A flower farm and a bouquet at a time, Quilen Blackwell is working against poverty and the ghetto in the south side of Chicago – and he hopes to replicate its success in cities across the US.
The non profit Southside Blooms that he and his wife, Hannah Bonham Blackwell, started in 2019 grows flowers on 10 acres that were once vacant lots but are now solar powered, ultra-organic flower farms.
The workers are at-risk inner city youth, including former gang members, who are learning marketable skills. “Young people often end up in criminal lifestyles or involved with gang activity because they are seeking a sense of belonging,” Blackwell says. “We created the organization as a positive place where they can belong.”
“We are rehabilitating lots, we are rehabilitating neighborhoods and rehabilitating people,” he adds. “It’s a beautiful thing to see”.
They also have a pilot program in Detroit and a partnership in Gary, Indiana. “We really want to be able to grow as much as possible and as fast as possible, so that inner cities of America can change,” he told People Magazine in a 2022 interview. “This is about eliminating the ghetto as we know it.”
It grew gradually from the nonprofit Chicago Eco House which he and Hannah created in 2014. In 2016, they started an after-school program for children K-8 and began farming in their backyard. In 2017, they bought two vacant lots on the block, launching their first foray into commercial, solar-powered flower farming. At first, they sold flowers wholesale to local florists. Then in 2019, they launched Southside Blooms.
“We wanted to really do something that not only helps the youth, but that would actually physically transform the environment that they’re living in, because it can’t be separated,” Blackwell says.
They aim to disrupt young people heading into gangs by giving them other opportunities to be successful. “They’re not just growing flowers, they are growing themselves,” Blackwell says.
The grandson of an Arkansas sharecropper, he was raised in Madison, Wisconsin, and served two years in the Peace Corps in Thailand before moving to Chicago in 2011 to attend ministry school. In 2013, when he began tutoring high school students on Chicago’s South Side, he encountered hardcore urban poverty in the Black community for the first time. Without the opportunities he had been given, “I felt like I could have been any one of these kids.”
Part of what makes Southside Blooms unique is that it wants to inspire a homegrown floral industry in the inner city that will become an anchor industry.
“There are so many vacant lots and young people who are eager to work, creative and talented. The floral industry is a $35 billion dollar a year industry. But 80% of flowers at market actually come from overseas.”
“So we thought, what if we’re able to basically redirect that 80% of money going to other countries and keep it right here in our communities. That would make a huge difference for the youth as well as the larger community as a whole.”
The young people learn basic life skills like showing up on time, working on a team, learning to collaborate with others, maintaining a farm and getting tasks done. They also learn how to grow and develop plants. They are learning how to explore avenues that they never considered before, Blackwell says. “It’s not just about learning soft or hard skills for a general job. This is specifically geared towards them having a viable career in the floral industry.”
Sources:
From Gangs to Gardening, Southside Blooms Helps Keep Teens off the Streets Chicago Defender, Nov. 11 2021
This Chicago Couple Turns Vacant Lots into Flower Farms, Employs Local Youth as Florists: ‘There’s Hope’ People, Nov. 30 2022
Chicago Flower Shop Converts Vacant Lots Into Flower Farms, Employs At-Risk Youth Nice News, Aug. 12, 2022
Cover image: Southside Blooms photo.