This summer, I helped create a garden with youth at Harbour House. Cucumbers took the place of ice cream cones, tomatoes the place of store bought apples. In a neighborhood where some would note cycles of violence and young parenthood, there are 30+ young people destined for greatness who dedicated themselves to building a garden and community space called Our Garden.
Gifted and motivated, hungry to build their skills and create, these kids are ready to realize impactful projects across The City of Annapolis.
Joy Grows’ Growing Leaders Program provides opportunities and mentorship. Youth realize their abilities undertaking projects to improve their community’s wellness. Building their skills in collaboration with mentors. Our work to create neighborhood food systems gives opportunity for many levels of purposeful youth engagement and leadership. We invest in youth while creating projects with ongoing impact and high capital efficiency.
Good food is the foundation of our activities. A dollar invested into building community farms yields many dollars of fresh vegetables along with pride, purpose and skill building. Growing Leaders is an even stronger investment. Investing in youth empowerment will bring us the amount of skilled change-makers needed to transform our city into one where everyone not just has their basic needs met but has the opportunity to thrive.
“We have the ingredients.” Working in rhyme is standard for our hands-on activities. The exciting, potentially transformative question is “what happens when its youth led?” From my perspective, youth leadership is our path to a great future.
