Urban Resources Initiative (URI) advances community-based land stewardship, environmental education, and urban forestry. Catalyzed by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, URI incorporated as an autonomous nonprofit in 1991 to be as responsive as possible to all of New Haven, not just the university. Its GreenSkills program provides jobs to high school students and ex-offenders who are paired with Yale graduate students to plant and maintain trees, thereby improving New Haven's street tree canopy. Its Community Greenspace project provides supplies, technical advice, and training to support the reclamation and maintenance of abandoned land in distressed urban neighborhoods. Since 1995, URI has completed more than 220 urban restoration projects in partnership with more than 1,000 community members on an annual basis.