Irvington Green Initiatives

The Irvington Green Initiative (IGI)

P.O. Box 19714 Indianapolis, IN 46219

A project of the Irvington Development Organization (IDO) which takes an apolitical, positive approach toward encouraging people to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. In 2010, the Irvington Green Initiative took the idea of building Relationships to a Radical level by partnering with over 40 groups, organizations and businesses to accomplish 3 major goals:

·        Develop a Teaching Rain Garden

·        Produce a Spirit and Place Festival event

·        Launch the monthly 'Green Hour' grass roots engagement and networking series

Through Radical Relationship Building and the successful accomplishment of these goals, IGI made the leap from a 2-year-old, once-in-a-while gathering of a few neighbors into an organization that successfully applied for grant funding; partnered with City agencies and local schools and businesses; and leveraged public and private money into the development of 1,500 square foot educational rain garden project, the largest Spirit and Place Festival event in 2010 (both of which have been submitted for Indianapolis Sustainability Awards) and a monthly event that eclipses the success of similar events organized by an international green organization. All in all, IGI engaged 150 different volunteers and measured total event attendance for the year at over 1,200 with a regular monthly attendance at our Green Hour averaging over 30.

About the SkillShare Festival

The original SkillShare was the Irvington Green Initiative’s 2010 Spirit and Place Festival event and was the largest attended of the Festival’s 2010 offerings. The group connected communities and organizations by creating an event, in cooperation with over 20 collaborative partners and organizations, on November 7, 2010. The Irvington SkillShare ‘Feast’ival was a groundbreaking Spirit and Place Festival event that offered 17 “garden to kitchen” skill demonstrations.

The ‘Feast’ival emphasized creative ways the average urban resident might use the land they have to become more self-reliant from the garden to the kitchen. Intended to share the wealth of knowledge that we have in our own back yard and empower people to try these skills at home, the event was attended by over 800 people who enthusiastically took notes, snapped photos, and engaged in conversations with presenters and other attendees. As in a pitch-in dinner, there was a place at the table for everyone. Even children got in on the fun, sampling food, touching worms, and checking out the chickens.

Contact Information: 

317-260-0669 info@irvingtondevelopment.org