Planting seeds of success: Green Visions gardening program empowers Rochester youth with job skills and confidence

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A program in our community is helping young people develop life skills one seed at a time.

The garden isn’t just a space for growing beautiful flowers, it’s also a space where young people in the community are learning and developing workforce skills.

Once, this was an empty lot. Now it’s a tangible result of the work 18 to 24-year-olds have done over the past few months.

Morgan Barry, director of Green Visions, said it’s a lot more than cutting grass and planting seeds.

“You build their resume and their experience base so that they’re ready to go out into the world and get their next job or pursue their educational aspirations,” Barry said.

The program aims to help at-risk youth gain meaningful work experience and community support. The garden is fully planted, maintained, and utilized by members of the program.

Kayla Storball, a Green Visions fellow this year, tells me she’s seen this experience help people realize what they’re capable of.

“We’re not on our phones all day. We’re here actually working with our hands. And so it kind of like cultivates a really strong mindset in each person,” Storball said. “A lot of them said that their mind about working has changed. Like they’re more hard-working because they come here and see this is something that could benefit me long term.”

Barry has graduated more than 150 kids from the program. He says they get consistent schedules, paychecks, and advice from community members on opportunities available to them. He tells me it shows them what a work-life balance could look like.

“Confidence comes with accomplishments. It’s like you really understand what you’re capable of by doing things and growing and going outside of your boundaries and trying something new,” Barry said.

He said it helps teach members teamwork and creates bonds that last a lifetime. Storball says watching the work they’ve done come to fruition is very rewarding.

“Just to see over time change and become something beautiful. It really like not only gives you like a metaphor for your life, but also just like a metaphor for how you should walk,” Storball said.

People who have worked in the garden and made up the bouquets can share their work with the community. They will sell these at the public market on Saturdays.

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