The Initiative is partnering with The Conservation Fund, Gateway Community Development Corporation of Henderson, Pinkston Street Elementary School, the Black Family Trust Fund, and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to save the environment and help communities understand the importance protecting our water quality.

The collaborative partnership is supporting a partnership is supporting a project to permanently protect a one-acre parcel of wetland in Henderson. The tract is located in the A.L. Harris Estates, residential neighborhood developed by Gateway CDC. The land contains a forest cover of pine and hardwood trees and other wetland vegetation. Waters from Rock Spring flow through the property to Swift Creek, into the Tar River Basin. A major part of the funding for the project comes from a $15,500 grant from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund. The money will support the construction of recreational trails on the wetland site as well as environmental education signage and programming. Educational programs will also be developed to serve as an outdoor classroom on the grounds of nearby Pinkston Street Elementary School. Gateway CDC is committed to working with teachers and the Museum of Natural Sciences to implement the on-site elements.

"Together we are blended community development techniques and environmental protection techniques which we believe are creating new models for rural communities across the country", says Initiative president Ebonie Alexander. Bill Hollman, Executive Director of Clean Water management Trust Fund, which awarded the mini-grant says the state fund has invested nearly $600 million in projects around the state. " We're proud to partner in this project. It will not only protect our water and environment, it will bring a tremendous economic boost to the local economy."