Newburgh On the Rise: The People's Garden

["Farming looks very easy when your plow is a pencil and your a thousand miles away from the farm."]

A Little Something About Newburgh On The Rise

The youth of Newburgh on the Rise will be graduating from their 12 week summer youth employment program on September 30TH, 2009. On July 13TH 2009 48 youth were given the opportunity to work paid jobs for 6 weeks under the Department of Human Service’s youth bureau for the City of Newburgh. 48 youth ages 19-24 were given hands on training, in construction, filming/ photography, event planning and Urban Landscaping, while also receiving professional development skills training from Best Resources. Throughout the 6 weeks the youth assisted in the greening of several city owned properties while working closely with The Department of Public Works, they built and designed their own gardens while in partnership with professional arborists, volunteers from the tree commission and staff at Downing park. The youth also engaged themselves in their own community project called The Block Building Movement, in which they dedicated 5 hand pieced raised tree boxes to the community with over 200 names of people who passed burnt into the wood. Each name was registered in person as the youth Ambassadors went door to door, than passed on the names to their peers who burnt in every name by hand. This successful 6 week program was celebrated and presented to the public on August 16TH where well over 100 people showed up to thank the youth for their efforts in the community and to watch a draft of their film describing the whole process. On August 24TH, 2009 because of the Newburgh On The Rise’s success 18 of the 48 youth ambassadors were extended for another 5 weeks by Orange County E.T.A. Over the past 5 weeks not only have the youth exceeded the expectations of community partners but they have also exceeded their own. In only 25 days with less then 20 Youth Ambassadors, Newburgh on The Rise has been able to assist in the metamorphic change towards a greener Newburgh. The first couple of weeks on the job the youth ambassadors started to tear down walls literally and figuratively as they teamed up with the City of Newburgh Police to renovate the old court house and police station, helping to build a stronger bond between the police and the community. Over the following weeks the youth finished the final editing of their 25 minute short film, built their own miniature raised bed gardens and maintained over 40 trees some of which they planted themselves. They also received training in Blogging, Urban Farming, Green Construction & Building, Permaculture, Horticulture, Culinary from the Culinary Institute and local restaurants all while still attending their professional development courses at Best Resources. All of their hard work will be celebrated at 4:00PM on September the 30TH at Newburgh’s Recreation Center. The Celebration will begin with a bus tour of all of their achievements around the City of Newburgh and will continue on at the recreation center, where their film and blog will be shown. Please come out and celebrate with our youth ambassadors and show them you care.