URBAN GARDEN PROJECT KICKOFF

This half day event themed “Cultivating Flourishing Relationships through Urban Gardening” is hosted in collaboration with Sunshine Gospel Ministries, Vernon Garden Park, Chicago Eco House, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary MA in Public Ministry degree program.

During the event, young people and adults will engage in interactive dialogues and activities designed to center urban gardening as a practice of social justice that cultivates flourishing relationships as care of self, respect of land, responsibility of community, and knowledge of history.

Here's what to expect:

9:30 am

Arrivals & Registration

10 am

Welcome Message from Off the Pews & Vernon Park Garden Neighborhood Council Members

10:30 am

Workshop “Community within Gardens: Who is in my garden and where does my food come from?” |

Facilitated by Audra Hudson and Josh Richardson, MA in Public Ministry Candidates at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Public Ministry Program.

This workshop focuses on the interactions between humans and food systems. Participants will learn how food grown in gardens can help build healthy relationships between humans and non-human members of a community. This workshop will highlight different plants and animals living in the community garden, what makes those plants and animals special, and how we can have healthy relationships with them. Participants will also learn how global agricultural systems disconnect individuals from the food we eat. We will follow the journey of an apple from orchard to grocery stores, learning about how global agricultural systems can produce unhealthy relationships with food and the animals that sustain agricultural production.

11:45 am

Lunch | Music | Community Fellowship

12:30 pm

Workshop "Me & My Herbs: Play, explore, craft and dance to the healing properties of herbs.

Facilitated by Olivia Ashé, Mdiv Canidate & Qiddist Ashé, Co-Founders of Ashé Living, LLC.

This workshop will invite the youth to explore the healing properties of different herbs through sensory observation, hands on engagement and facilitated conversation. Followed by the exploration of four different herbs the youth will have the opportunity to use their knowledge to work with each plant directly via planting and making herbal sachets that the youth will be able to take home with them. The collective knowledge that is generated through these interactions with the herbs will be captured in a zine that is created by the youth. This zine project will be continued throughout the summer program facilitated by Olivia as a community based entrepreneurial project. The goal is to have a zine by the end of the program that can be distributed for profit in the community highlighting all of the herbal and garden knowledge they have gained. The youth will collectively determine how they want o use their profit.

1:45 pm

A Word from Quilen Blackwell, founder of Chicago Eco House

Closing Ritual