IT TAKES A VILLAGE!
Phoenix Community Garden, in partnership with Richard Beavers Gallery, is pleased to launch a paid youth gardening internship this summer.
Click here to donate.
The Chickweed Alliance is our fiscal sponsor for this effort.
Our goal is to develop youth leaders in our neighborhood that are ready and able to take action on issues of food sovereignty, climate change, and environmental justice. The program is generously sponsored by an initial pledge of $10K from Richard Beavers Gallery. But we need your help to meet our goal of $25K!
What We Will Do
Participants will learn firsthand from community gardeners how to maintain and grow a healthy garden. Youth will work on a project in the garden that will involve gaining skills such as carpentry, composting, environmental stewardship, community organizing, and event management. Young people will engage in hands-on learning around environment, health, community development, leadership and social justice. Youth will meet three days a week, 15 hours a week, for six weeks. This program will be led by a DOE-certified teacher as well as garden members. Our goals are to:
Encourage academic learning through hands-on activities.
Develop practical, vocational and life skills.
Provide opportunities to serve and interact in our community.
Cultivate a safe and nurturing place for youth to interact.
Promote ecological awareness and responsibility.
Practice public speaking and leadership skills in culminating events
Why Is This Important
Growing up in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Ocean Hill/Brownsville has many challenges. According to the NYC Community Health Profile, 28% of residents live in poverty, compared with 20% of NYC residents overall. At the same time, the neighborhood is gentrifying, causing rent pressure that effectively cuts the food budgets of neighborhood families. According to a report from the Robin Hood Foundation, the rate of food hardship in Ocean Hill/Brownsville hovers around 60%.
Phoenix Community Garden is within the bounds of Community Board 16. Taken from the board's website: "According to the 2010-2012 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates, Ocean Hill-Brownsville is home to 122,114 people of whom 80% are Black, 18% of Hispanic origin, and 2% of other descent. The median household income is $30,504 and approximately 40% of the population receives income support.”
Along with poverty, the neighborhood is chronically experiencing an epidemic of diet-related disease, including diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. According to the CDC, obesity may triple the rate of hospitalization from Covid-19. Awareness of the benefits of fresh fruit and vegetables, combined with efforts to increase access to them, is a crucial step to creating a healthier neighborhood.
Finally, climate change promises to be a greater and greater issue in the neighborhood. According to the Thomas Reuters Foundation, “Research has shown that some of the areas producing a greater UHI [Urban Heat Island] effect in New York include the South Bronx, Hollis, Queens and Brownsville, Brooklyn. […] One of the main reasons for the greater heating in cities is buildings. They absorb much more heat than trees, grass and farmland, which better reflect the sun.” Clearly, community horticulture and the more widespread cultivation of urban gardens, street trees, and green roofs can be a crucial mitigator of some of the worse effects of climate change.
What We Need
Our goal is to raise $25K in order to give stipends to the youth, staff and to purchase materials, food and set up field trips. So far, we have raised 35% of our goal.
$20 - Contributes to internship stipends Contributes to gardening materials and tools
$50 - Contributes to internship stipends Contributes to lead teacher stipend
$200 - Covers the expenses for Friday lunch for youth Covers one guest facilitator
$500 - Covers printing of all t-shirts and certificates for youth. Covers expense of culminating ceremony. Contributes to overhead costs including book-keeping, community outreach and parental outreach
$1,000 - Covers the stipend for 6 guest facilitators to lead workshops for youth. Covers workshop supplies and tools Covers production and documentation of program through photography
