The Oliview Community Building Farm Project has been in operation since our first semester opened in January of 2022. We started with 5 youth, and since then have hosted several dozen underserved, at-promise youth in the north state community. We now have more youth than ever interested in participating, which is great news! These are largely diversionary youth, who have not yet engaged with the justice system, and working with them now can help them totally avoid it. This means they get to focus on building their lives rather than recovering from justice engagement.
Stipends are our biggest cost: we offer a stipend to youth to recognize the investment they're making in themselves when they decide to spend time on the farm. They are growing food to feed the community, and are building social and physical infrastructure to support that work. Stipends are an important recognition of their contributions and personal investment.
Animals - furred and feathered! - can be an important part of the healing process. Youth faces are obscured where privacy is prioritized.
Second to stipends is staff time: while we can’t always pay staff, and are lucky to have people willing to volunteer their time with this important population, paying staff is nearly as important as recognizing youth through stipends. We would like to be able to pay one full-time staff member and one part-time staff member annually.
Finally, costs associated with curriculum, materials, tools, seeds, and independent living training are also important. While we are often able to get these covered through partnerships and collaborations in the community, it all adds up and is all important to creating a complete and supported experience for youth.
Youth are working together to prep chicken for tacos in this independent living skills-building experience. Again, youth privacy is protected by obscuring faces.