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Climate Conversations - "Green Thumbs, Growing Kids"
By Daiem Mohammed
(Daiem is a journalist with the FOCUS Media Arts Centre)
Climate Conversations is a show produced by Regent Park youth involved with the Focus Media Arts Centre. In this episode of Climate Conversations, youth hosts Jabin Haque and Victoria Nannetti, engage in a conversation with Sunday Harrison about the work of Green Thumbs Growing kids and the importance of engage youth in community gardening. Sunday Harrison is the Founder and Executive Director of Green Thumbs, a non-profit organization based out of the Daniel’s Spectrum in Regent Park.
Green Thumbs is an organization that has existed since 1999, and its primary aim is to develop food and nature literacy among young people. The group had its humble beginnings when founder, Sunday Harrison, approached Riverdale Farm to organize a gardening and nature program. Today Green Thumbs partner with schools, City and community agencies to help foster urban agriculture, greenspace enjoyment, physical and mental health benefits.
Green Thumbs goals are to introduce young people to the world of gardening and potentially, even farming! The organization primarily focuses on youth programming, including in-school programs for kids still in grade school. Green Thumbs currently runs programming at Spruce Court Public School, Winchester Public School and Rose Avenue school in St. James Town. However, the focus of programming isn’t only on the younger children, as they provide after school and summer programs for high school age students, which even includes potential opportunities for employment.
In the interview, Harrison discusses the almost instinctual engagement that children have towards nature, and host Victoria Nannetti attests to it, harkening back to her youth when she had a fascination with insects and small critters, looking for them during recess at school.
Green Thumbs is also an organization that aims to impact seniors as well, with their Grownups Gardening program, which aims to engage seniors with the programs that develop youth, further closing the generational divide.
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FOCUS Media Arts Centre (FOCUS) is a not-for-profit organization that was established in 1990 to counter negative media stereotypes of low income communities and provide relevant information to residents living in the Regent Park area and surrounding communities.
We seek to empower marginalized individuals and under represented communities to have a voice, through the use of professional training, mentorships and participatory based media practices that enable the sharing of stories, experiences and perspectives on relevant matters and issues. In brief our mandate is to empower marginalized individuals and under-serviced communities to have a voice and tell their own stories.
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