Who We Are
Baltimore Green Space, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was founded in 2007 by a group of community gardeners who wanted to see their communities’ treasured open spaces remain available to residents.
Mission
Baltimore Green Space is a land trust that partners with communities to preserve and support community gardens, pocket parks, and other community-managed open spaces. We aim to protect the social and environmental benefits that residents create through their sweat equity investments in their neighborhoods.
Founder and Executive Director
In 2004, Miriam Avins and her neighbors started the Homestead Harvest Community Garden as an organic, cooperative garden serving the Better Waverly neighborhood. The garden turned an abandoned vacant lot that attracted drug use into a place of beauty and peace that provides fresh produce for about a dozen families. In 2006, when the garden was threatened by a possible sale of the lot, Miriam began researching how to preserve open spaces managed by neighborhoods. In 2007, she and three other community gardeners founded Baltimore Green Space, and Miriam was awarded an Open Society Institute Community Fellowship to develop the land trust.
Miriam Avins
Board of Directors
- Anne Blumenberg, President
- Anita Stewart-Hammerer, Vice President
- Mary Cox, Treasurer
- Roberta Strickler, Secretary
- Christoper Buzby
- Denise Duvall
- William Doane
- Charles Edelen
- Emily Finton
- Benjamin Kelley
- Gary Letteron
- Glenn Ross
- Kurt Schiller
Partners and Funders
- Abell Foundation
- Baltimore City
- Baltimore Community Foundation
- Baltimore Ecosystem Study
- Land Trust Alliance
- Maryland Environmental Trust
- Open Society Institute
- Parks & People Foundation
A young gardener at Duncan Street Miracle Garden, protected since 2010.
