there's something moving about bringing rebirth to a community starting with its soil, with the foundation beneath its feet, with the source from which it grows. do you see the parallels of growth within your organization/community coming alongside the creation of this soil? and how do you anticipate its change?
I do see the parallels, yes. We talk a lot about how soil building works as a pretty apt metaphor for the nature of the work that we're doing, and the kind of work that we see needing to be done. Your question gets at something I mentioned in the entry, about our work being both educative and empowering.
Let's talk first about education:
We view education as a capacity building effort. A large piece of the reality that we are facing in our neighborhood (and in New Orleans as a whole) is a debilitating lack of constructive options for young people. I got at that a little bit in the entry - the striking illiteracy rates and how they run parallel with health, employment, income, access to housing. To keep it short and (not so) sweet, I'll just say that Louisiana historically ranks last in the nation for education and first for incarceration. The average prisoner in Louisiana enters with a 5th grade education.
This is one of the major reasons that we're working with youth, because they deserve options. Besides operating an school during normal hours, we serve as an informal afterschool program for neighborhood kids. They come to Our School in the afternoons because, well, it's fun, but also because there isn't really anything else to do. So, we garden, play freeze tag, imagine what we'd like the neighborhood to look like in 5 years (more than one house per block, less 15 foot tallgrass and more food. jobs, a highschool perhaps).
Our students have come to us because they've been suspended, expelled, dropped out, or just haven't been to school since the storm. This is a tremendous issue in New Orleans. We work with these young people because deserve both an engaging and caring educational environment and the opportunity to see how much they can contribute to their community.
So we farm, not just because food access is rather nonexistent in the neighborhood, but because it's an incredible opportunity for youth to see the direct results of their diligence: by the time harvest roles around, they're operating the market that feeds their neighbors with food they've grown themselves.
Not to sound too corny, but to get back to the metaphor, we work at building the capacity of our youth because they are the soil of the neighborhood.
Now, to empowerment:
We say that development that is empowering creates opportunities for community members to contribute to and benefit from new, local urban systems and nurtures future stewards of vital community infrastructure.
This is where the literal act of soil building is key.
Work that is empowerment-driven creates avenues for youth, individual, and community self-reliance. By soil building, we are demonstrating the principles of sustainability and the potential of social enterprise.
We are building soil because it's both an incredible need and an incredible opportunity. The idea is fairly simple - we get waste for free, divert it from the dump, and turn it into healthy soil to grow healthy food and create a revenue stream. The very act of building soil allows us to grow food in greater quantity and of greater quality. But selling soil, and increasing our ability to do so, extends these benefits across the city AND increases our capacity as an organization to do the work that we're doing and more.
We need to pay our students for their work. That is huge. An effective soil building business will create a couple part time jobs for our students and a full time job for one of our neighbors. Just as important though, is that an effective soil building business will increase our capacity to grow food. Which means a healthier, more food secure community, and increased effectiveness and sustainability as an organization.
I hope that gets at your questions. I'm realizing right now just how much I wrote. Let me know if ya need any clarification, and please, ask more questions!
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there's something moving about bringing rebirth to a community starting with its soil, with the foundation beneath its feet, with the source from which it grows. do you see the parallels of growth within your organization/community coming alongside the creation of this soil? and how do you anticipate its change?
I do see the parallels, yes. We talk a lot about how soil building works as a pretty apt metaphor for the nature of the work that we're doing, and the kind of work that we see needing to be done. Your question gets at something I mentioned in the entry, about our work being both educative and empowering.
Let's talk first about education:
We view education as a capacity building effort. A large piece of the reality that we are facing in our neighborhood (and in New Orleans as a whole) is a debilitating lack of constructive options for young people. I got at that a little bit in the entry - the striking illiteracy rates and how they run parallel with health, employment, income, access to housing. To keep it short and (not so) sweet, I'll just say that Louisiana historically ranks last in the nation for education and first for incarceration. The average prisoner in Louisiana enters with a 5th grade education.
This is one of the major reasons that we're working with youth, because they deserve options. Besides operating an school during normal hours, we serve as an informal afterschool program for neighborhood kids. They come to Our School in the afternoons because, well, it's fun, but also because there isn't really anything else to do. So, we garden, play freeze tag, imagine what we'd like the neighborhood to look like in 5 years (more than one house per block, less 15 foot tallgrass and more food. jobs, a highschool perhaps).
Our students have come to us because they've been suspended, expelled, dropped out, or just haven't been to school since the storm. This is a tremendous issue in New Orleans. We work with these young people because deserve both an engaging and caring educational environment and the opportunity to see how much they can contribute to their community.
So we farm, not just because food access is rather nonexistent in the neighborhood, but because it's an incredible opportunity for youth to see the direct results of their diligence: by the time harvest roles around, they're operating the market that feeds their neighbors with food they've grown themselves.
Not to sound too corny, but to get back to the metaphor, we work at building the capacity of our youth because they are the soil of the neighborhood.
Now, to empowerment:
We say that development that is empowering creates opportunities for community members to contribute to and benefit from new, local urban systems and nurtures future stewards of vital community infrastructure.
This is where the literal act of soil building is key.
Work that is empowerment-driven creates avenues for youth, individual, and community self-reliance. By soil building, we are demonstrating the principles of sustainability and the potential of social enterprise.
We are building soil because it's both an incredible need and an incredible opportunity. The idea is fairly simple - we get waste for free, divert it from the dump, and turn it into healthy soil to grow healthy food and create a revenue stream. The very act of building soil allows us to grow food in greater quantity and of greater quality. But selling soil, and increasing our ability to do so, extends these benefits across the city AND increases our capacity as an organization to do the work that we're doing and more.
We need to pay our students for their work. That is huge. An effective soil building business will create a couple part time jobs for our students and a full time job for one of our neighbors. Just as important though, is that an effective soil building business will increase our capacity to grow food. Which means a healthier, more food secure community, and increased effectiveness and sustainability as an organization.
I hope that gets at your questions. I'm realizing right now just how much I wrote. Let me know if ya need any clarification, and please, ask more questions!
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