Here’s a sneak peak at new city-approved litter education stickers that were created by a group of Weinland Park residents working in collaboration with researchers from The Ohio State University College of Public Health on a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project entitled On Our Soil.  These stickers (after minor editing) will go on trash bins throughout Weinland Park sometime soon.

Special thanks for this sticker go to Laura Bidwa, Antonio Barno, Susan Colbert, Jim Bach, The Neighborhood Design Center and all the wonderful people who provided feedback at our annual Weinland Park Community Festival in the park.

This litter educational sticker is part of a project called On Our Soil, a title suggested by Chris Orban, Chair of the Mobility Committee of the Weinland Park Community Civic Association. On Our Soil is focused on creating shared vocabulary between experts and laypeople regarding litter and brownfields.  We have two major brownfields in Weinland Park: one is the former Columbus Coated Fabrics site on Grant Avenue and the other is the Auld/3M site on 4th Street.

So, given the ongoing development at these sites, the community choose to focus Public Health research on litter and brownfields.  Both the topic and the outcome were chosen and developed by the community in collaboration with the researchers from the College of Public Health who practice Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR).

CBPR is a type of research that establishes an equal partnership between community and research experts and On Our Soil is a great example of living that aim.  From the title and research to the outcomes and deliverables, like this sticker, community members have been involved as equal partners along the way.  It is, after all, literally our soil.

This unique partnership also includes a recent trip to the National Outreach Scholarship Conference where not only was On Our Soil featured both as a workshop and a presentation facilitated by community resident Evelyn Van Til and researcher from the College of Nursing Rosemary Chaudry, but also honored long time tireless advocate and community partner Susan Colbert, who won a national award for her work at Weinland Park’s OSU Extension.

Together, in collaboration, we will all make a difference On Our Soil.