The Keystone Project

The Keystone Project organizes three critical community stakeholders for environmental justice: Faith Leaders, Research Institutions and K-12 Schools. This collaboration engages in community-based research for the betterment of underserved citizens and their environments in Baltimore City. These efforts occur on private land owned by churches and engage researchers looking to answer ecological questions. These spaces serve as a safe urban space for nature-based experiential learning for students in public, private, and parochial schools. The ecumenical approach to stewardship in place-based nature provides opportunities for the community stakeholders, to activate sacred spaces for learning.

Program Details 

Keystone Project Yearly Engagements 

Every year, the Keystone Project works closely with 5-7 Faith Leaders to engage them with EJ work in Baltimore City. Through this program, participating faith leaders learn more about ecology and cultivate the knowledge base to better collaborate with systems. The program includes a symposium, planning meeting, and faith leader roundtable. We are working with the science team to integrate tools for urban green infrastructure and accessible climate change analysis tools into programming. These tools will equip a powerful but often neglected set of potential climate leaders, while simultaneously enhancing the depth and rigor of climate and EJ programming included in these Keystone activities to emphasize focus areas on urban flooding and accessible climate analysis systems.

Community-Based Participatory Science Events 

Keystone reaches a broader group of community members and students through its community-based participatory science events, many of which are organized, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). We hold 4 community-based science events on community climate solutions with a focus on resilience. 

Sacred Trinity Map 

The Sacred Trinity Map is a proposed online data collection and stewardship platform. It will show the impact of the collaboration, collect and analyze data and provide the community with culturally responsive information about research outcomes. This project is a work in progress. We have collaborated with Dexter Locke from the USDA Forest Service Baltimore Field Station.

Sacred Trinity Map

The Sacred Trinity Map is an asset map that shows participatory research locations showing faith institutions, schools, and forest patches.