Outreach Tulane Tips the Block

Outreach Tulane, Tulane University’s largest community service project where nearly 1,000 student volunteers serviced the New Orleans community, gave way to the initiation of Green Light New Orleans’s very own Tip the Block. The event, which was held on August 28, 2010, assigned 100 volunteers to Green Light to participate in Tip the Block in the Hollygrove neighborhood.

Despite the torrential rain, the Outreach Tulane volunteers headed out to Hollygrove, a neighborhood that has had great participation in our free light bulb program. By communicating with the neighborhood leaders, we were able to find those who have not participated in the light bulb program and give them our services. During the installation process, Green Light volunteers informed residents about other energy efficient, green measures and took inventory of the community’s needs and sustainable goals, thus beginning the first Tip the Block program.

Tip the Block is an initiative that helps neighborhoods become Green – one block at a time. Now that Green Light New Orleans has reached 1-3 homes in almost every block in the city, strong ties and close networks have been developed within the community. This gives Green Light an opportunity to support community members even further, and Tip the Block allows us to do so. We have transitioned some of our installations to a block-by-block system, where we install CFLs in entire blocks to involve residents in making New Orleans green. As an initial step we “tip” one block, which helps to “tip” the next block. Enough tipped blocks will eventually tip the neighborhood.

Green Light New Orleans sees great potential for the Tip the Block program and hopes that many neighborhoods follow Hollygrove in the movement to make New Orleans green – one block at a time.

Blog post written by Kelly Sharkey.