As spring is finally upon us, not only does that mean that our farms will soon be blooming with vegetables and bustling with Youth Farmers, but also that for a number of our Project LEAD participants, they are graduating High School and entering their last summer at Youth Farm. While we will be sad to see many of these Project LEAD move on from Youth Farm, we are thrilled about the next chapter in each of their lives and hope that their Youth Farm experience has set them up for success in whatever challenges and accomplishments they have ahead of them.
For anyone who has visited a Youth Farm summer program day and joined the Youth Farmers for lunch, you know that a very important part of our youth development model is incorporating public recognition of individual and group successes. During the summer, we do that through our awarding of Green Thumb awards every day to those Youth Farmers who have gone above and beyond as true contributors to the group. We thought that it would be great to extend that to our graduating Project LEAD. During the month of May, we will have current Youth Farm staff, and even some former Youth Farm staff as guest bloggers, highlighting the 12 graduating Project LEAD.
We all know how great it feels to be applauded for something you have dedicated your time and hard work to accomplish. If you know one thing about our Project LEAD program, please know that these young leaders make real decisions, take on real community input and take on the responsibility to mentor and engage younger youth in the neighborhood. So please look for these blog posts and celebrate with us all that these Project LEAD have done, and will do moving forward.