Second Chance, an organization in Baltimore, MD is aptly named for their faith in second chances for both buildings and people. Second Chance works with local and regional architects, builders and contractors to find old buildings that are facing demolition. Using public and private funds, they rescue wood, metal, marble, plaster, stone and other architectural pieces and give those items new life while diverting them from the landfill.
Training low-income residents of Baltimore in a wide array of skills – including carpentry and craftsmanship – Second Chance creates local jobs and teaches their workers to safely deconstruct a building without damaging its historic elements. These skilled workers make a living wage with benefits for themselves and their families.
Second Chance provides flavor for the increasingly homogenous housing stock that dominates today’s tract housing communities. Architectural elements can have new life as something completely different from their originally intended use. Some old doors can become a room divider and an old section of fence, a headboard for a bed. Second Chance epitomizes the Green Collar Jobs movement that is taking hold across the U.S., strengthening local job markets and helping to alleviate environmental woes.
Second Chance also has a training program in Philadelphia, PA, and Washington, DC.
Stacey Meinzen has a broad range of experience in climate change policy. From her work with ICLEI doing a municipal greenhouse gas inventory to her news coverage of climate change for Flex Your Power's e-Newswire, to her research on climate change policy for Green For All, she has absorbed a range of views and interests about the best way to deal with this complex issue. Her primary interest is in local solutions that can be executed with sound policy to support them. She founded ClimateActionPlans.com to highlight key green projects and the programs and policies that allow them to happen.