Help Plenitud Impact At-Risk Youth in Puerto Rico

Plenitud has worked with at-risk youth throughout Puerto Rico since 2010, by helping to create productive and beautiful gardens in schools and communities, integrating vegetable gardening into curriculums, and offering workshops and educational tours at our Teaching Center in Las Marias, PR. It has been rewarding and inspiring to see the students participating in Plenitud's programs gain confidence in themselves and look ahead to a brighter future of possibilities.

Please help us to extend our efforts to positively impact the youth in 2017! With your support, we can design and install a new school garden and offer a series of workshops and weekend educational camping trips for at-risk youth.  Your contribution will help us to buy gardening supplies and tools (soil amendments, plants, etc.) for the school garden, create and install permanent educational signs, and offer healthy food and educational programs and activities to the youth participants.

Building on collaboration with the local municipal government, a new school vegetable garden will be designed with the input of the teachers, administration, and students.  Plenitud's approach is guided by Permaculture, an inter-disciplinary design system that mimics nature in design while creating productive, edible gardens.

Once the plans are finalized, Plenitud’s outreach team and network of volunteers will work alongside students and teachers to install the new vegetable gardens, providing technical oversight, soil amendments and plants, tools, and lots of encouragement.

Students from the local school and other outreach sites in Aguadilla and Mayaguez, PR will be offered a series of workshops and educational activities, including site visits, healthy meals, and weekend educational camping trips to our Teaching Center in the rural mountain town of Las Marias.

Many of the youth that we work with are at a high risk of dropping out of school.  In Puerto Rico, youth that drop out of school before graduation are more at risk of unemployment, engaging in criminal activity, alcoholism and drug addiction.  Plenitud’s outreach efforts help at-risk youth to rise above these socio-economic challenges by engaging them in productive and healthy activities and by providing them with training and certifications in agriculture, sustainability, and food preparation. 

Participants in Plenitud’s outreach programs benefit from more than just the practical skills that they learn; they discover new inspiration and motivation to succeed in school, build self-esteem, and spend time working with and sharing with good role models.  With some loving support and encouragement, these kids can transcend the challenges and limitations they face and mature to be healthy, productive, and socially-aware members of society.