Webinar Description

Harlem Grown knows the importance of centering community voice in their mission and day-to-day work and will highlight the value of “for the community, by the community” concepts. This session will share best practices for developing programs centered in the community by implementing community-based decision making and youth leadership. Their work will showcase ways to incorporate skill building, economic development, and workforce development for both youth and adults through community gardening projects. Harlem Grown has seen tremendous results from their efforts to help youth flourish! Their work will inspire you!

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will learn the benefits of working at the intersection of health promotion, health equity, entrepreneurship, and food production.
2. Participants will increase knowledge of strategies to engage communities in decision making to implement and sustain programs.
3. Participants will gain insight into youth engagement that leads to skill-building that will benefit them in the future.

Webinar Speaker

Tony Hillery is the founder and executive director of Harlem Grown. In 2011 he began volunteering at a public elementary school in Harlem. There, he noticed the vacant lot across the street and had a big idea. After seeing how restless the students were and noticing their lack of healthy food options, Tony invited children from the underfunded school to turn a vacant lot into a beautiful and functional farm. By getting their hands dirty, these kids turned an abandoned space into something beautiful and useful while learning about healthy, sustainable eating and collaboration. Today, the kids and their parents, with the support of the Harlem Grown staff, have grown thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables a year. All of it is given to the kids and their families. Harlem Grown is a now a youth development nonprofit utilizing food justice as a vehicle for social transformation. Although the organization’s work has always centered around food justice, the recent events have driven its members deeper into their work with more intention than ever before. Their focus has now expanded from a food justice platform to deliver all programming, services and activities through a deeper racial and social justice lens with disciplined attention to race and ethnicity.

Free Registration

This event was pre-recorded at the 2023 Champions for Youth Summit. 

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