OSCAR

Since the December 13 public launch to “Green the Knowledge District,” a core team of dedicated partners from the City of Providence, URI and Brown led by Betsy Loucks of OSCAR have been meeting weekly, building the pilot, making connections, creating curriculum, securing valuable data resources, investigating funding resources and inviting expertise to accelerate the pilot.  Today, March 4th, they even submitted a collaborative “long shot” preliminary application in response to HUD RFP to support the 2nd phase of the pilot. (Keep your fingers crossed.)

This team has done all this work with no cash, but pure RI talent – utilizing the strengths and relationships of this state. It is a cohesive and collaborative team that brings individual agendas to the table, but they share values about this state and its potential. And with these shared values, they found a way to share a vision.

These OSCAR values are contagious. The support from the city and around the state for the GKD effort has been outstanding — with “Sustainability Experts” from diverse fields of energy, transportation, urban planning, demography, GIS, architecture, sociology, anthropology, and public health, all lending a hand to keep this pilot moving.

OSCAR looks forward to keeping our supporters updated on GKD progress. And we look forward to sharing its outcomes in early summer so that you may find a way to get involved in GKD 2.0.  Thank you to all who have shared support. Catch the Wave of Innovation!