Growing the Good with OSU Urban GEMS

Who knew that you could grow healthy fresh food in the basement of a church, a middle school science room, a middle school cafeteria, a K-8 school counselor's office, an elementary school hallway, an office hallway, a university cultural center, a behavioral health and wellness center, a business association's storefront, or a household kitchen? Urban GEMS youth know. These youth also know that Urban GEMS aims to grow them as well – into leaders, entrepreneurs, scientists, activists, and scholars. We will discuss the partnerships and processes that have allowed Urban GEMS to get established and celebrated as an award-winning program in two short years.

Description

Investing in vulnerable youth is a social and economic imperative in many urban communities. Many of the nation's urban youth find themselves in communities lacking resources and opportunities for healthy living: access to quality schools, health care systems, safe and secure housing, low-cost nutritious foods, and employment opportunities. Urban GEMS (Gardening Entrepreneurs Motivating Sustainability) employs cutting-edge food production technology to grow healthy foods while promoting healthy eating in urban neighborhoods characterized as food deserts. Students will gain 21st century employment skills through coursework, internships, and service learning projects. Students will become enmeshed in new professional networks among local food industry professionals. As trained social justice advocates for a healthy food system, participants will add a youthful voice and energy to the larger community health transformation in the urban core of Columbus, Ohio. The Urban GEMS program was designed to address the well-documented link between food insecurity and school failure at a neighborhood level. Urban GEMS features project-based learning and youth leadership opportunities, which include tackling real and significant challenges facing the African American community. This presentation will focus on the role of community partnerships to establish and expand Urban GEMS in just two years. More than a dozen organizations have been involved as partners to support and help build Urban GEMS. For example, RHH4L has been a founding partner allowing Ohio State to place innovative Tower Gardens in the community center to engage youth and their families in the education program. The Ohio State and RHH4L staff will share insights on how they utilize their community connections to recruit and retain participants providing access to the Ohio State team. The Millennium Community School under the direction of Tijuana Russell has allowed Ohio State Urban GEMS to embed the program in the eighth grade curriculum. Russell and Cecil Brown will discuss what they expect to gain from partnering with us. Youth participants from both implementation sites will join the panel to discussion ways in which they believe Urban GEMS can improve youth and community health. Another key partner, Jerry Saunders, APDS CEO, has allowed Urban GEMS to be a part of a holistic health transformation adding a healthy local foods component to behavioral and mental health services. He will discuss the potential of great partnerships. Finally, our latest expansion with support from the Ohio State Connect and Collaborate initiative has allowed Urban GEMS to partner with Bob Leighty of the Parsons Avenue Merchant's Association to develop a South Side farm and entrepreneurship hub. Bob will discuss the process of engaging professional networks across geographic space and existing relationships in new partnerships. Megan Beaver, an Ohio State graduate student, will discuss how Urban GEMS provides opportunities for engaged scholarship.
AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Deanna Wilkinson, Associate Professor, Department of Human Sciences, wilkinson.110@osu.edu (Corresponding Author); Frederick V. Lamarr, Pastor and Executive Director, RHH4L/Family Missionary Baptist Church; Tijuana Russell, Director, Millennium Community School; Jerry Saunders, CEO, Africentric Personal Development Shop (APDS); Bob Leighty, Executive Director, Parsons Avenue Merchant's Association; Tiffany Groce, Project Manager, The Ohio State University Urban GEMS; Megan Beaver, Graduate Research Assistant, The Ohio State University Urban GEMS; Cecil Brown, Dean of Students, Urban GEMS @ MCS Project Coordinator.

Keywords

healthy local foods, positive youth development, entrepreneurship, gardening, partnerships

Citation

Engaged Scholars, v. 6 (2018).

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/1811/84751

Collections

Engaged Scholars: Volume 6 (2018)

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