Seeds of Change. Investing in our Youth.
April's Trumpet Magazine has recognized LFCL's exceptional new Youth Apprenticeship Program .
The Latino Farmers Cooperative of Louisiana is committed to bringing fresh food to market while planting seeds of change in the greater community and in our youth. Now, thanks to a grant from the New Orleans Police and Justice Program, the cooperative has launched a strategic community action plan to provide opportunities, training and a safe space to at-risk youth in Central City New Orleans. Through our Youth Apprenticeship Program we are “addressing crime on a community level, approaching it not as an incurable symptom of greater social ills, but rather as a problem that affects the whole neighborhood and which can be and should be solved.”
Central City Students now have the opportunity to join the cooperative after school where they can get help with their homework and learn valuable skills in a supervised, mentoring environment. Christopher Ramirez and Miguel Alfaro, two members of the program, are not only learning how to produce healthy food in an urban setting, but are gaining entrepreneurial skill as well, selling the produce they helped to grow themselves at the Farmer’s Market every Saturday.
With encouragement from the cooperative, Miguel is enrolled in the Urban League College Track and Christopher is improving his English through USALearns.org. Meanwhile they are both gaining invaluable experiences giving back to their community, visiting museums and participating in other cultural activities that might be out of reach without initiatives like The Youth Apprenticeship Program.
Read more in the April 2010 Neighborhood Partnership Network’s Trumpet Magazine.
Your support of the Youth Apprenticeship Program provides hope and opportunity to those who need it most.
