The Chicago Eco House and Southside Blooms transforms vacant lots into sustainable urban flower farms, turning blight into economic opportunities for majority-Black inner-city communities.
Local youth are trained as florists and farmers through our workforce development program.
Why flowers? The floral industry generates $35 billion a year. 80% of flowers sold in the USA come from out of the country. Chicago has unused assets in blighted, vacant lots. Youth are unemployed and underemployed - they’re bored. The problems we are facing need systemic solutions, and this program ties together nature, economy, hope, faith, community, and good old-fashioned American progress, all while developing the inherent creativity of young people.
Our speaker is Quilen Blackwell, the president and co-founder of Southside Blooms and Chicago Eco House, a 501(c)3 nonprofit in Chicago with the mission of using sustainability to alleviate poverty on the southside of the city.
Quilen’s background in renewable energy and community organizing is well suited to his role as president of Southside Blooms and Chicago Eco House. His organizing credentials include work abroad as a volunteer in the United States Peace Corps organizing rural farmers in Thailand, as well as helping working-class residents of suburban Milwaukee attain affordable housing domestically.
He later worked in the biofuels industry where he procured feedstock such as used cooking oil and soybean oil for biodiesel production.
Quilen holds a bachelor’s degree with comprehensive honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a master’s degree in environmental policy from the University of Denver.
To learn More:
https://southsideblooms.com
https://chicagoecohouse.org
https://instagram.com/southsideblooms
https://www.instagram.com/chicagoeco/
https://facebook.com/southsideblooms
https://facebook.com/chicagoecohouse
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Podcast and Zoom Host: Rushton Hurley
Podcast Producer: Elton Sherwin
Audio edited and enhanced with: Descript Studio Sound
#PositiveChange #Inspiration #Rotary
# minority
# underprivileged
# economic development