Welcome to WARE-EAST TAMPA, an East Tampa - University of South Florida partnership dedicated to building environmental awareness in East Tampa.

The project started in 2008 under an EPA P3 award around stormwater pond projects that involve local K3-8 schools, USF departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Architecture, USF Engineers for a Sustainable World and the Health, Education and Social Services Committee in East Tampa (Figure 1 shows the original vision and Figure 2 shows the existing and proposed partnerships).

Florida established a system to reinvigorate communities in which 50% of property is in disrepair, that requires that any additional increase in tax revenue collected by the city or county go into a kitty that is used to reinvest in the community. The East Tampa Community Revitalization Partnernship serves as an organizational medium for the area's 13 different neighborhood groups. Although the city has fiduciary responsibility for how money is used, the partnership has a lot to say about how funds are invested. The stormwater beautification project was one of the first funded and involved the redesign of 3 stormwater pond areas so that they became community friendly open areas as opposed to "eyesores where rubbish was dumped".

Prof. Trent Green from USF's department of architecture was contracted to redesign the areas and to date (March 2009), one pond has been completed (Fair Oaks Lake) and one is under development. The close proximity of the ponds to local schools provided a natural fit for building curriculum around the ponds that provided a field site location for students to not only learn about science and engineering, but to also provide a "service" to the community through monitoring and interventions to maintain pond health.

Figure 1: Partnership interactions, March 2009.

Figure 2: Partnership interactions proposed, August 2008