The Ubuntu Green Graffiti Garden (SEE VIDEO LINK IN 1st TEXT BOX)

Our Organization Ubuntu Green is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to promoting healthy, sustainable and equitable communities through advocacy, education, and community empowerment, through partnerships, to increase public health, cleaner and safer environments, improve access to healthy food access, and greater economic stability to underserved communities. Ubuntu is an ethic or humanist philosophy emphasizing community, sharing and generosity. The concept of Ubuntu is used in the political sphere to emphasize the need for unity or consensus in decision-making, as well as the need for a suitably humanitarian ethic to inform those decisions. The word has its origin in the Bantu languages of Southern African and as a traditional African concept. Our Project The GYLT wants to build an edible, urban “Graffiti Garden” on a vacant lot in South Sacramento. The Graffiti Garden will use graffiti style art created by youth to illustrate the purpose and importance of healthy food, community change and growth. The GYLT believes that the Graffiti Garden will help to make healthy food more accessible in a style that is relevant and appealing to urban youth. First, a youth led project will help the team (and all the youth involved) develop leadership skills, learn to plan and implement projects, budgeting, public speaking and community organizing skills, the Graffiti Garden will provide a year long space for youth and community members to congregate, work together and maintain. Third, gardens can have a “ripple effect” in promoting community change. Gardens increase access to healthy food, provide a civic space where people can come together and talk about issues in their community and work towards positive change. Gardens can also help people develop a stronger connection to nature. They encourage growth and change. Action Plan Two thousand dollars will be used to get Ubuntu Green’s Graffiti Garden project off the ground. The garden will be one part of a youth led garden initiative sponsored by Ubuntu Green. The project and corresponding program will unfold in 5 phases. Step 1 By working in partnership with the Sacramento City Council, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, community-based organizations and private land-owners, Ubuntu Green has been given permission to build community garden’s on several vacant lots in South Sacramento. The youth team will tour the lots and decide which site is best for the garden based on their needs. Small caveat: one of the most desirable locations for the organization and potentially for the youth team is behind a corner store in the South Oak Park (see photo). This corner store, which had stopped selling liquor, is one of the few in the neighborhood that is already selling fresh produce and also hosts a weekly farm stand in front of the store. The youth could potentially sell their produce at the store and farm stand in the future. Step 2 Next, the youth will organize a community clean-up of the site. Ubuntu Green is connected to youth in the area through the Youth Development Network (http://www.ydnetwork.org/), Sacramento Building Healthy Communities, Boys and Girls Club of Sacramento, Asian Resources Inc., La Familial and the Sacramento Youth Leadership Program (SYLP). The youth team will be in charge of recruiting other youth, planning and executing the community clean-up. They will organize volunteers, order and purchase refreshments and advertise and direct the clean-up. They will also inform the community about their next steps and action plan for the future at the end of the clean-up in order to sustain and increase community engagement. Faith, Ubuntu Green’s intern and applicant and Ashley, Ubuntu Green’s Program Director, will support the youth team and help to facilitate this process. Step 3 After the clean-up, the youth will work with local artists through the Sol Collective (http://www.solcollective.org/) to create “graffiti style” interpretive signs and a mural for the garden. (Don’t worry: during their training, a distinction will be made between graffiti as art and graffiti as vandalism. The GYLT) Using graffiti style art, the youth will create signs that convey positive messages about growth and change to help illustrate the purpose of the garden and hopefully inspire passerby’s to get involved in the project. Funds from this grant will help to pay of the supplies and training to make the interpretive signs and mural and for the community clean-up. Step 4 At the end of the summer, the youth will work with Faith and Ashley to create a future vision for the garden. They will participate in three “visioning workshops” to design the landscape and create a plan for their sustained engagement throughout the school year. Step 5 Ubuntu Green will leverage existing funds through it’s Home and Community Garden Program to help the youth implement their plan. Faith and Ashley will also be applying for other grants to help fund the garden and potentially a youth farm stand in the future.