What makes a successful youth program?

A successful youth program consists of many components. Good teamwork and ground rules are two key parts of a strong group.

The way a group works as a team is critical. Each member must carry his or her own weight in order to contribute to the group. Additionally, cooperation is essential. An individual needs to be supportive of others' ideas and only offer constructive criticism to strengthen that contribution.

Rules help keep a group focused and structured. While they need to be a little strict, they must be easy for teens to follow. Most importantly, they should be created by the group itself. In addition, there should be an incentive for following the rules, as well as a punishment for breaking them. One example is in our Youth Enterprise Group.We use ground rules to not only stay on task, but also remain comfortable with each other.

In order to provide a sufficient evaluation to the ideas of group members, we use something called straight talk. Straight talk is a method of team evaluation, group planning, problem solving, and conflict prevention which allows for positive feedback It requires that, when someone is speaking, every one else must hear, open up, make eye contact, and listen for the truth. On the other side, the speaker must be kind, speak with details, balance affirmation with criticism, and most importantly stay focused.

From the perspective of a student, there are a few things adults should know. The first it to be flexible with schedules. Being a full time student with extra curricular activities makes being available all the time difficult. Another is give jobs to only the students who need it, or are seriously committed. The last is the providing fair, timely paychecks. This means that paychecks not only arrive the day they are expected, but also are the amount of money expected.

A good youth program will be successful if they work well as a team, and use ground rules to stay on task. Additionally, it helps to have an approach, like straight talk, which helps evaluate ideas and contributions. When starting a youth group program, it is extremely important to listen to the advice from the student.

New Year's Resolution

Hello this is Kuwu and Paul from the Youth Enterprise at MAP the Massachusetts avenue project. Our New Year's resolution
for 2012 is to go as green as we possibly can, which means we plan on doing so much to help
our environment.  We also have a few New Year's resolutions so easy that
you'll have no excuse not to keep them.





1. Use a bike for short trips-Using your bike for short trips reduces the amount of money you spend on gasoline and car maintenance, and increases your fitness level as well.

2.Buy from farmer's markets instead of groceries stores-buying from a farmers market helps our environment because it's local and no chemicals and it gets the most money to the people who grow our food.






3. Eat Smart- if you eat meat eat one meatless meal a week because raising beef, pork, chickens and other meat we eat has high costs to the environment, and our pockets as well.







4. No bottled water- do not buy water;  buy filters and filter your own tap water because plastic bottles make up a large amount of container waste.









5. Borrowing- instead of buying your own personal book, borrow from a library this helps save our beautiful trees.

Hello from Desyonna-Growing Green Works!

Hi, my name is Desyonna. I work for MAP for Growing Green's youth enterprise. I have not yet been here for a year but so far the experience has been great. During my time here I have been to work on our urban farm, I've sold our youth enterprise products at community fairs and holiday bazaars, I helped greet riders at our annual Tour de Farms event for a half way pit stop and much much more. Doesnt that sound like alot?? But thats just a part of what we do here. We also talk alot about ways youth can make positive changes in our communities. Helping people get healthy organic foods that they can afford, helping politicians see why its important to support local farms and what we need to do to put people and the planet first, not corporations. This is a great first job for me. Everything we do helps us learn skills and make the situation better for our communities. Its not easy being a leader but it is good to feel like what I do helps others. I am proud to work at MAP and work with other teens to decide what kind of future we want to create. I wasnt sure what my first job would be like but now I know and I enjoy every moment of it...

Hello from Kuwu at Growing Green Youth Enterprise

hey, my name is kuwu kabah and i am a youth employee at growing green. I've started working at growing green in July 2011. there are three different groups and they are the outreach group, business group, and farm group. during the summer i had the opportunity to work in the outreach group and in this group we were in charge of making posters and making videos to show what our goal is at growing green. this fall i was selected with 10 other youth to continue working for the School year program. this fall i'm apart of the enterprise group also known as the Growing Green Works. since I've started working with the enterprise group I've learned so many things about business, like break even analysis and how to do market research for a product. We finally produced our Raspberry Apple Cider Vinaigrette and its very good. It is not available in stores yet but give us a call if you'd like to order some 882-5327 ext 5.
I have learned a lot that i didn't know before. when i first started selling our products i was very shy and a bit scared to speak to our costumers. my supervisor Zoe taught me so much about communication, persuasive speech and presentation and has been very patient with me. now i can speak in public and sell products out in the markets with out being nervous. I've also learned a lot of information about the foods that are being sold in groceries stores and i believe that everyone deserves to know these facts because after finding out what I've been eating for so many years i felt very bad that I've stop eating things i thought were good for me when all along they were really harming me-like fast foods, factory farm fish and meat and foods with pesticides. once again I'm kuwu kabah and I'm a youth employee at the Massachusetts ave project ( growing green)

Want a Greener City Buffalo? Take it to the Green Code

Hi this is Patience Nimely and Ne’Shay Kennon reporting from the Massachusetts Avenue Project. We are the youth leaders of Healthy Kids Healthy Community (HKHC) Buffalo. HKHC is a partnership that aims to improve policy about healthy eating and active living. We recently attended the Buffalo Green Code unveiling of Buffalo’s Future Land Use Plan? The Green Code is a revision of Buffalo’s land use and zoning policies that will promote investment, create jobs, and improve the urban environment. It’s also a way to create a future development plan that maps the entire city by type of place. The Future Land Use Plan provided a draft of what will become of our city and what they have considered over the past years.

We attended the Buffalo’s Future Land Use Plan at Erie Community College to preview the draft that’s been prepared by the City of Buffalo’s Strategic Planning Department and consultants. The draft includes land use, new zoning, community environment, and future place type. To create the plan the city was divided into neighborhood groups where community residents were able to reflect, ask questions, and give comments about the draft. On Saturday we spoke with Mayor Brown and news reporters about our personal experiences as youth in our communities and our comments on the plan.

We were proud to be a part of the process and to voice our opinions on what matters to us. We found the plan to be a good beginning but it also left out some important points and solutions. We were pleased to find reinvigorating public health as a part of the draft. The plan promotes developing grocery stores in low income areas. It also expressed the allowance of urban agriculture in high-vacancy neighborhoods. But we feel community gardens and urban agriculture should be promoted everywhere, not only can these spaces be used for education and nutrition for the people but they also improve neighborhoods aesthetics and divert water from overwhelming our sewer systems.

The plan implies the temporary support of vacant land to be expanded for further usage. With 23,000 vacant lots and buildings in Buffalo, there are more benefits to developing a percentage of them as urban green spaces with long term land use. The plan talks about colleges and universities but we didn’t see anything about high schools or school zones but there are more than 60,000 teens under 18 years old in Buffalo and we think there should be special guidelines to lessen the amount of liquor stores, fast food restaurants and places selling only unhealthy food in those areas. Also we have to get the places that produce and store toxic chemicals away from where people live, work and play, so we suggest moving them to places away from housing, schools, businesses and recreational areas.

In the future we will try to push for the allowance of market urban farms to establish and maintain a farm stands for the sale of crops grown onsite. We want the city to make transportation less difficult for people of all ages and disabilities. Biking and schooling routes should be well lit and made to be safer. We want to encourage schools to provide healthy foods and corner stores to sell fresh produce but they need help to make that happen. There should be codes to reduce the sales of alcohol and tobacco near high-crime areas, schools and parks. We hope others will join us in talking about the importance of farmers markets, mobile markets, urban farms, and community gardens. We have a full list of what we have submitted to the Green Code Land Use Plan below so please take a look and if you support those things too visit www.buffalogreencode.com and say so! Really it’s important.

MAP/HKHC Green Code Community Health Priorities

Public Health

· Establish more protective housing, development and health codes that address Public Health Issues including mental health, fall prevention, obesity, indoor & outdoor air quality, water quality and environmental health; focus on housing, worksites and schools

· Require developers to provide a mix of housing and development types and affordability levels.

· Use conditional use permits and adopt “deemed approved ordinances” to improve community health through enhanced health standards

· Maintain buffer zones separating industrial or transportation corridors from sensitive areas

· Update building codes to incorporate green building principles, standards, etc.

· Promote increased public space suitable for active & passive recreation

· Restrict approvals for new retailers selling alcohol and tobacco for offsite consumption near high crime areas, schools and parks

· Create healthy school zones (inclusive of allowable uses and restricted uses that promote health habits –limit the amount of unhealthy food sources as a percentage of total commercial activity, provide permit/tax incentives for corner stores to carry healthy food, create districts for community gardens and urban agriculture sites to be centers for learning near schools

Active Living

· Adopt mixed-use residential, commercial and office zoning where appropriate

· Require walking, biking, wheelchair access facilities in all new developments; adopt pedestrian, bike and wheel chair accessible design codes for the city

· Establish parking maximum (vs. minimum) requirements, incentivize permeable parking materials used in new/existing construction

· Ensuring zoning appropriate for existing and potential bicycle and pedestrian routes, and comply with existing Complete Streets Ordinance

· Establish building design codes/guidelines that require parking in the rear of buildings; design codes should promote attractive and well lit store fronts that encourage pedestrian activity and public safety

· Require land setbacks and public access on all new waterfront development activities

Food Access

· Permit for the establishment of grocery stores (and other fresh food vendors) in underserved areas; provide fast track permitting for grocery stores (and other fresh food vendors) in underserved areas

· Identify sites for farmers markets, mobile markets, urban farms and community gardens

· Limit the number of unhealthy food outlets within all residential neighborhoods

· Permit community gardens and urban agriculture as an allowable use in residential and commercial zones

· Permit community gardens, small-scale farms around schools for educational and nutritional purposes

· Community gardens and urban farms should be considered permanent, viable land uses - not temporary land uses-in most zoning districts/categories—not just high vacancy areas

· Urban Farms should be permitted for educational, research and/or commercial crop production purposes

· Allow for market urban farms to establish and maintain farmstands for the sale of crops grown onsite

· Provide incentives to establish urban agriculture production as an option for vacant land and other properties in designated areas

As the youth representatives to the Advisory committee of Healthy Kids Healthy Communities Buffalo we will push to improve and enhance our city for healthy people and a greener future. If you would like to get involved with our groups please contact us at (716)882-5327 ext4 or email us at hkhcbuffaloyouth@gmail.com

I Am a Youth and I Am the Food Justice Movement

I Am a Youth, I Am the Food Justice Movement:
Growing Green Youth in National Youth-Led Food Policy

Hello my name is Jordan Velasquez and I am the food justice movement. This July four youth from the Massachusetts Avenue Project and Growing Green, and our youth leader, Zoe Hollomon, went to Philadelphia to be part of the first youth-led National Food Policy Summit and declare the first ever Youth Food Bill of Rights. It was put on by Rooted In Community (RIC), a national group of young food justice leaders and organizations and the Urban Nutrition Initiative (UNI) urban agriculture program in Philly. Over 150 youth and adults came because we see what is happening in our communities to low income people, to farmer workers, to the environment, to animals and we DON’T accept it. We came to demand our Youth Food Bill of Rights and say that we need a better food system and we demand better from corporations and government. If you can read this then you can do something about injustice. I hope you read this and it inspires you to work for a better food system. We the youth, we are not just the future leaders, we are leaders today and we are making a change!

A lot of this started with RICs help, we had the Dignity Dialogues, where the youth spoke about how people should be treated regardless of their age, ethnicity or how much money they make. Youth are the future and so we should be included in what the future looks like. Right now we don’t like what we see: people in poor communities not being able to get healthy food , farmworkers working in unsafe conditions, big fast food companies make millions selling bad food to us, animals being abused and unclean factories that make our food, and so much pollution and waste, don’t we want a world to live in in the future? I do.

Over our time at the Youth Food Policy Summit we shared our stories, we talked about our struggles and we said what wanted for the future. We came together and made a list of rights to help our food system be fair, just and sustainable. At our Day of Action, we declared the Youth Food Bill of Rights, and we told our stories and used art and theater to make ourselves known in a way people couldn’t ignore. It was amazing and you could feel that it was something really big. People came in from the street and from around the park to see what it was about. I presented one of the Youth Food Rights and even though I was nervous I felt proud of myself and all of us there. We challenged adults to join with us to fight in the food justice movement and had people come and sign our Youth Food Bill of Rights.

After the Day of Action we got into regional groups and talked about how we could each take on a few of these rights to work on from our communities. It could be getting nutrition education in schools or making policy to help people grow food on vacant lots, or starting a workers rights campaign, all of our regional groups will decide which Youth Food Bill of Rights they want to work on and can get support from RIC to help us as we do it. Our group from Growing Green decided to host a Youth Food Policy Laboratory October 15th and 16th in Buffalo to agree on which rights we want to work on and look at different ways to take action together in food justice in our region. We also will do an action with our state food justice partners in New York City for World Food Day October 16th.

Going to the summit I felt proud of the work I do at MAP and Growing Green. I also felt part of something bigger too. There are so many people who want justice and so many youth who are making change in their communities. We the youth are doing it. We are fighting for healthier food in our communities, we are working on policy, we are make better ways to grow food and not hurt animals and the environment. We are the food justice movement and we are just getting started!

To see the Youth Food Bill of Rights and sign on in support please go to www.youthfoodbillofrights.com If you want more information about youth and the food justice movement please go to our Youth Food Bill of Rights facebook page or Twitter page. You can also get more info at www.rootedincommunity.org or email us at MAP and Growing Green to talk about the Youth Food Policy LAB in October 2011 at hollomon@mass-ave.org.

Growing Healthy

Hi my name is Anabel Dieguez Ortega this is my first time working at Map. For the first couple of weeks we did alot of activities. During those we got to learn alot about each other and alot about the program. When we first worked at the farm we started our first compost piles for the farm. We harvested alot of fruits and veggtables and some eggs from our chickens.Wish we have sold them to restaurants and ate some at our fridat lounches. Some of the stuff we grow is sold at the farm stand in the neighborhood. I my self and others have worked for Lowes & Fishes wish is a soup kitchen that provides food for the less fortune. It felt really good to help others especially when they would say thank you. For the rest of the programs learned more about how to grow food and eat more local. So far this summer was a very good one and i hope to work here again sence I've learned alot. Growing Green it's a family that's one of the reasons why i would like to work here again. This has helped me to ear money to help my self and buy things that i really needed for school.