We’ve finished up the construction of the garden fence! Access to the garden is secure and the likelihood of rodents nibbling at crops greatly reduced. We have more plans to reinforce the perimeter of the garden with bricks.

Pictured: The 59th Street Englewood Community Garden completed fencing.

In the last two weeks, our team has been focusing on contacting numerous organizations within the Englewood community to establish stronger relationships. Joseph will be speaking at the Englewood Village Meeting on the 21st of May at the Hamilton Park Cultural Center to inform residents of The 59th Street Community Garden Peace Project. We hope this engagement will help recruit youth to participate and attract more collaborations with local organizations and actors to get involved.

Joseph has asked members of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E.) if they could get a member of their staff to participate in the Englewood Community Garden Programming, specifically for a policy challenge initiative for the youth volunteers. We are in the process of organizing the Englewood Innovation Summit.

Pictured: Englewood Innovation Summit Proposal

We submitted a grant application to Englewood Quality of Life Plan to expand our project. The longer-term goal is to make the Englewood Innovation Summit a yearly event.

Pictured: Englewood Quality of Life Plan Application

We are also applying for the 2024 Summer Youth Grant to expand the reach of our garden programming. We have a meeting with Sonseriya Williams from Teamwork Englewood to discuss next steps in the coming week.

In other news, a staff member was kind enough to connect us with a Harris alumni in the Chicago area who might be able to help us with our community garden’s impact. We hope to hear back soon to see if it goes anywhere. Things are looking great and we can’t wait!