Hello! I hope everyone is doing well, and gearing up for the busy holiday season!
Last time, I talked about how Courtney McCary-Squyres is doing everything she can to make sure her knowledge of gardening and growing food in this area outlives her, particularly with the younger generation.
Likewise, Evan Lambert is hoping the community’s collective skills can help disadvantaged youth succeed in the world, despite silly, young, past mistakes.
It’s no secret that our society is very preoccupied with seeking punishment for wrongdoing, instead of laying out proper ways to atone for said wrongdoing. It’s been a debate for a very long time, informed by an economic system that makes money off incarceration. That post will be written on this blog at some point, I PROMISE, but the short and relevant summary is that it is extremely difficult for former offenders to do anything but reoffend in our society, and that is by design.
Especially when it comes to young people who’ve barely even had a chance to make their mark on the world, it’s heartbreaking.
Luckily, The Counseling Center has stepped in to help.
Kathryn Cavazos, the manager for the Juvenile Community Corrections Program, told me that this program is focused on teaching these kids life skills, like budgeting, filling out applications, and other helpful things schools used to teach. Ahem
About 5 months ago, the JCCP teamed up with Community Power New Mexico to start a pilot program called Building Futures.
I plan to extensively cover both of these resources in the future, but I want to highlight how these kids have interacted with the community gardens over the summer.
“They would go to the gardens on Tuesday mornings, and then they would meet with Evan on Thursdays. (Evan’s) a big asset,” said Cavazos.
The project they just finished around a month ago was making signage for the Maryland community garden in both English and Spanish, so community members know exactly what they’re harvesting for their families.
Lambert told me several local hardware stores donated to the cause, including a workbench, protective equipment, and wood. Community Power NM also maintains a tool library that they used.
With this pilot program, Lambert really hopes to show these kids the importance of community interdependence, or how we all succeed when we are able to rely on each other.
This specific program is court-ordered, and we are talking about hormonal teenagers, so the response to this work isn’t always that enthusiastic, but “(the kids) have been very respectful,” and have responded well to Lambert’s presence according to Cavazos. They are hoping to start work on new projects here in the coming weeks once the kids decide what they’d like to focus on, and I plan to be along for the ride!
I think amazing things are happening in our community, it’s just very hard to realize it when it feels like we have so little control over so many aspects of our lives. I know it’s just an unprofessional, slightly opinionated blog, but I hope it can provide a little bit of guidance on where you can focus your energy to actually do some good.
As mentioned, I’m going on vacation and won’t be regularly posting to this space for a few weeks. I hope you will keep an eye out for local events and humanitarian opportunities on My Calendar, and for the community profiles I have been promising since I started this thing. Happy holidays, and I will catch up with you all soon.
Salud!
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