Today we’d like to introduce you to Harry Rhodes.
Harry, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Growing Home was founded in the early 1990’s by Les Brown, who had a vision of operating urban organic farms in Chicago, and using them to provide hands-on job training and real work experience for people who were experiencing homelessness.
We have a vision of a world with healthy people and healthy communities. Our mission is to operate, promote and demonstrate the use of organic agriculture as a vehicle for job training, employment, and community development. We first started farming and training people in 2002. Since that time we have provided over 400 people with a paid training experience, and helped find them permanent employment.
Today, we are the leading farm-based training organization in Chicago. We operate 2 certified organic farms on the South Side of Chicago, in the Englewood neighborhood, and harvested 35,000 lbs. of organic vegetables in 2016. We are in the process of scaling up our operation so that we can have an impact on more people throughout Chicago.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road is never smooth when you are trying to transform lives and communities. There have been ups and downs all along the way, but the overall trajectory has been a positive one.
For instance we started a capital campaign in 2008 the day the stock market began to dive. Somehow we made it through that difficult time, raised the funds we needed, and built our center.
We work with people who have many challenges in their lives. Most have criminal records, many have been homeless. We give them a second chance through our organic farming social enterprise. Most find permanent jobs in the food chain in Chicago. Some have setbacks along the way, but we are always there to help them get back up and keep moving forward.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Growing Home is a nonprofit social enterprise focused on empowering people and communities with Chicago’s first USDA-certified organic farms. Originally founded in 1996 as an agriculture-based job training program, Growing Home has expanded its mission through the years to take a broader view of what local agriculture can offer to individuals and communities. With our Wood Street Urban Farm and Honore Street Urban Farm in Englewood, Growing Home seeks to operate, promote, and demonstrate the use of organic agriculture as a vehicle for job training, employment, and community development.
Our primary activity is a 14-week transitional job training program rooted in fieldwork on our farms and supplemented by one-on- one case management and a comprehensive job readiness curriculum. Participants enter our program facing extreme barriers to employment including criminal records, housing insecurity, histories of substance abuse, trauma, and a lack of education or job experience. Unlike similar programs, we do not turn applicants away who have violent offenses on their records or who have not completed high school. All of the individuals we accept live far below the poverty line and are residents of Chicago. Around one-third reside in Greater Englewood where the poverty rate reaches nearly half, and the rest of participants come from similar south and west side neighborhoods.
In 2016, we expanded our enrollment by 33%, from serving 39 participants in 2015 to 52 in 2016. By the end of the year 81% of participants graduated from the program and 95% of our graduates secured permanent jobs. These numbers are higher than most workforce development programs, and affirm our belief in our model.
Our intensive program is rooted in urban agriculture and fieldwork on our high- production organic farms in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. Englewood currently faces a crippling 21.3% unemployment rate and a 42.2% poverty rate, drastically higher than the Chicago-wide unemployment rate of 5.4% (US Department of Labor, 2015), and poverty rate of 14% (US Census Bureau, 2013).
Growing Home recruits individuals from Greater Englewood and similar South- and West-side Chicago neighborhoods into our job training program. All enrollees face multiple barriers to employment including criminal backgrounds, homelessness, substance abuse, low levels of education, and lack of job experience. Participants range in age from 18 to 60, with the average age around 30 years old. Almost all of our participants are African-American and live far below the poverty line.
According to a 2014 Chicago Reporter article, the unemployment rate for African- Americans across Chicago is 25%, significantly higher than that of white Chicagoans who experience a 7% unemployment rate. Our program seeks to address the overwhelming prevalence of unemployment and poverty among African-Americans with barriers to employment by providing individuals with the skills and resources they need to become employed and self-sufficient.
Growing Home uses its urban organic farms in Englewood to transform individual lives through its transitional jobs program and communities through its extensive community development efforts. After 11 years of working in Englewood, we can honestly say that our efforts have contributed to life transformative experiences for individual participants, their families, and their community.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Urban agriculture is growing rapidly in Chicago. Growing Home was one of the first urban farms to get started in the city, and operates one of the largest and most productive farms today. However, since we started, many others have joined in.
The City of Chicago has been very open and encouraging to more people to become urban farmers. It passed a very progressive urban agriculture ordinance in 2011, and updated compost regulations in 2016. There is always more that can be done, but it is encouraging that we have a partner to work with at the city level.
In 2002, I was one of the founders of Advocates for Urban Agriculture, (AUA) a coalition of individuals, organizations and businesses working to promote urban agriculture throughout the Chicago region. Today, AUA is the go-to organization for urban agriculture in Chicago, with over 2,000 members.
Growing Home is unique in that we use urban agriculture to serve our social mission of transforming lives and communities. We would love to see this model replicated throughout the city and throughout the country.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2732 N. Clark #310
Chicago, IL 60614 - Website: growinghomeinc.org
- Phone: 773-549-1336
- Email: info@growinghomeinc.org
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/growinghome/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/growinghomeinc
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/growinghome
Image Credit:
Andrew Collings
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