Resident Empowerment Leadership Training

This community organizing and equitable green infrastructure training program supports emerging and established Chollas Creek residents to gather information around, develop solutions for, and advocate on behalf of their neighborhood’s most pressing challenges.

Residents Learn

What climate resilience means for the Chollas Creek Watershed.

What green stormwater infrastructure is, how it functions, what potential benefits it can deliver, and how you and other community residents can and how their neighbors can be part of  its development.

What is being planned for the Chollas Creek Regional Park and how residents can contribute to planning.

Best practices for community organizing and engaging the public in City-led projects.

Residents Create

A final presentation of a community outreach and engagement plan around green infrastructure planning for each team’s neighborhood.

Strengthened connection and relationships with the vibrant community of changemakers in the Chollas Creek watershed.

Express your interest in Resident Empowerment Leadership training

Ready to Get Involved!

Karlo Vazquez Melendez, a Barrio Logan resident, shares his thoughts on Groundwork's Resident Empowerment Training and his goals for the community.

Resident Leader Fellows

Five resident empowerment trainees have committed to this 10-month program offering the opportunity to directly participate 15 hours per month in assisting Groundwork with community organizing and outreach for nature-based infrastructure (urban greening) neighborhood benefit projects. The Fellows will be compensated for their work in completing activities such as co-designing and implementing community outreach strategies for securing broad resident input into the Chollas Creek Regional Park Master Plan and Green Infrastructure (GI) plan. The Fellows are supported by Groundwork staff and Green Infrastructure regional and national professionals throughout the program.

  • was raised and lives in San Diego in the Mt. View Neighborhood. He works at  Family Health Centers of San Diego as a Lab technician bringing high quality health care with a special focus on low income and uninsured residents. He is a proud parent of two boys ages 9 and 3, and has a  passion for soccer, having played since he was 6 years old. He enjoys hiking and the outdoors, with a  dream is to visit the country's major national parks. He also has a passion for community outreach recognizing through his lived experience of the inequality in City resource allocation in his community. Being part of the Resident Empowerment Training program with Groundworks has motivated him to a greater degree, especially the idea of green infrastructure. Southeastern communities lack green spaces but deserve green spaces for hope to thrive and for its residents to enjoy. He excited to begin this project and ready to apply his skills.

  • has lived in the Chollas Creek Watershed most of his life in the neighborhoods of Shelltown, City Heights, and Oak Park. He is a cut flower farmer for a small farm in Webster, with a passion for agriculture, plants, and biodiversity since living with coffee farmers in Uganda in 2008. Environmental justice has been his central focus after surviving a bone marrow transplant for a rare blood disorder in 2011. He is very excited to be a part of Groundwork, “a place where his passions come together”.

  • is a UTK - 5th grade science teacher. She has been teaching for 14 years and is responsible for designing and delivering instruction through hands-on activities. She is extremely passionate about engaging her students in community science projects that help them solve real world problems and become environmental stewards. Kristen is also known for initiating and fostering relationships with local scientists, business, and nonprofits to further her community science projects.  She co-developed and piloted San Diego State University’s Aztec Science Summer Camp where she served as Camp Director, exposing youth to science and supporting novice teachers. When Kristen isn’t teaching science, you can find her deeply involved in her community. She has served on the Webster Community Council Board for 9 years and is currently the Communications Secretary. For the past 8 years, Kristen has served on the board of the Eastern Area Community Planning Committee (EACPC), representing her community.

  • has a degree in radio/tv/film with a background in video production. Jen used her talents for the last two decades to support work in filming civil depositions.  In 2021, she transitioned out of that career in order to find more time to support environmental and climate justice organizations. With her environmental activism dating back to university days, Jen believes it is everyone's responsibility to protect water quality in our rivers and beaches, and feels climate work is the best way to improve the world for her children and her community. She loves collaborating with like-minded activists, and is “looking forward to sharing Webster's ideas/goals/plans with the City of San Diego and watching our green initiatives become a reality. “

  • is a resident of the Chollas View community. She has been active in her community since her early days as a MECHA leader. She has a long history of volunteerism, serving since 2016 with Bridge of Hope SD, a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening families through transition including leaving homeless and domestic violence shelters or recovery homes, families facing crisis, and refugees relocating from around the world. She has three children, and says she is inspired by the Margare Wheatley quote, “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.”