CommUniverCity San José

a partnership for service, learning, and empowerment

PRESS RELEASE

Media Contacts:

Dayana Salazar, Executive Director · (408) 924-5854 · Dayana@cucsj.org
Terry Trumbull, LCV Endorsement Chairman · (650) 321-7538 · TerryT1011@aol.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 30, 2013

Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters Honors CommUniverCity San José as Environmental Organization of the Year.

San José, California – On Wednesday, October 23, 2013, the Santa Clara County chapter of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) will be honoring CommUniverCity San José as the Environmental Organization of the Year at the 20^th Annual Environmental Awards Program. LCV Endorsement Chairman Terry Trumbull nominated CommUniverCity San José for their advocacy with the Five Wounds Village and Friends of Five Wounds Trail program.

CommUniverCity San José collaborated with Five Wounds/ Brookwood Terrace (FWBT) residents, San José State University (SJSU) faculty and students, and land use, health and environmental organizations to integrate the FWBT community’s vision for a healthy, connected neighborhood into the City of San José’s Envision 2040 General Plan Update. In October 2011, the City of San José’s Envision 2040 Task Force approved the community’s urban village plans for inclusion into the City of San José’s Envision 2040 General Plan Update. Envision 2040 Task Force Co-Chair and San José Councilmember Sam Liccardo stated, “The Five Wounds Village plan will certainly be the first (of up to 70) village plans to be adopted as part of the new general plan, and it will be a model for planning other villages.” Four detailed urban village plans were developed in close collaboration with the City’s Planning Department for integration into the General Plan.

Lisa Krieger of SJSU Washington Square wrote, “The efforts of student-faculty-community teams have contributed an estimated $1.8 million worth of volunteer labor to this modest neighborhood. They seek to convert the abandoned railway into a lovely trail. A busy bus stop needs “streetscaping” to be more inviting. Parents and children want safer routes to walk to school. Someday, they hope, a village of shops, cafés, and public gathering places will cluster around a future BART station” (Krieger, “Healing Five Wounds,” Washington Square Fall 2011).

CommUniverCity’s partnership with the San José Rail to Trails Task Force (now Friends of Five Wounds Trail) led to the successful advocacy to designate the abandoned railroad right-of-way in the Five Wounds/ Brookwood Terrace neighborhoods for inclusion in the Envision 2040 draft general plan as “parkland/ open space,” achieving the primary goal of the task force. Friends of Five Wounds Trail is now established as an ongoing community group and the city, county, and VTA now recognize the goal of converting the railroad right-of-way into a trail. Three trail walk and clean-ups have been completed and an additional clean-up is planned. Community advocates participated in a workshop with the national Rails-to-Trail Conservancy and are now focused on funding acquisition of land for the trail.

For more information about the award, please contact Terry Trumbull at (650) 321-7538. Attendees are suggested to make a minimum donation of $50.00, with checks made to SCCLCV and mailed to SCCLCV, P.O. Box 2079, San José CA 95109-2079 or through PayPal at: http://www.scclcv.org. Contributions are not tax-deductible. For more information, call Chris Elias at 408-861-5599 or email eliascc@hotmail.com.

CommUniverCity San José believes that everyone deserves to live in vibrant, healthy, and engaged communities. Every day we work with residents to develop great neighborhoods by engaging residents and students in service-learning projects that accomplish neighborhood-driven goals through a cross-sector partnership with the City of San José, Central San José neighborhoods, and San José State University. For more information about CommUniverCity San José visit www.cucsj.org.

—–

Download our Press Release and share with your communities.

Below is the flyer (front and back) for the 20th Environmental Awards and Fundraiser Event hosted by the Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters: