VACANT LOT BEAUTIFICATION PILOT PROGRAM LAUNCHES ON THE SOUTH AND WEST SIDES

Mayor Lori Lightfoot (left) recently joined Heartland Alliance and the Urban Growers Collective to announce the launch of the Grounds for Peace pilot program. Photo Caption: Courtesy of the Chicago Mayors Office
Mayor Lori Lightfoot (left) recently joined Heartland Alliance and the Urban Growers Collective to announce the launch of the Grounds for Peace pilot program. Photo Caption: Courtesy of the Chicago Mayors Office

Vacant Lot Beautification Pilot Program Launches On The South And West Sides

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

During a recent press conference, the Urban Growers Collective, Heartland Alliance’s READI Chicago Program, and the Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, all came together to announce the launch of Grounds for Peace, a vacant lot beautification pilot program. Through Grounds for Peace, 50 city-owned vacant lots in North Lawndale, Woodlawn, and Englewood will be transformed through new landscaping.

In addition to providing neighborhood beautification, the pilot program will offer skill-oriented job training and development experience for 50 READI Chicago employees who will be responsible for executing the landscaping and maintenance of these vacant lots on the south and west sides of Chicago, according to information provided by the Chicago Mayor’s Office.

“Today, we’re bringing life and opportunities back into community spaces that have been left empty for decades,” said Mayor Lightfoot. “Transforming our vacant lots into beautiful, open green spaces not only fosters safer streets and stronger communities but also contributes to a cleaner and healthier Chicago.”

Heartland Alliance, an anti-poverty organization based in Chicago, created READI Chicago as a response to gun violence and through this program the organization provides therapy, jobs, and support services to men in Chicago who come from communities that have been highly impacted by gun violence.

“The READI Chicago team is thrilled to be part of this exciting program, and we look forward to actively contributing to these beautification efforts to help make our neighborhoods safe and welcoming,” said Eddie Bocanegra, senior director of READI Chicago. “It’s experiences like this that engage READI Chicago participants in meaningful ways [which] will help make a positive impact in our communities.”

The Urban Growers Collective is another partner on this project and they will be providing a lot of the agriculture and landscape training for this pilot program. Co-founder of Urban Grower Collective, Laurell Sims, said that being part of the Grounds for Peace project is a “dream come true” for their organization.

“We really wanted to expand into adult job training but we knew that was not necessarily our skill set. We love teaching people how to farm and we’re very good at it but we don’t have access to the therapeutic skills and the nitty gritty job training resources that a larger organization who specializes in that, like Heartland Alliance, would have. To be able to combine what Heartland Alliance is great at and what we’re great at and then bring that to the table for these men in need is really critical,” said Sims.

Urban Growers Collective and Heartland Alliance have been working together for about a year and a half to create an agriculture job training program and Sims said she was thrilled when the City of Chicago approached them to expand the program and launch the Grounds for Peace pilot program.

“We are taking 50 lots in three different neighborhoods and using them as a test case to see the impact this can have on [a] community,” said Sims. “We can’t grow food on these lots because of the soil quality so we want to grow something that’s really beautiful.”

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