Hey Ricsters!! My name is JaVonn Turner and I’m a member of the Growing Youth Project (GYP) in Alameda, California. I went to RIC in July and it was the best RIC that I’ve been to. I went there with the frame of mind that it was going to be the same old speeches and activities revolving around organic food, healthy living and community. Things that would just bore me and make me not participate, but I was wrong!!!!! RIC in North Carolina was great! I had a lot of fun. I learned a lot of things...

My name is Jessica and I am from the Growing Youth Project in Alameda California. This was my first year here at RIC and I loved it, and it didn’t hurt that it was in North Carolina! Some of the things I enjoyed included making jam, going to the Dillard Academy and planting marigolds, the unexpected water fight and all the people and new friends I have made, The people probably were the best aspect, with everyone being really accepting and friendly. Another thing that I enjoyed was when the yo...

Hi my name is Markisha and I am from the GROWING YOUTH PROJECT, in ALAMEDA CA and I went to the ROOTED IN COMMUNITY conference this year. The best part of the conference was when this lady inspired me to make my own products from scratch to make a living. And the story she told took me into the stars; she told me this story about her famous cookies named kukia’s , which had a relaxed quality to it that helps you out a lot and the ingredient was lavender. The cookies were lavender chocolate chi...

On June 19, Community Services Unlimited, Inc, hosted a RIC regional conference.  RIC Advisory Committee youth member Lawrence DeFreitas posted this report.

RIC/CSU Volunteer Day/Regional Gathering

 Date: 6//19/10

 Youth Present: 15 local Manual Arts High School students, and 2 CSU youth

 Objective: To get local youth familiar with the RIC network and its importance through understanding and talking and sharing about challenges in their community.

 Summary: We started the day with an op...

Community Services Unlimited is a non-profit organization based in South Los Angeles. Our goal/mission is to foster the creation of communities actively working to address the inequalities and systemic barriers that make sustainable communities and self-reliant life-styles unattainable.

We are committed to supporting and creating justice-driven community-based programs and educational initiatives, which seek to foster dialogue, and create awareness and critical consciousness.  We envision eq...

"Food, What?!" is a youth empowerment program based on our farm in Santa Cruz, California.  In March, we hired on 50 mostly low-income youth to be a part of our Spring Internship.  Working in five groups of ten, the program runs after school for 3 hours each week from March to June.  Each session includes an opening ice-breaker/energy builder, a farm activity, a leadership development or food justice workshop, cooking a farm fresh meal, and some reflective journaling time.  This week we focuse...

The Durham Inner-city Gardeners at SEEDS are pumped to host the RIC family this year in the Bull City, aka Durham, NC.  We are working with Stone Circles, the Wayne Food Initiative, and Anathoth Community Garden to put together RIC 2010.

DIG is a program that brings youth and adults together to learn from each other.  Over the winter, the DIG program is made up of a core group of year-round youth coordinators who solidify their leadership skills and hone their gardening knowledge.  As spring...

We are Farm Fresh Choice family, teens and 3 adult coordinators, a program of the Ecology Center Berkeley, dedicated to advancing Food Justice, healing, and empowerment for our communities of color.  RIC allows us to build strong relationships with a national family of dedicated teen leaders and mentors.  We are inspired to see and feel that we are a part of a national food justice movement that is growing big time!  We are grateful to the organizers and coordinators of RIC that know how impor...

Spring has arrived in Lewiston. Magnolia and dogwood trees are blooming, bees are buzzing, spinach, peas, and salad greens are growing strong in the hoop-house and on Saturday we were reminded that spring in Maine has an additional perk, snow. As heavy, thick snow piled on the trees and gardens the fear sank in, did we start too early? Were we fooled by the 80-degree days in March? A few hours later the snow melted and we breathed a deep sigh of relief; the onions, spinach, peas, radishes, tur...

Every year after I return with my group of youth from the annual RIC conference I feel just as it claims - rooted in and connected to a community.  That feeling carries with me and my team throughout the year, and it is a feeling and a connection that we return to often for reflection, energy, and ideas.  We tell stories from our experience, share games and knowledge, reconnect and grow the relationships we made there, and always look forward to planning our next year experience.  Our team aft...

What does Berkeley Youth Alternatives do?  BYA is a non-profit program that helps kids stay out of trouble.  They have a garden program that helps out the community by giving them organic food from our garden and telling us how to eat better and stay healthy.  BYA helps me stay in school and keep me on track with school, like my homework and going to class, and helps me get ready for prom and other big events.  They help me be more active and walk everywhere.  I eat better food now. I am more ...

Time flies when you have had so much fun!  It has been a little over a week since RIC 2009 concluded on Sunday, August 2.  We spent the morning with our now traditional "positives and deltas" exercise.  The groups come together--this year we did it by region--to discuss the things we liked and the things we want to change for the next conference.  Then groups reported out to everyone.

Finally, and sadly, it was time to say goodbye, always a poignant moment at RIC.  Old friends who have not ...

Today was The Food Project's day, and we traveled the two hours from South Main Community College to where RIC began in 1999, the Lincoln Farm in Lincoln, Massachusetts.  According to Doron Comerchero, who was there at the time, some TFP youth returned from an ACGA conference wondering about youth programming.  To address this question, TFP and ACGA created Rooted in Community and held the first national conference.  So today was a bit nostalgic, as we returned to the field where it all began ...

Today RIC was filled with lots of learning, through outstanding presentations from the youth.  Topics ranged from growing tomatoes upside down in recycled plastic liter-sized bottles to how to grow tomatoes in the Arizona desert; and from youth advocating for healthy change to a critical analysis of the food system.  The power of youth learning from their peers is palpaple in the workshop sessions, as youth listened intently and demonstrated their new knowledge and skills.

Cultivating Commu...

The 2009 Rooted in Community National Conference began on Wednesday, July 29, at South Maine Community College in South Portland, Maine, a beautiful campus overlooking Casco Bay.  After a delicious dinner prepared by RIC participants, under the direction of Jonah and the Local Sprouts Cooperative, the opening ceremony included planting a blueberry bush with soil brought to Maine by all the groups attending RIC.  Then The Food Project crew led a process for the participants--some 100 youth and ...