Empowering Englewood: Southside Blooms and Urban Agriculture

TFD – Dive into the impactful work of Southside Blooms, a Chicago-based nonprofit revolutionizing urban agriculture and empowering the Englewood community. Discover how they’re cultivating change and opportunities for young adults.

The principal rival of Quilen and Hannah Blackwell, the proprietors of Southside Blooms, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that employs young adults and at-risk youngsters, isn’t other flower businesses.

It’s the streets’ enduring allure.

With regard to the young people who had previously participated in their program, Hannah Blackwell stated, “We heard that some of the kids in our after-school program joined a gang when they grew older.”

Regarding a prior program member, the Kansas native remarked, “I don’t know if Shawn is still alive.”

With the tagline “flowers that empower,” Southside Blooms flower shop is located in the Englewood neighborhood of South Side Chicago, which is primarily home to Black people. The Blackwells, who are parents to three children, have spent the last ten years living in an impoverished food desert that is rife with vacant lots, limited work options, and gun and gang violence.

“What you see in the media is true,” stated Quilen Blackwell.

Known for being among the most violent cities in the country, Chicago recorded 617 homicides in 2023. In the same year, 327 killings occurred in Los Angeles and 386 in New York.

Englewood’s shootings have become less frequent, the Blackwells say. By February, the Chicago Police Department said the city had seen double-digit drops in homicides, shootings and shooting victims this year compared to the same period in 2023.

However, the son of the Blackwells is still scared and crawls into their bed at night when he hears shooting. The risks serve as a reminder to the devout couple of their necessity in Englewood.

Quilen Blackwell, a Madison, Wisconsin native, stated, “I felt like the Lord was calling me to the inner city.”

The Chicago Eco House was established in Englewood. Through farming, flower producing, and flower sales, the flower shop’s umbrella non-profit teaches young people life and employment skills through sustainable urban agriculture.

The artistic young people of Southside Blooms create flower centerpieces and arrangements for neighborhood events, such as weddings. For as long as they like, people can work in the shop or on the off-grid farms.

“It goes beyond simply teaching you some fundamental skills for ten weeks and saying, ‘Hey, good luck finding a job,'” stated Quilen Blackwell. “In our situation, we are the careers and the jobs.”

The Blackwells hope to turn vacant sites into profitable flower farms that employ young people in the neighborhood for the long run. This will allow them to develop flower sales as an anchor industry. They claim that doing this will keep them off the streets.

“We want them to be proud of Englewood and ask themselves, ‘What can I do to make it better?’ rather than, ‘As soon as I can, I’m getting out of here.'” stated Hannah Blackwell.

In 2020, the Blackwells introduced Southside Blooms, and ten years ago, Chicago Eco House.

Since then, they have transformed five abandoned properties in Chicago into solar-powered flower farms. Two lots are owned by the Chicago Eco House. The Blackwells have permission to utilize the other three, which are owned by the county and the city.

The projects turn vacant, litter-filled spaces in the neighborhood into pesticide-free gardens that draw in birds, bees, and grasshoppers.

Everyone is happy, according to Quilen Blackwell.

Their Southside Blooms career development program, whose participants are usually between the ages of 16 and 25, has roughly 35 members.

The couple says they are planning to create a second Southside Blooms flower shop on Chicago’s West Side as the organization expands.

After joining Southside Blooms two years ago, 16-year-old junior Armani Hopkins was elevated to team lead and intends to stay on even after enrolling in the University of Chicago to study microbiology.

“Working at Southside Blooms has had a very positive impact on my life,” Armani said. “It’s helped me learn that there’s more to life, there’s beauty in Black neighborhoods (and that) we are all worthy of love and respect from each other.”

For the previous two years, 27-year-old Dionta White has been a member of the Chicago Eco House farm team. He claims that after enrolling in the class, he has improved his ability to control his emotions and gained knowledge of how businesses operate. He recognizes the importance of dedication as well.

“Working on the farm really made me realize that if you put in the work, hard work will pay off,” White stated. “You have to envision yourself succeeding in all you do and maintaining your attention at all times. Every action you take has a goal.

Englewood: From wealthy to impoverished and rife with crime

Before the Great Depression, Englewood enjoyed economic prosperity, and by 1930, it had the second-largest commercial center in Chicago.

During the Great Migration, which saw 6 million Black people leave the South and travel across the nation between 1910 and 1970, the city served as a hub. Among them were the maternal grandparents of Quillen Blackwell, who moved to Milwaukee during that time as sharecroppers from Arkansas.

At least a few generations of White families that battled to dwell in Englewood during the 1930s redlining of Chicago communities still call it home.

Racial restriction covenants, in addition to redlining, were used in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and other places to maintain the White population in particular neighborhoods. When the practice was outlawed by the US Supreme Court in 1948, Englewood’s White population declined while the number of Black people increased.

Following the Great Depression, redlining, White flight, and disinvestment hurt small companies in Englewood and caused property prices to drop.

In the 1980s, Chicago was devastated by the crack cocaine epidemic. Additionally, in the ensuing ten years, occupations were outsourced, which further weakened Englewood’s foundation, according to Quilen Blackwell.

In the 2000s, White said, hanging out at Englewood’s parks wasn’t an option. He remembered that “they (were) always getting shot up.”

The Illinois Policy Institute reports that the once-thriving neighborhood, where the poverty rate is 40%, is still plagued by drugs, violence, poverty, and prostitution.

“This is a secure area.”

The goal of bettering the inner city brought the Blackwells together. They discovered an inexpensive Englewood home after getting married in 2015, fixed it up in six months, and have been there ever since.

“Everything that you see today with both (Chicago) Eco House and Southside Blooms started inside our house; our first youth program was in our backyard,” Quilen Blackwell said.

According to the couple, Southside Blooms serves as a fulfillment center, and The Chicago Eco House farms the flowers.

“Our delivery model essentially involves distributing our services throughout the Chicagoland area and into the suburbs of Northwest Indiana. By doing so, we are redistributing resources from well-resourced communities back into the community,” explained Hannah Blackwell.

We keep the door secured, as opposed to operating like a typical retail flower shop that depends on walk-in and walk-by customers. Everyone who is inside is in a safe place, she said.

Chicago’s winters are not very productive, but in 2023 the Blackwells started their indoor bulb-forcing operation, which allowed them to grow flowers all year round and gave the farm crew steady work.

The majority of the winter flower cultivation, primarily tulips, has occurred in the Chicago Eco House basement since last year. The Blackwells want to cultivate approximately 30,000 bulbs there year.

“We weren’t able to provide that stable, year-round employment opportunity, and I feel like that’s one reason we did lose some of those young men (who left the program),” stated Hannah Blackwell.

According to the pair, the average length of time a participant stayed at Chicago Eco House was three months in 2018, but average stays were now six months, and some participants had been there for as long as three years.

Quilen Blackwell received the Director’s Community Leadership Award from the FBI’s Chicago field office in 2019 in recognition of her efforts to reduce poverty and violence through the Chicago Eco House.

The organization mentioned that the non-profit co-founder’s efforts had resulted in over 30 high school students receiving stipends to finance their studies in urban agriculture.

“I am able to alter the community”

According to the Blackwells, the most notable Chicago Eco House success stories originate from participants who stay engaged for a minimum of two to three years.

“They may be trying to support two kids when they come in, but now you see that they’re able to get their first car or their own apartment,” Quilen Blackwell said. “Stability is evident.”

White says he wants to stay at the Chicago Eco House for a long time, but he is interested in working in security.

He remarked, “I think there’s room to grow.”

Before he met the Blackwells, White had never imagined himself engaging in any of the following activities: farming, rose-growing, bouquet-making, or centerpiece-making. White has a past filled with mischief and gun violence stemming from his group.

He was incarcerated for six months after taking part in a break-in. He said that the accusation was later removed from his record. He wanted to change his life after serving time in prison and witnessing comrades shot and died.

White stated, “I know my friends wouldn’t want the next generation to go through the same thing we’re going through, so I need to do something for them.”

Two years ago, White was introduced to the program by a friend of his who worked at Chicago Eco House, but at first, White was hesitant.

“At first, I declined, thinking, ‘A guy working with flowers?'” I didn’t want anyone to misunderstand me,” he remarked.

White eventually gave the program a try, and the tasks of planting, harvesting and watering soon grew on him. He claims that since enrolling in the program, he has not had any problems.

Working outside among flowers, attending events, and interacting with people from many communities are all enjoyable experiences for White, who finds gardening to be a calming and fulfilling job. Observing my art develop on its own is incredibly inspiring. It has truly helped me realize that I have the power to transform the neighborhood.