Terra Firma

Terra Firma is a five-year initiative by Emerald South to beautify, maintain, and activate over 400 acres of vacant lots on Chicago’s mid-South Side. The project’s goals are to Clean, Green, Beautify, Activate, Own and Develop vacant lots, seeing them as valuable resources. In their process, they employe adults & youth, support community activation, and provide local contract partnerships while stabilizing lots. Terra Firm reveived 50 million in funding from organizations such as The Chicago Community Trust and Citibank and the work is in partnership with other community orgs like Elevated Chicago and Chicago Ecohouse. This impressive initiative showcases the incredible possibilities vacant lots hold throughout various levels of engagement. More About This Project »