Neighborhood Safety - Part 3

The first two posts focuses on encouraging businesses to participate with crime prevention and local neighborhoods to increase neighborhood patrols. The second post, focused on how businesses could partner with local neighborhoods to decrease the impact of homeless persons and vagrants on the neighborhood and local businesses. This post focuses on prevention. Many youth have no supervision, sense of direction in life, no positive role models or lack financial resources to focus in youth programs. Businesses can help prevent future social problems, decrease delinquency, increase graduation rates by providing resources for youth. Examples include employee sponsored mentoring programs, and youth engagement days to expose youth to the work world. Community service days would encourage a mentor from a local business to work on community service projects with a youth from the neighborhood. For safety, consider a group of three mentors and three youth on each project. This helps youth by teaching work skills, allowing them to work on a project at their neighborhood school, community center, church or synagogue. It can be graffiti removal, planting flowers in public places, helping the elderly or those with handicaps with yard work or working on an art mural for neighborhood enjoyment. To improve graduation rates, send speakers to the neighborhood school. Offer fourth graders college scholarships, start a tutoring center at neighborhood schools and coordinate the staffing. TO help vulnerable or low income youth, offer enrichment scholarships for bringing up grades, improving behavior or decreasing truancy. Enrichment scholarships allow youth to participate in scouting programs, go to Summer camp, obtain private music lessons, pay athletic fees and more. Again, keep statistics to measure outcomes. By demonstrating successful outcomes, other businesses may decide to participate. This has the potential to lives, decrease what can become life long social problems, break the cycle of poverty, help a youth become the first in the family to graduate from high school or college. It also helps prepare young people to make a positive contribution, and become employable. Businesses that provide mentors may also find it easier to recruit new employees who come recommended by the mentor.

Abolish Hunger Now

One of Several Community Gardens-See Sponsoring Partners in 3rd Photo

US Marines Grow this Garden For Anyone in Need

This Partnership Makes Gardens Possible-See next Photo

A Closer View of Community Partnerships

Sustainability comes in a lot of packages. It can refer to food security, agriculture practices, green building, finances, energy, transportation and more. Food security is a big concern. Rising prices, pesticides, lack of access, generational poverty, the high cost of public benefit programs all play a role. Churches, nonprofits and businesses can help by developing sustainable partnerships. For instance a local Lutheran church has partnered with one of the largest health care systems in the United States, several local businesses and Thrivent Financial, a Lutheran organization to create a garden that is now serving apartment dwellers. Yesterday a member of our team interviewed the church secretary and looked at available plans and materials. The church has two master gardeners and several garden mentors available to answer gardening questions for apartment dwellers. Many have never grown a garden before and just need a little guidance. No pesticides are permitted in the garden, and gardeners are asked to use organic seeds. Seed sharing is highly encouraged. Soon we will post pictures that explain this partnership. There are many ways to improve food security. Willamette Christian Church in West Linn receives donated food from Whole Foods. They serve a meal on Sundays at 12:30pm and participants may "shop" for groceries after lunch. Some participants also freeze, can or dehydrate foods when quantities are sufficient. The availability of high quality food and produce helps mitigate health problem, and hunger, but also encourages use of fresh food and food preservation. Growing Gardens is a nonprofit that helps persons who have very low incomes become more sufficient by teaching them how to grow some of their own food. There is a long wait list. Mentors are assigned to help teach gardening skills. The organization uses volunteers to build raised beds, provides containers for gardening on decks or patios, tests for lead in soil if needed, and provides seeds to help gardeners get started. The food stamp program now allows participants to purchase vegetable seeds. Our company is challenging small businesses to incorporate sustainable practices in the workplace that build employee skills. We believe this can serve as a training ground that pays rich dividends. Employees that are exposed to the idea of growing food, preparing healthy food and snacks and breaking bread at work improve relational skills, learn about healthy practices, and eat better. They may in turn take some of what they learn at work and incorporate it at home. We also encourage the idea of family days to help children of employees learn new skills.