On June 6, 2020, the Cleveland Job Corps Center became a member of the E. C. Grows Community Garden on the corner of Coit Road and Dover Avenue in East Cleveland. Gladys Walcott established the E. C. Grows Community Garden from a vacant parking lot in 2007. Her therapeutic hobby is now the largest and longest-standing community garden in East Cleveland’s with over 40 gardeners’ leased plots.
Cleveland Job Corps Center’s Social Development Residential Counselors, Wally Espada and Janella Saldana, will be heading the development of the garden production for the center’s plot. Their students will join in on this project when they return. To get the project off and running this month, Cleveland Job Corps Social Development staff tilled the ground in preparation for planting as well as assisted other growers with their plots.
As a member of the E.C. Grows Community Garden, our students and staff will learn to grow vegetables, herbs, and fruits. They will also engage with other community gardeners and acquire the gardening skills necessary to grow a garden on campus. It’s our hope to have a thriving on campus garden that will yield fresh and healthy produce for students and give the Student Government Association another fundraising resource. In addition to planning and organizing, students will exercise their math and science skills while learning more about nutritional value, patience, and responsibility.
The goal is to have a classroom hoop house built by the Center’s carpentry students and host nutritional and educational training activities in partnership with Rid-All, a non-profit that provides community residents with nutritional and educational training and activities with emphasis on the value of environmental stewardship. The project was funded by Collinwood Connects community engagement campaign coordinated by Greater Collinwood Development Corporation committed to building connectedness through fun and meaningful community-based events.