Rooted in Resilience

Green space, park access, and trees

San Gabriel Valley County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) Other

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Los Angeles County has over 270,000 opportunity youth ages 16 to 24 who are not in school or working, the highest number in the nation (Measure of America 2023). These young people are more likely to have experienced foster care, juvenile justice involvement, homelessness, or mental health crises. Nearly 70% are youth of color, concentrated in low-income neighborhoods with limited access to stable employment, education, or supportive services (Brookings 2021). These same communities face overlapping inequities, including food insecurity, lack of access to green space, and higher rates of obesity, asthma, and chronic disease. In many of these areas, residents must travel more than a mile to access fresh produce or a public park. Through the FARM, youth gain paid experience, life skills, and a sense of purpose. By combining job training, food access, and green space, we aim to build pathways to healing, economic stability, and community transformation.

This grant will support the launch of the farmers market at the FARM, a pilot program within our current Advancing in Agriculture, Recreation, and Conservation (AARC) initiative, which is funded by LA County Regional Park and Open Space District. The FARM will serve as a working urban farm where 14 opportunity youth ages 18-26 gain paid, hands-on training in green jobs. Participants will receive paid job training experience across five career pathways— carpentry, irrigation, tree planting and care, organic farming, and greenhouse nursery management over the grant period. The food they grow will supply the youth-led, donation-based community farmers market, improving access to fresh produce and supporting youth entrepreneurship. The project is connected to the region’s first mobility hub along the Emerald Necklace greenway in the San Gabriel Valley at the Santa Fe Dam Recreational Area, which features bike rentals, family programming, and in-kind community workshops hosted by local partners. Trails maintained by participants will link the FARM to the hub and surrounding neighborhoods, activating public space for connection, movement, and play. Grant funds will support business plan development, youth and staff salaries, workshops and events, equipment, supplies, transportation, and indirect costs. This initiative blends workforce training, food justice, and green space revitalization, giving youth and families meaningful ways to grow, thrive, lead, and advance economically.

If our work is successful, communities in the San Gabriel Valley and across LA County will be more connected, vibrant, and resilient. Opportunity youth will gain hands-on training, peer support, and leadership roles that place them at the center of food systems, land care, and public space activation. Our long-term vision is to grow the FARM’s youth-led farmers market model through our AARC program—training more youth each year, expanding to new sites, and refining our curriculum based on youth feedback. Participants will become part of a growing network of young leaders transforming their neighborhoods through environmental work and community-building. As more farms, trails, and mobility hubs take root, we envision a county where opportunity youth are at the center of a healthier, more equitable future. We believe underused land and overlooked talent can reshape communities—and when youth grow roots in their neighborhood, they grow their future.