Our Story
Leading the Energy Transition, Sprouting Green Opportunities (LETS GO Chicago) developed out of a synergy between a youth garden program and the founding of a community house in Chicago in the summer of 2010. In its initial year, the program taught twenty neighborhood children how to grow food in the front yard of a house owned by the United Church of Rogers Park while developing sustainability solutions for the property as a whole. The program is a joint effort between the church and local youth leaders, combining urban ministry with progressive work in environmental stewardship and social justice.
This summer, we are expanding our program by partnering with Summer of Solutions, a national youth green economy leadership training, to build up the next generation of leaders to take on some of our hardest social, environmental, and economic problems. Our Chicago program will work toward this vision by launching several initiatives to transform the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago into a replicable model of urban sustainability. We will bring youth together to achieve this vision by engaging in creative whole systems thinking that embodies the topics of sustainability, prosperity, justice, and community.
What's Happening in 2011
The youth garden program at United Church of Rogers Park will remain front and center in the summer of 2011, alongside new projects in home sustainability, renewable energy production, urban yard-sharing, and local movement building. This year, we plan to teach up to 60 local children the basics of growing food from seed to harvest and bringing the results into the classroom for hands-on cooking and nutrition classes. Your donation today will help us achieve these goals by providing resources to purchase equipment and supplies, offer stipends to local youth participants, and support the budgets of our other project areas.
In addition to the childrens garden, our team will develop and execute projects that:
- Develop the church house as an outreach center that models urban sustainability
- Promote local bicycle culture
- Explore small-scale renewable energy opportunities
- Build a network of local groups and community members working for sustainable change in Rogers Park
The Impact
Summer of Solutions offers our participants a unique way of learning that moves beyond the static classroom to a learn-by-doing model which offers life changing experiences and creates concrete results that benefit the individual, the environment, and the entire neighborhood while creating an inspiring model of the change that is possible.
This summer our program will:
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Train Emerging Leaders: We teach transformative and career-building methods in community organizing and social entrepreneurship that help youth leaders create sustained and systemic change. We create competence in these skills through implementation.
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Build Transformative Learning Communities: We grow from the experiences we share with our fellow leaders. Our collaborative ventures encourage reciprocal, team-based problem solving and bring together unlikely partners to create solutions together.
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Achieve Concrete Results: We develop projects that will take measurable steps towards the creation of the green economy and have real benefits for the communities we work with. Successful initiatives will lay the foundation for dramatically higher-quality and broader-scale efforts.
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Create the Models: We launch community-based green economy initiatives in communities nationwide that serve as innovative models to be shared and replicated.
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Share the Vision: We share our stories with the world to advance a vision of concrete and scalable solutions that catalyze grassroots leaders to transform the political, economic, and cultural landscape of the green economy.
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Adapt the Process: We capture, evaluate, share, and adapt the processes we use so as to assist new solutions by ourselves and others.
What We Need & What You Get
Our $5,000 fundraising goal will help us run our summer program and ensure that opportunities to participate are available to all youth, regardless of financial need. Here is how the funding breaks down:
- $3,000 Need-based stipends to offer (3) fellowships to local high school youth
- $1,000 Seed money to buy equipment and supplies for our children's garden program
- $1,000 Rent support to allow participants to dedicate their summer to our project
Any money generated beyond our $5,000 goal will go toward supporting our participants' cost-of-living expenses during the summer program and providing seed money for project groups. Full-time participants are expected to contribute 40 hours/week to the program. We think they at least deserve a free place to live and food on the table.
To verify that your money is going to the right place, we will be sure to keep you up to speed on our projects through the following channels:
- Bi-monthly electronic newsletter sent to all donors (with the option to opt-out)
- Frequently updated blog site (link forthcoming)
- A thorough end of the summer report detailing the outcomes and successes of our program in each program area
Local donors are also encouraged to get in touch with us at SoS.Chicago.2011@gmail.com to schedule a tour or site visit. We would love to show you what we're up to!
Other Ways You Can Help
We appreciate your support of this campaign! If you know others who would get excited about this work, please use the share buttons above to spread the word. You can share this link on Facebook, Twitter, via e-mail, or even call a friend to tell them why they should donate to Summer of Solutions - Chicago!
Apply to Be a Program Participant
We are accepting applications for program participants through April 24th. Go to http://www.grandaspirations.org/apply2sos to learn more!
