<
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/the-2025-cnn-hero-of-the-year-transforms-vacant-lots-on-chicagos-south-side-into-flower-farms/>
"Hope and opportunity are blossoming on the South Side of Chicago where a man
and his wife have used flowers to help poor communities turn over a new leaf.
Running two nonprofits, Southside Blooms and Chicago Eco House, Quilen
Blackwell and his wife Hannah Bonham are helping at-risk youth find opportunity
while simultaneously cutting into the billions Americans spend every year
importing cut flowers from the tropics.
Blackwell’s work earned him the
CNN Hero of the Year Award at the 19th
edition of the honor, organized by the cable news outlet with support from
corporate sponsors. The award came with a $100,000 prize to support the
Blackwell’s work.
Southside Blooms turns vacant lots on Chicago’s South Side into eco-friendly
flower farms, employing local young people to grow, harvest, arrange, and sell
flowers at his group’s nonprofit flower shop.
Why flowers? When Blackwell, a Wisconsin native, moved to Chicago to attend
ministry school following a stint in the Peace Corps, he ended up in
Englewood—that most notorious of burbs where some 40% of residents live in
poverty.
An initial attempt at a social enterprise growing fruit and vegetables ran
afoul of regulation, and came with challenges like dealing with toxins and
metals in the soil while trying to secure purified water for irrigation. Back
at the drawing board, Blackwell happened upon an eye-opening statistic: that
more than 70% of cut flowers bought in the US are imported.
An example of how incredibly efficient the global economy can be, Blackwell
believed that flowers might be the answer to reconnecting Englewood youth to
nature, while simultaneously growing something meaningful in between boarded-up
shops, condemned buildings, and empty lots.
“I said, ‘Wait a minute. Why are we importing flowers from other countries when
we have all this land, all of this youth?” Blackwell narrated in an interview
to
CNN. “Maybe flowers are the answer.’”"
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
