Welcome
Below are some ways you can get involved in enhancing sustainability, resilience, and carbon neutrality in our community. Check back often as new opportunities continually emerge.
10,000 Trees Initiative
We are currently recruiting volunteers to help run our FreeTree Giveaway events and/or plant trees at our Community Tree Planting events. If you are interested in volunteering, please email Sean Reynolds at sreynolds@a2gov.org and indicate which events you are interested in helping with. Please keep in mind that the Community Tree Planting events are labor-intensive and will require digging and heavy lifting. Learn more about the 10,000 Trees Initiative here.
Bandemer Park Workdays
OSI has adopted Bandemer Park and holds a monthly workday there with GIVE365 (on the third Tuesday of each month, except December-February). If you are interested in volunteering to help maintain Bandemer Park with OSI (by picking up trash, removing invasives, clearing brush from trails, etc.), please email Melissa Schacht at [email protected].
Neighborhood Grants
The Sustaining Ann Arbor Together (SA2T) grant program provides small grants (on average $10,000) to residents, schools, local nonprofits, and local businesses to advance sustainability-related activities in Ann Arbor’s right of way (i.e., streets, sidewalks, parks, etc.). The program has $100,000 to award annually on a competitive basis. Grants are reviewed on a rolling basis with feedback provided to help strengthen applications. Learn more on the Sustaining Ann Arbor Together grant page.
A2ZERO Ambassadors
The A2ZERO Ambassador Program provides an opportunity for interested individuals to dive deeply into pathways for advancing local sustainability initiatives, resilience, and carbon neutrality. The A2ZERO Ambassador program is a consecutive weekly 12-session training program that brings together 15-20 community members to explore what it takes to equitably transition to a carbon neutral community. Training sessions are held on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 pm – 9:00 EDT in a hybrid format. Ambassadors will leave with increased knowledge, tools, and resources to discuss sustainability broadly and specific actions they and their communities can begin implementing to advance carbon neutrality. There are no previous experience requirements and all who are interested in sustainability are encouraged to apply.
A2ZERO Ambassadors will learn about:
- Equity and environmental justice
- Community sustainability, climate change, and climate action
- Energy principles, beneficial electrification, and renewable energy
- Water efficiency, water quality, stormwater, and our watershed
- Transportation and our choices about moving around our community
- How to get to a circular economy: waste reduction, composting, recycling, sustainable purchasing, and material reuse
- Local food: how to grow it, eat it, and find it
- Personal and community resilience and emergency preparedness
- What Ambassadors can do to advance carbon neutrality
A2ZERO Ambassadors pledge to complete a small team sustainability project and volunteer for at least 20 hours on community sustainability efforts. You can do this by staffing information booths at community events, festivals, and farmers markets, or helping with events like fix-it clinics, park clean-ups, or zero waste events. Email Bryce Frohlich to learn more or get engaged!
Come back soon to apply to be an A2ZERO Ambassador
Applications for our 6th Ambassador cohort open on Wednesday, November 1st, 2023, and close on Wednesday, February 14th, 2024, at 5:00pm EDT - if you need assistance completing your application, please book a time here to receive help and ask questions.
Parks and Recreation Volunteer Opportunities
Did you know there are more than 163 parks in Ann Arbor? That's a lot of parks! GIVE 365 is the Parks and Recreation Volunteer and Outreach Program. This program works with volunteers to make improvements and enhancements to the Ann Arbor Parks system, including recreation facilities and special events. In addition, the Natural Area Preservation team takes care of the natural areas in our parks and hosts volunteer opportunities in these natural areas. Sign up to volunteer with GIVE 365 by emailing [email protected].
