Urban Garden Development Program
Latin American Youth Center
Washington, DC

Turning Trash Into Tomatoes
The Urban Garden Development Program turned the dirty, junk-filled backyard of the Latin American Youth Center’s Transitional Living Program (TLP) into a peaceful garden with vegetables, flowers, a gravel walkway, a basketball court, and a picnic area.

The mission of the Urban Garden Development Program was to create a beautification project for the TLP facility. (TLPs are funded in part through Family and Youth Services Bureau grants.) The Urban Garden project joined together Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) staff, community youth, and local residents in planning, designing, and building a unique urban garden.

The backyard of this TLP center was a place where garbage was dumped, and it was infested with hundreds of rats. The needs were twofold: first, to bring people from different backgrounds together to work on a common community project and second, to provide the youth in the TLP a real-life experience of team building and community action.

More than 50 young people (ages 14 to 25) from the community were involved in the idea, design, development, work, and ribbon cutting. All youth were from the inner city and either were involved in either the TLP, or LAYC’s YouthBuild program, or were volunteers from the local community. (YouthBuild is a program that works with young people to help them achieve their GEDs or high school diplomas and learn construction skills on projects in low-income communities.) The project lasted a year and was completed on 10 individual dates.

Cultivating the Plan
TLP youth explained to the YouthBuild participants what kind of backyard they wanted. YouthBuild members then split up into groups with architects and architecture students from a local university. After 2 hours of team building and designing, each team presented its version of an “urban garden” to the entire group of TLP residents, community residents, and YouthBuild participants. In the end, a final design was drawn using unique aspects from each group’s original design. Once the final design was approved, work days were scheduled when TLP residents, participants, community residents, and LAYC staff worked together to build the garden.

Planting the Seeds of Partnership
Decisions were made collectively, by including youth at every level—from the idea stage all the way to the implementation of the project and the grand opening of the garden. There was partnering between youth and adults all along. Adults in the group acted as participatory leaders. The adults provided direction, advice, resources, and leadership to the youth so they could learn the process of design, development, and implementation of a project, as well as how to stage a grand opening.

A Garden for Everyone
The activity was successful because more than 50 youth were involved from beginning to end. Everyone stayed motivated and did their share of the work to make the garden a reality. Youth were visibly proud at the grand opening knowing that they made it happen. Youth learned how to plan, design, and build an urban garden. They acquired skills that they will be able to use in other settings and at other times.

The success of the Urban Garden Development Program benefits TLP residents, the neighborhood and community, and youth and adults who are enrolled in any course that is offered through the LAYC’s Art and Media House.

What Works

• Keep an open mind.
• Build successful youth-adult partnerships.
• Secure community involvement.
• Establish clear expectations by each group.
• Make sure the “youth voice” is heard (tokenism cannot exist).

Spread the Word
Several community events have been held around the use of this space. Community leaders have been given tours of the renovated area. People from the community who were involved at different stages of the project told friends and coworkers about it. The garden grows!

Turning a blighted space into a garden can happen anywhere. Steps to take include:

1. Identify your project: A garden at a specific site? Street clean-up? Tree planting?

2. Get your local organization or group involved (school, afterschool organization, faith group, learn and serve class, etc.).

3. Do some research into environmental groups or local governments that do these kinds of projects.

4. Seek partnerships with other organizations, such as YouthBuild, who already have expertise and often are looking for new work relationships and projects.

5. Seek grants and funding. Learn who in your community can mentor you in this particular process: there are resources that list available grants and people who know where to find them. Seek donations from stores (hardware, plant and garden, etc.). They may want to join you in the project as part of their commitment to the community. Remember, when you “grow” a project like this, it takes many hands and lots of care!

Funding
A private funder paid for the project.