project leader
Jennifer R
location
Zion St
(Frog Hollow)
latest update rss
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the project

 

Summer of Solutions Hartford is a youth leadership development and food justice summer program for people ages 14-30. This summer our team of 20

young people learned leadership skills, urban farming, personal sustainability, community organizing, and social entrepreneurship through

formal training and hands-on learning! Each participant dedicated 20 hours per week to one of the projects outlined below:

 

1. El Jardin de Zion Street: Summer of Solutions Hartford is worked with members of the Frog Hollow and Somali-Bantu refugee communities to

re-open El Jardin de Zion Street for its second year. The garden offers plots to members to grow vegetables for their own use, and participants

were responsible for building plots, providing seeds, managing the garden and helping with upkeep.

 

2. The Annie Fisher Montessori School Garden: Summer of Solutions Hartford partnered with a local Montessori magnet school to help them with

their new school garden. Our program’s participants cultivated the garden over the summer, organized an educational curriculum for summer school

students and conducted an outreach campaign to involve the surrounding neighborhood.

 

3. Broad Street Community Garden: Summer of Solutions participants worked with Trinity College to construct a new community garden on Broad

Street in Frog Hollow and to make garden beds available to Trinity's neighbors.

 

4. Burns Elementary School Garden: Summer of Solutions Hartford participants worked with Frog Hollow's Burns Elementary School staff and

students to build and plant a school garden and an outdoor garden classroom and provided hands-on education opportunities for students through

gardening classes at the COMPASS after school program.

the steps

 

Offer opportunities and support for 20 youth ages 14-30 to work full-time in local food justice efforts

 

Offer a week of leadership and skills training to full-time and part-time participants

 

Work with our 4 partner organizations to plan summer work projects for teams of 4-8 participants

 

Work in teams with partner organizations throughout the summer to construct and manage two school gardens and two community gardens, conduct community

outreach efforts and organize community events and programs

 

Invite local experts and organizations to offer leadership and skills training to participants and community members throughout the summer,

including healthy eating, nutrition, personal sustainability, and urban farming.

 

Now we have built 4 gardens and our participants left the program with all the skills and experience they need to help build a healthy urban food

system in Hartford.

 

why we're doing it

 

According to the Hartford Health Survey of 2006, 17% of Hartford residents have diabetes, 12% have heart disease, and 30% have hypertension, which

correlate with unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle. Many factors limit residents’ access to healthy food and recreation. Many residents don’t have

cars and cannot access the produce at Stop & Shop, the only large grocery store in the city. Given that so many people are living below or just over

the poverty level, affordable and healthy food is often out of reach.

 

Local food systems provide important jobs, increase biodiversity, create pollinator habitats, establish safe green space for recreation, keep money

in the community, honor agricultural traditions, and offer nutritious wholesome foods that keep people healthy.

 

This summer we expanded the local food options available in Hartford by building two community gardens on Zion St and Broad St and two school

gardens at the Annie Fisher Montessori School and Burns Elementary School. Through these gardens, we engaged hundreds of community members in local

food production and healthy eating. We are using these exciting project opportunities to train 25 young people (75% of whom are from Hartford) in

urban agriculture and community organizing. When participants left our program, they had all the skills they needed to become agents of change in

our food system, including community organizing, media, gardening, cooking, nutrition, resource generation, leadership, and much more!

Conversation

Great job! Keep me in the loop. I have been talking this up to the other gardeners at Good Shepherd. We are excited to be involved.

budget

In order to make our program accessible to all youth and young adults, we provide need-based stipends to our full-time participants. $4,000 would provide 5 young people with enough financial aid to enable their full-time commitment to food justice work in Hartford.

Financial aid for 5 young people = $4,000

Third party credit card processing = $120

ioby materials and labor = $35

Total to raise = $4,155



RAISED = $3,697
ioby Platform Fee  $35
3rd Party Credit Card Processing Fee (3%) $107
TOTAL TO DISBURSE = $3,555

Updated budget

Our original budget was $4,000 for four stipends. The $3,555 budget will cover three and a half stipends, so we will make up the additional $445 through alternative fundraising means to provide the whole fourth stipend.

 

updates

Sorry, but this project doesn't have any updates yet.

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

  • Konrad C.
  • Stephen A.
  • Kerri L.
  • Rachel S.
  • Anonymous
  • Karen A.
  • Sophia H.
  • Karen G.
  • Olivia D.
  • Barry C.
  • Mindy B.
  • Paul P.
  • Tara E.
  • Gregory S.
  • David S.
  • Christopher B.
  • Gary R.
  • Colin B.
  • Susan S.
  • Deborah C.
  • Ryan S.
  • Bill S.
  • Elizabeth S.
  • Diane R.
  • Sepanta M.
  • Ioanida C.
  • Jackson K.
  • Harald N.
  • Elias J.
  • Michael M.
  • Carl C.
  • James C.
  • Harry Y.
  • Gary E.
  • Pablo B.
  • Joseph B.
  • Xin Er Q.
  • Frances Y.
  • Aroop M.
  • Pat R.
  • Brian K.
  • Tara A.
  • Max A.
  • Colin P.
  • Joseph B.
  • Kelsey S.
  • Joan W.
  • Emma H.
  • Gina D.
  • Louisa L.
  • Leland W.
  • Tara A.
  • Margaret B.
  • Richard R.
  • Spencer C.
  • Chris C.
  • Andrea L.
  • Ebony M.
  • Michael G.
  • Lillian C.
  • Emma F.
  • Erin G.
  • Samantha M.
  • Vasishth S.
  • Eric L.
  • Alexis C.
  • Ruby L.
  • Whitney S.
  • Heather W.
  • Eshani B.
  • Philip D.
  • Makaela K.
  • William U.
  • Robert M.
  • Allyson R.
  • Patricia H.
  • Jenna S.
  • Graham S.
  • Emilie D.
  • Carey M.
  • Natalia I.
  • Philip E.
  • Michael R.
  • Diane R.
  • Ruth M.
  • Raphaela L.
  • Courtney J.
  • Allyson R.
  • Kris S.
  • Joseph B.
  • Richard R.
  • Thomas F.
  • Margit B.
  • David S.
  • Andrew D.
  • ELIANETTE D.
  • William U.
  • Ruby L.
  • Daniel A.
  • Molly M.
  • Samantha B.
  • Patricia L.
  • Karen S.
  • Leora P.
  • Megan J.
  • Lynn G.
  • Patricia L.