Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: In 2010, the Windy City Harvest (WCH) certificate program recruited 16 trainees, of whom 15 finished the curriculum, 15 participated in internships, and 14 completed the entire course--a retention rate of 88% . The nine-month program is accredited by the Illinois Community College Board and includes six months of classroom training and a three-month paid internship. Following the internships, five graduates were hired into five-month apprenticeships, and all graduates had access to job placement services, including the full services of the placement center at a Chicago City College and support from WCH staff. WCH is on track to meet food production objectives with 10,852 pounds harvested to date, 2,532 pounds donated to local food pantries, and 8,320 pounds sold for a total of $23,146 in revenue. The Boot Camp garden has yielded 8,395 pounds of produce to date, with 1,641 pounds donated to local food pantries, 4,756 pounds used in the mess hall kitchen, and 1,998 pounds sold through WCH outlets. Staff members have continued to seek new ways to bring affordable produce to food insecure communities while increasing revenue. Recent activities included the addition of an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) device at farm stands, allowing low-income patrons to pay with cards issued by the USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). WCH cooperates with volunteers from the USDA's Midwest Office to administer a People's Garden, which features a weekly community farm stand where SNAP cards are accepted for payment. This year, WCH launched a series of weekend mini-classes in topics related to sustainable vegetable gardening. These weekend seminars were open, at a modest cost, to neighborhood residents on Chicago's West side and have brought participants from as far as Chicago's northern suburbs. Boot Camp trainees participated in "platoons" of varying size, and during the busy summer season, the program staff worked with two platoons, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Each platoon worked 8 weeks in the garden, Monday through Friday, approximately 24 to 30 hours per week. Participants also took part in educational workshops. Boot Camp trainees who completed this four-month work and education experience received three community college credit hours. Selected Boot Camp post-release personnel (PRPs) received paid transitional work assignments and participated one day per week, five hours per day in the "Roots of Success" curriculum, a six week training program in environmental literacy distributed by the Environmental Literacy Center at the University of California Berkeley. This program offers foundational knowledge to supplement "green" career training of various types and includes workshops on resume building, creating a cover letter, and searching for a job. PARTICIPANTS: Daley College/Arturo Velasquez Institute (AVI), a campus of the Chicago City Colleges, is the primary program delivery site for Windy City Harvest. Cook County Sheriff's Boot Camp, an alternative sentencing facility for non-violent male offenders between 17 and 35, is the site of a new Windy City Harvest production and training garden created with federal stimulus funding administered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. WCH has gained increasing credibility and recognition in Chicago's urban agriculture scene and beyond. In 2010, WCH staff presented several sessions at the fifth annual FamilyFarmed Expo, which devoted program space to local food production, increased food access, entrepreneurial financing, and production and training models. A Chicago Green Collar Jobs Council task force, including the Garden, is mapping a jobs and career pathway for urban agriculture. WCH staff participate in the Advocates for Urban Agriculture (AUA), which is creating a database and GIS map of all organized urban farming activities in the Chicago area, and its members are advising the City's Zoning and Planning Department on a possible agricultural zoning ordinance. In June, WCH staff addressed participants at an EPA webinar on urban agriculture, discussing topics such as urban soil contaminants, raised beds, composting, and rail-mounted hoophouses. Patsy Benveniste, VP of Community Education Programs, is responsible for youth and community outreach programs. She has been involved with WCH since its inception and devotes significant effort in establishing community relationships, conceptualizing the program's future, and fundraising. She holds an MA from the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy and has more than 20 years of senior-level experience in the non-profit sector. She is a member of AUA's steering committee and also serves as a member of the Agriculture Task Force of the Illinois Workforce Investment Board. Angela Mason, Director of Community Gardening, is responsible for program development and management. She recruits and superviss WCH staff, maintains business relationships, evaluates the program, and oversees its evolution. She has a BS in Plant and Soil Science and an MS in Plant, Soil, and General Agriculture from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Kelly Larsen, WCH Supervisor, develops and implements crop plans, manages relationships with buyers, vendors, and community partners, and supervises the daily activities of growers, interns, and apprentices. She has a BS in Geography and Environmental Studies from Northeastern Illinois University. Blayne Greiner, WCH Instructor, teaches the curricula and practicum to students and assists the supervisor in directing interns and apprentices assigned to WCH. He has a BA from Columbia College and was previously an organic farmer at Salute Farm & Vineyard in Woodstock, IL. Joan Hopkins, WCH Grower, is the Boot Camp instructor and assists the supervisor in site maintenance and food distribution, as well as assisting apprentices, interns, and trainees with work assignments. She is a graduate of Windy City Harvest's 2008 pilot program. TARGET AUDIENCES: Conditions in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood typify the kind of problems that Windy City Harvest aims to address. In this community on Chicago's West side, 45% of households and more than half of children below age 18 live below the poverty level. The unemployment rate for 20 to 24 year olds is 60%. A 2002 study found that 57% of the adult population was either sentenced, serving time, or on parole or probation. Additionally, a study on access to healthy foods by neighborhood cited North Lawndale as a "food desert" community. More than 46% of children are obese, nearly 17% of newborns have low birth weight, and the infant mortality rate is 55% higher than the City as a whole. The Boot Camp training program also serves a desperately troubled population. According to the New York Times, in 2007 about one in every 99 adults in the U.S. was behind bars. Moreover, Department of Justice figures for 2006 indicate that one in 36 Hispanic adults is incarcerated, one in 15 African Americans, and, for black men between the ages of 20 and 34, one in nine. In 1999, 1.5 million children under the age of 18 had parents in prison, and 22% of these children were under 5 years old. When the formerly incarcerated do not get help to transition back into society, the result is ever higher recidivism rates--in Illinois, over 52% of released prisoners return to prison within 5 years. A recent study conducted by Loyola University found that among its subjects, the formerly incarcerated who maintained employment for at least 30 days were 58% less likely to return to prison. The Boot Camp garden may well be the first real job for many Boot Camp participants--and a chance to gain work readiness skills, on-the-job training and practical experience, introductions to employers willing to work with the formerly incarcerated, and ongoing support from staff in making the transition back into the community. Among the recently graduated 2010 certificate trainees, 40% are Workforce Investment Act (WIA) eligible and 53% are women; ethnic distribution is 27% African American, 33% Latino, and 40% Caucasian. Among the 20 trainees beginning the program in January 2011, 58% are WIA-eligible and 50% are women; ethnic distribution is 47% African American, 16% Latino, and 37% Caucasian. Six are formerly incarcerated, or 32% of the class. This truly diverse class represents the best efforts of the Windy City Harvest staff to fulfill its goal to bring job training to the hard-to-employ and create a group of leaders and entrepreneurs who can advance urban agriculture on Chicago's West side and beyond. Boot Camp participants must be between the ages of 17 and 35 and never have committed a violent or sex-related crime. The Boot Camp boasts an extraordinary recidivism rate, such that 70% of the men who complete the program do not return to prison after five years. Ethnicity data is not available for the Boot Camp, but Windy City Harvest trainees at Boot Camp are approximately 40% African American, 40% Latino, 10% Asian, and 10% Caucasian. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: During Windy City Harvest's first recruitment season after becoming an eligible training provider under Workforce Investment Act (WIA), staff members experienced difficulties in navigating the system, including delays in securing formal certification for students known to be WIA eligible. WCH personnel were trained in using the WIA system, and Daley College/AVI added one on-site staff member who will test and process WIA applicants. At Boot Camp, recruits do not have access to internet-connected PCs, and so all data had to be collected on paper and then transcribed. It was decided to add a part-time administrative support position for managing the WIA process. In reviewing course evaluations, staff members recognized the need to monitor internships more closely to assure good intern experiences and to better measure outcomes in skills development. Starting in 2010, internship experiences were evaluated with a "pass/fail" grade, measured by check-ins every two weeks between the intern, the mentor/supervisor, and the instructor. Each student set three "SMART goals" (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely). The check-ins established that interns were developing skills and gaining new perspectives on sustainable growing. Staff members also learned that the trainees were sometimes unprepared to act quickly in response to job postings. A new curriculum module was added in 2010 in which students learn to complete a job application, resume, cover letter, list of references, and participate in mock interviews with WCH staff. The Boot Camp supervisor learned that it is difficult to teach a trade to men who have little or no prior work experience. She adjusted her own management style to spend more time working side by side with the men and paired inmates who had prior work experience with less experienced workers to help them stay on task. In prior years, the need for paid work to support themselves during the five month classroom component proved an obstacle for the formerly incarcerated seeking to enroll in the Windy City Harvest certificate program. Moreover, the pilot year's experiences taught the staff that many of the formerly incarcerated were not ready to shoulder the responsibilities of a nine-month college certificate program. Consequently, one the finest outcomes of the Boot Camp program is a group of formerly incarcerated recruits for Windy City Harvest who may indeed be ready for a nine-month college certificate program--and with transitional jobs to help support themselves and their families during the classroom component. This year, staff members have admitted four very promising Boot Camp participants to Windy City Harvest in 2011. If some of these young men do enroll in the program and complete it successfully, they can accumulate up to a year's paid experience, 31 hours of college credit, and a professional certification accredited by the Illinois Community College Board and backed by the reputation of the Chicago Botanic Garden. That will be a significant outcome for Windy City Harvest, its partners, and for the Boot Camp graduates who are building a future for themselves.

Impacts
Staff members are pleased that during this economic downturn--which has caused many experienced workers to suffer long term job loss--nine out of the 13 graduates in 2009 are employed in full-time positions, six of them in a field related to urban agriculture. Of the remaining four, one is a full-time college student, one is a full-time volunteer with WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms), one maintains a food garden for her intentional community, and one has been out of contact with program staff since a recent move. Two graduates have been hired into full-time positions at Windy City Harvest. While employment outcomes are still emerging for the class of 2010, these graduates have already become active advocates for urban agriculture. Raphael, a displaced worker, came to WCH to retrain. While apprenticing at WCH, he is also working as a volunteer with Tarkington High School in the Marquette Park neighborhood to reinvigorate their vegetable garden. He arranged for three WCH market days to be held there to demonstrate the community's demand for fresh food. Rocio, another graduate and current apprentice, regularly attends meetings of the Chicago Food Policy Advisory Council, where she met staff members from a community development organization researching how to attract food pantry clients to fresh foods. Rocio cooperated with them in mounting cooking demos at a local food pantry. Guadalupe ("Lupe") is volunteering with a local non-profit to create a community garden. Emily, a recent graduate, will be employed in January 2010 creating a community garden in an underserved neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina, under the administration of Natural Environmental Ecological Management (NEEM). Jennifer is a graduate who is also an artist and free-lance multimedia designer, and she partners in an art co-op and art school in the Pilsen neighborhood. She interned at the Chicago Botanic Garden's Fruit & Vegetable Garden and plans to work in food production during the growing season while pursuing her artwork in the cold months. These are only a few examples of these diverse, active graduates who are using skills learned at WCH to benefit their communities and advance their own careers in creative ways. In 2010, 10 transitional positions were created for Boot Camp post-release personnel, and by the end of the year, 23 PRPs will have worked 7,360 hours on projects that include work details at the Chicago Botanic Garden, building and managing a new one-acre compost facility adjacent to the Boot Camp, maintaining large planters at the Illinois Center in downtown Chicago, and planting and maintaining WCH native seed gardens. Forty Boot Camp graduates have participated in the "Roots of Success" curriculum with 35 completing the program and receiving their certificates. One of the Boot Camp post-release personnel who completed the curriculum is now working at a company that rehabs homes, another is trying to start a small landscape business, and three others are investigating training programs in weatherization, rebuild/reuse, and solar panel installation. Four Boot Camp graduates have been accepted into the 2011 WCH certificate program.

Publications

• No publications reported this period