Cleaning & Greening

Thanks to a lot of hard work by OARC volunteers, partners and staff, the seeds of change are spreading throughout the Northwest. We have worked hard to make West Oak Lane and other communities in the Northwest among Philadelphia's greenest communities—which means a community that's more livable, more attractive and more valuable.

Look around and you'll see hundreds of new trees throughout our neighborhoods and reclaimed green space like the one on Haines Street. Even our traffic islands sport a bit of green these days. And it was all orchestrated through a partnership with Awbury Arboretum's innovative landscaping training program that employs local apprentices to tend to the community's green spaces.

When it comes to all the cleaning and greening work we've done, we don't have to brag. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society did it for us when they awarded OARC's Northwest Greening Initiative with numerous prizes for excellence in their 2006 City Gardens contest.