Halsted	Ashland	Pulaski	Jefferson Homes
Number of interviews	12	10	11	24
Average number pictures taken (respondents were asked to take 10)	18	15	7	15
% respondents that photographed the garden	75%	44%	71%	0%
Pictures of other greening projects?	no	some	no	over half