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Category Archives: Local Programs
LETS GO Chicago Mini-Documentary
Late last month, we teamed up with independent filmmaker Brendan Brown to produce this short video about our work building up the green economy in Chicago. The video was made for our online fundraising campaign on the FunderHut website, but also tells our story in general for those who are curious.
Watch the video and help us spread the word by sharing the links below on Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media. Here’s some suggested Facebook messages:
Check out this new video about solutionary green economy work taking place in Chicago and pass it on to friends in your networks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0O43X1tFQQ
Watch the video and support the work of young Chicago solutionaries taking back the economy with gardens, storm-water solutions, and a worker co-op in the making: http://funderhut.com/projects/view/donate-to-summer-of-solutions-2013-with-lets-go-chicago
Breaking Bread with One Another
Heidi, a program leader in East Tennessee has started a new job at Second Harvest and is blogging about her experience. Below is a recent post.
Unicoi, TN
Well, my worst fear happened today. The very first day of service we ran out of food. It was an easy fix, we survived and even managed to just be 15 minutes off schedule the whole day.
The drive home was particularly beautiful after a stressful day and I realized why I love it here so much. I realized why I love coming home no matter how far I’ve gone. It’s the view. Every where you turn rich blue hues and many shades of green dazzle your eyes. The mountains surround us in this fantastic hug. You can’t help but feel at peace and protected by the mountains. Continue reading
Returning to the Twin Cities
Graduation season has ended and school is wrapping up which means one thing for the Twin Cities Team, we held our first in person meeting since January Gathering. Patricia, Elizabeth, and I met at Ruby and Timothy’s house early last week to discuss our Training Week Schedule. It was good to see everyone back in Minneapolis again (except Aly who couldn’t make it). Plus, meetings in person are just so much more fun and productive than Skype meetings.
Some of the TC Team planning training week!
From Left: Patricia, Elizabeth, Timothy, and Maddie Continue reading
Soulardarity Taking it to the Next Level in Detroit
All good things must come to an end, and the Community Organizing grant from Grand Aspirations is no exception. But to quote another piece of folk wisdom, as one thing ends another begins, and that Soulardarity is very nearly prepared to launch into a fundraising campaign for a community-owned city-wide infrastructure project (and, hopefully, pay salaries) is evidence of this statement’s truth.
Brandon Knight, discussing a potential solar investment opportunity with these chickens
Let the Solutionary Summer Commence
By: Eli Shepherd from Iowa City Summer of Solutions
The end of fall marked the rekindling of planning and organization. Winter came and plans were made, the leadership team organized. January rolled around and said team journeyed to Chicago for several days of intensive and enlightening training. Spring brought both metaphorical April showers and May flowers as plans and programs were dreamed up, debated, shot down, and solidified. Participant applications and grants alike came sporadically. Now it all comes down to summer.
The turning of the calendar to June marks the start of the Summer of Solutions. So, while program leaders like myself, Nick, and Kate (our 2013 leadership team) are scrambling to master our trainings and tie down the loose ends before our June 10 start date here in sunny, flooded Iowa City, I thought I would share an anecdote and a recipe from here in Iowa City! Continue reading
H4G Detroit helps plan for the future.
The Community Strategic Framework Planning Sessions of NE Detroit lays down foundation for the future.
Reflections by Dortheã E. Thomas
As a lifetime resident of Northeast Detroit, I personally believe that it’s important for our community to start bridging together for the benefit of our future.
Actually, for the first time in history residents, associations, and Nonprofits like Hope for GREEN DETROIT came together as a community with faith leaders, neighborhood groups, and local businesses to help create the first strategic framework plan to envision what we want the future of Northeast Detroit to reflect.
For every project, it started off as a vision with a plan.
As the youngest form of involvement Hope for GREEN Detroit knows it’s important that we have more young adults and youth representation at the table to help with the decision-making. With innovative ideas such as solar energy, wind farms, and green sustainable practices Detroit will surely rise again into a new economy.
The entire community should have their own active input on what our community should look like 10 to 20 years from now; this includes the young. Without the voice of the youth, there is no future.
The future of Northeast Detroit is bright.
Extra garden veggies? Pickle them!
All the recent rain has caused our community garden plot to flourish.
Lexy here from East Tennessee. I have a confession to make: I’m obsessed with lacto-fermentation. There are definitely times when multiple shelves in my fridge are filled with jars of homemade pickles. Since we’re heading into the summer months, when garden produce is overwhelmingly abundant, I thought I’d share this with you. Our community garden plot is currently popping out radishes, so what follows is a radish pickling recipe. You can pretty much lacto-ferment any vegetable, so don’t be afraid to try this with anything you have a bunch of.
Last year, Build It Up hosted a pickling workshop with our partners at Shakti in the Mountains (a women’s community organization in Johnson City) and it was one of our most popular. We just had a great meeting with Shakti to plan another series of food and gardening workshops. So far we are planning pickling/kraut making, container gardening, backyard bees, low cost chicken coops, and oyster mushrooms in buckets. I’m looking forward to planning a summer of workshop fun!
Late Bloomers
Over the past few weeks in Arleta, we have been prepping for a Summer of Solutions where our focus will be community involvement in the city of Arleta and the surrounding cities (Pacoima, Panorama City, Van Nuys.) We have been reaching out to parents, students, and teachers at the garden where we have received support.
We are reminded that the garden would not have been possible without the help from the 10 volunteers and the 80 hours that we all have dedicated. We only hope for anyone who eyes the garden to think briefly that people in the community care and want to create a space for children to visually see the beauty, and the gifts that this earth continues to bless us with. Kids are asking questions about the garden and if they can help watering the garden. That is enough to keep the children engaged in something that can show them about how nature works. Continue reading
Ear to the ground
This post is from Little Rock Summer of Solutions!
One of my personal sheroes, the 97-year-old Detroit activist Grace Lee Boggs, talks often about the importance of keeping an “ear to the ground, ” or understanding deeply the evolution and current struggles of the community within which one is working. But staying grounded and aware can be difficult, especially as a Summer of Solutions program coordinator responsible for logistical planning that leaves me with less time than I would like to be out directly engaging with community members and surveying the social/physical/economic/political environment.
Several recent occurrences have been jolting reminders of the importance of remaining grounded. One realization was thanks to a friend who came to our April 27th garden work day and imparted some of her knowledge of Permaculture design. She was helping us to build a lasagna bed, which basically incorporates layers of green material (nitrogen-rich) and brown material (carbon-rich) over a layer of weed block (pictures below!). I was lamenting the fact that we hadn’t bought mulch or synthetic weed block, but she said, “what do you mean? It’s all around us for free!” She sent a team down the alley behind the garden and they returned with wheelbarrows full of fallen leaves, which made excellent mulch. We raided recycle bins nearby for discarded newspaper and snipped overgrown bushes and vines in an empty lot next door for green material. The world is brimming with ample and free resources, if only we can open our eyes and our minds enough to SEE! Continue reading
Solutionaries 