Visiting Green Visions

The Allyn’s Creek Garden Club helps fund scholarships for Green Visions interns, which operates under the Greentopia organization's umbrella. In September 2019, club members visited Green Visions' expansive garden site located on  Whitney Street, in the JOSANA neighborhood. A second site, operated in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, is located on Joseph Avenue. 

Morgan and Tiani explaining the program

Morgan Barry, Program Director, gave an overview of the garden, and invited us to walk around and admire the beautiful flowers still in bloom in late September. Morgan graduated from the RCSD and SUNY Oswego (BA English), and although he had no gardening experience, he leapt at the opportunity to give back to the community through Green Visions. He also introduced us to Tiani Jennings, who enrolled in the program when she was 17, then obtained her GED, and now serves as Site Manager.

Green Visions, which was founded in 2013, is a workforce development program targeting 18-21 year old at-risk youth in the neighborhood. In that time, more than 100 young adults have graduated the program. 59% of all graduates are currently working full-time jobs, and another 23% are working part-time jobs. Together, they are employed at more than 50 different local businesses and organizations. 28% transitioned or enrolled in local colleges or career training programs.

The program provides a diverse training, not just in gardening. The participants learn to make bouquets to professional standards, are involved in customer service, and sell directly at the Rochester Public Market. They work a 3.5 hour shift in the morning or afternoon, and make $30/day, so can earn up to $3300 in a season. The retention rate is 90%; an in-neighborhood program means the participants can walk to work, so are more likely to be consistent. 

Another facet of the program involves the inclusion of developmentally disabled youth; currently approximately one-fifth of the youth have development disabilities. While many of the flowers are grown on-site from seed or bulb, the program also works with School 17 and Edison Tech to pre-grow some of the flowers in greenhouses. The Dahlia Society recently donated dahlia bulbs (the program learned a lesson about bulb storage, when they discovered the bulbs they had over-wintered in their shed rotted). The flowers are grown without herbicides or pesticides, and the gardens use 30 tons of compost every year. 

In past years, their flower arrangements were available at Wegman’s, but weren’t this year because of the late spring start (bad weather) and other demand. They take orders for arrangements for parties, and are always looking for donations of vases (particularly glass mason jars). This was their most successful year in flower sales – they netted a whopping $7000 (as with most non-profit organizations, sale of the product only makes a dent in covering operating costs).

the neighboring house to be purchased

the new shipping container for storage

In 2018, ACGC contributed funds toward the purchase of a shipping container, which was retrofitted to serve as a floral design workspace, with a cooling room for flowers, and space to store equipment and tools. In the fall of 2019, Green Visions closed on the purchase of a house on property adjacent to their Whitney Street campus that will serve as a year-round training center, once renovations have been completed. They still need to raise about $100,000 for renovations to the house, including an ADA-compliant ramp and much-needed bathroom facilities.

a monarch butterfly finally

paused for a photo

The program is truly inspiring and inspired, and should be a model for other parts of the city, as well as other cities with at-risk neighborhoods.