Blog Archives: November 2012

One of the supporters of the National Service-Learning Conference is The GrowHaus, which is a nonprofit indoor farm, marketplace, and education center in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. The goal of this organization is to provide healthy, affordable food for the surrounding community, and raise awareness about food justice and sustainability. That part of Denver is unfortunately known as a food desert, which means that the people who live in that area don’t have easy access to healthy food; the closest grocery stores are located about 2.5 miles from the neighborhood. Beyond growing and distributing healthy food, The GrowHaus aims to be a hub of learning about various topics such as nutrition, gardening, cooking and other essential skills for building healthy neighborhoods. They currently educate through three programs; Service Learning, Public Workshops or Seed to Seed, which is a summer leadership program for teens dedicated to learning about nutrition and gardening. With these three facets, the organization believes that it can build a healthier, more sustainable community.

Service-learning is one of the main facets of education for The GrowHaus. It is meant for groups of 10 to 30 people, where the session usually consists of a combination of discussion, hands on activities and volunteer work. This is meant to bring the people in the group together and challenge participants to think about food justice and the community. The groups can be customized depending on what the participants are looking for; whether the partakers would like an education-focused or work-focused experience. The topics for discussion can range anywhere from Food (In)Justice to Critical Pedagogy; anything worth debating that can challenge the mind. People who take these groups range from elementary to college students to corporate offices looking for a teambuilding experience. Wherever the pupils come from and whatever it is that they learn about, as long as they leave with a sense of ownership for the community and/or awareness about sustainability The GrowHaus has done its job.

Another facet of education for The GrowHaus are public workshops, which are fee-based classes that are open to the general public. Classes are usually about topics that The GrowHaus works with on a daily basis such as aquaponics, hydroponics, permaculture, and food justice. A different variation of our workshop is our Seed to Seed program, which is a free summer leadership program for teens that is meant to bring awareness to food justice, healthy eating, and entrepreneurship. This 8-week course brings teenagers who live all over the Denver area together to learn about growing their own food, possibly starting their own business, and creating leadership skills that will greatly help them in the future. Whether these workshops have older people who are with fellow coworkers or teenagers who continue the learning process throughout the summer, these programs are meant to bring people together and create a like-minded awareness for sustainability and the community.

It’s with these various channels of education that The GrowHaus can build a healthier, more sustainable community. It’s only natural that The GrowHaus would support something like the National Service-Learning Conference because the two organizations have such similar missions; The GrowHaus’ mission is to grow a healthy community through food access, production and education, whereas the National Youth Leadership Council’s mission is to create a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world with young people, their schools, and their communities through service-learning. The more that organizations with similar missions like these two work together, the easier it can be for everyone to reach the common goal. It’s at conferences like Without Limits where these like-minded organizations can come together and join forces for the greater good. 

See a video about GrowHaus at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zObN3wCn_t8

Hunter Mullis is part of a growing demographic of Generator School Network users: youth. A resource previously exclusive to educators and community leaders involved in service-learning, Hunter is excited for the opportunity to introduce youth voice to the GSN conversation.

The North Carolina native, like many of the youth we reach, became acquainted with NYLC and its programs through the National Youth Leadership Training during the summer after her freshman year. She was quickly sold on the concept of service-learning. She recognized not only the potential of service-learning as a methodology, but her own potential as a service-learning advocate and practitioner.

She is currently working with her mentor to implement service-learning in all schools across her county. Having seen the impact of service-learning in nearby Guildford County — and even having assisted in NYLC-hosted training there — Hunter resolved to learn from their success and apply it to her efforts locally.

Learn more about how under has used the GSN to support her service-learning projects and community involvement in the Connect section of the GSN.

At first I was skeptical. I hated flying, and I had never been to Minnesota (or anywhere close to it). People who had attended National Youth Leadership Training before me tried convince me that I had nothing to worry about because it was fun, but still had my doubts.

But despite my skepticism, by the end of the week I was sad it was over. The friends I had made were friends I would undoubtedly have for years, the skills I had gained were skills I never thought I could channel, and the knowledge I attained pertaining to the achievement gap was knowledge I knew would help me make a difference in my local community.

This camp is so important, for more reasons than I can count. Connecting with other like-minded kids from across the country who, like you, have a strong desire to participate in service-learning projects can really give you that extra motivation you need to go out and make a change.

This camp was important to me personally because it helped me find the courage to be open with people I had never met. In just one week, I was comfortable sharing my life story with people that used to be complete strangers. This camp gives kids, including myself, confidence in themselves, reassurance in their service-learning efforts, and hope in that there are people like them across the country trying to make their communities better. 

The things I took away from NYLT have better equipped me to reach my service-learning and even my personal goals. I can't stress enough how crucial NYLT is for the development of youth dedicated to service-learning and the communities that these dedicated youth call home. 

NYLT would be nothing without the support of its partners. So please, give as much as you can. We can't do this without you!

Kris Brown attended the National Youth Leadership Training in 2012, and now serves as an NYLC Youth Advisory Council member. To donate to NYLC on Give to the Max Day, November 15, visit www.givemn.com/nylc.

As it turns out, many youth councils have very similar training needs for their youth leaders, no matter what the purpose or structure of the group. Last weekend, NYLC participated in an organically-created Twin Cities Youth Council Collaborative Training, which brought together nearly 70 high school students from seven different youth councils/boards. Students from Brooklyn’s Youth Council (from Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, Minn.), the East Metro Integration District Youth Executive Board, HandsOn Twin Cities Youth Executive Board, Higher Ground Academy’s Student Council, ISD 622 Youth Leadership Council, the Minnesota Youth Council, and NYLC’s Youth Advisory Council came together to network, learn about each other’s work, and participate in joint-led trainings to prepare for the year of leadership ahead. It was a great afternoon filled with energy and a collaborative spirit.

The idea for this training developed when another youth council advisor and I were sharing training ideas that we offer for our respective youth advisory councils, and we realized that despite the fact that she ran a local group and I oversaw a national group, we still wanted the youth on our councils to be ready to facilitate meetings and reflections, speak publicly and share the work that they do with confidence, be ready to represent the organization at professional events, and work respectfully and deliberately with people from all walks of life.

Through that conversation we realized there was no need for each of us to be working in isolation to plan our own trainings using our own resources — so why not collaborate?! And if we felt this way, surely other adult advisors of youth leadership groups felt the exact same way. So we sent out an email invitation to the short list of youth council advisors that we each knew to see if they were interested in joining efforts, and soon the planning was underway.

We worked in partnership from start to finish, with different organizations taking on the responsibility of organizing a schedule based on each student’s session preference, compiling and printing nametags, creating posters, facilitating various workshops based on needed skillsets, and collectively contributing to the snack selection. What might have been a large undertaking for one person or one organization to manage alone seemed like very little work when we each took responsibility for various elements of the event. 

While the cooperative training was a fun event that brought us all together for an inspiring afternoon, it was only the beginning of collaborations to come. This was a tangible idea for us all to jump into together, but conversations will continue about how we can best support one another’s work. We will also be continuing to connect and share the work of our councils through our group in NYLC’s Generator School Network.

If you are interested in joining the conversation or getting your own youth leadership team involved, please contact me at alarson@nylc.org or 651-999-7362. The more the merrier!