The Chicago Eco House Founder creates agrarian society from vacant lots
By Tia Carol Jones
Quilen Blackwell’s journey took him from Madison, Wis. to Thailand to Milwaukee and finally to Chicago, where he founded an organization that takes vacant lots and turns them into solar farms that grow flowers. The flowers Chicago Eco House grows provide an economic solution for poverty where the farms are located.
While Blackwell was attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he started hearing about the Peace Corps and joined. He was placed in Thailand and he helped rural farmers form a co-op. He saw people helping out each other and being responsible for others. It was also where he saw agriculture benefit rural communities.
Blackwell went to Milwaukee to work as a community organizer. He went to ministry school and volunteered as a tutor at Team Englewood High School. Blackwell interacted with the students and their parents while he was tutoring. One of the things the young people expressed was a need for employment, within their community. That led him to found Chicago Eco House in 2014. “I just felt like if I was in these kids’ situation and they met someone like me, that they would do what they could to help me out,” he said.
The mission of the Chicago Eco House is to use sustainability to alleviate inner city poverty. Chicago Eco House has 10 acres of farmland throughout the city, in Englewood, West Woodlawn, West Garfield Park and Washington Park. It has been able to provide jobs for young people. Last year, it opened a farm in Gary, and they just got a site on Cook County Jail’s campus. They are looking to expand outside of Chicago and Illinois. Chicago Eco House also has opened a flower shop, named Southside Blooms, on 63rd and Morgan.
“They absolutely love it. They love being florists, they love being on the farms, because it is a positive alternative to being in the streets,” he said. The young people see themselves as pioneers who are helping to bring a new future to those communities.
Community service has been a part of Blackwell’s life since he was in middle school and his father had him volunteer at a diverse local community center. At first, he looked at it as a punishment, but through the summer, he began to see people who had pretty hard lives. He heard the stories of the people at the center, most of them were Hmong people. It gave him perspective. It taught him that his life was about what he could do for others.
Blackwell believes that agriculture can help to sustain an economy and that model can work, even in the city. There is a huge market for flowers, food and other specialty crops and those things can be grown in the city.
“The money is already here to solve every problem that we have here. When people are like, ‘we have to go to the government.’ I’m like, ‘No. We just need to come up with more sustainable, hyperlocal economic solutions to figure out how to retain the money that’s flying away and keep it in neighborhoods like Englewood, Roseland and West Garfield Park.’ Then you can see these neighborhoods begin to change pretty quickly once you start changing the way you look at how you structure your economy and your business,” he said.
Blackwell sees himself as a catalyst. He believes the talent is in those communities, they just need someone to provide opportunities. He is inspired by the young people and the potential they have.
For more information about Chicago Eco House, visit www.chicagoecohouse.org.
