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How We WorkGreat Rivers Greenway operates within a unique, complex, innovative and always-evolving collaborative model.
The original concept for our agency was to build the greenways and to have the landowners and municipal or institutional partners operate and maintain them day to day. In a region with 3 counties and about 120 towns, this is complicated. Partners have a wide range of budgets, capacity, knowledge, equipment and laws. Over the last 15 years, we’ve heard from the community that it’s not enough to just build, we need to promote and sustain the greenways, too.
Engage
We work with literally hundreds of partners to engage the community to plan, design and build the greenways, including their public opening celebrations. Our community engagement process includes a wide range of activities and partnerships. We also have partners that help to support bringing the greenways to life through federal grant applications, in-kind resources and private investment. (Learn more about our Great Rivers Greenway Foundation here)
Promote
We work with partners to promote the greenways, ranging from collaborating with content experts like St. Louis Audubon for free programs to constituent groups like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce for cross-promotion.
Sustain
Our partnerships to take care of the greenways vary, just like our partners do. We have developed Level of Care Guidelines to lay out exactly what is expected, and we have a Lifecycle Cost-Analysis to help estimate the budgets for that work.
We take some responsibilities on directly, such as signage or major repair/replacement. We offer workshops and trainings to our partners to support their efforts. To ensure that any given greenway visitor has an excellent experience no matter where they are, we also support our partners with our own staff, vendors and volunteers. We’re even piloting an Adopt-A-Greenway program as we continue to determine how best to take care of the greenways in an equitable way.
Our Partners
Some of the many partners we work with include:
- Municipalities and other public agencies (local, state and federal)
- Utilities and railroads
- Neighborhood residents, organizations and leaders
- Small businesses, corporations, chambers of commerce
- Nonprofit and community organizations, service providers
- Philanthropic foundations and donors
- Educational institutions
- Places of worship
- Anyone else in our community