Sustainability groups announce new partnership
HEAL Utah and Sweet Streets join forces
July 22, 2020, Salt Lake City, UT – Today, the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) and Sweet Streets announced their official organizational partnership in which HEAL Utah became the fiscal and administrative sponsor of Sweet Streets.
In this capacity, HEAL Utah will provide Sweet Streets with administrative services as we work together on common strategies focused on air quality and sustainability. The organizations will collaborate closely in seeking financial resources for this work and develop common policy and programmatic goals.
Sweet Streets is a newly formed advocacy group, although their members have been working on urban design issues in Salt Lake City for the past few years. Sweet Streets educates and advocates for people-first planning, budgeting, implementation, and operation of streets and public spaces. Their campaigns are intended to promote safety, connect neighborhoods street by street, promote equity for all residents, and build a more sustainable city.
“If about 80% of public space in cities is streets, Sweet Streets works to ensure that those spaces are designed for everyone,” Taylor Anderson, a Sweet Streets co-founder, said. “Similar to how HEAL Utah formed twenty years ago, we are a grassroots movement started by local concerned citizens and families. This connection to HEAL Utah’s past, and all the lessons they’ve learned as they’ve grown, will help steer Sweet Streets toward success.”
“As we’ve started to develop campaigns around Smart Growth America principles, we saw the need for state level policies but also more localized, granular grassroots work,” Dr. Scott Williams, Executive Director of HEAL Utah, explained. “And Sweet Streets does just that. Their mission fits naturally within HEAL’s ongoing efforts to reduce emissions and improve sustainability. We are excited to be partnering with Sweet Streets in this new way and excited about the positive changes this organization will achieve.”
About the Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah: The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah) has been an environmental advocacy organization, watchdog, and strategic public policy influencer in Utah since 1999. By empowering grassroots advocates, using science-based solutions, and developing common-sense policy, HEAL has a track record of tackling some of the biggest threats to Utah’s environment and public health — and succeeding. The organization focuses on clean air, energy and climate, and radioactive waste. HEAL uses well-researched legislative, regulatory, and individual responsibility approaches to create tangible change, and then mobilizes grassroots action to make it happen. www.healutah.org.
About Sweet Streets: Sweet Streets was founded in spring 2020 to focus on the planning, budgeting, implementation and operation of people-first streets and public spaces in Salt Lake City. It seeks to connect the dots between our built environment and its effect on our neighborhoods, economy and natural environment. http://sweetstreetsslc.org/
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