Skip to main content

Youth Voices Investigates Richland Farms

richland_farms_garden.jpg
Support Provided By

In our new installment of Departures, Youth Voices has partnered with the Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale to cover the social history of Compton's Richland Farms. But, only a couple of these kids actually live in the Compton area, so the nature of this project has shifted a bit. Usually, Youth Voices works with a group of high school students from the neighborhood that we are exploring and they contribute personal stories to the project. For the Richland Farms project, many of these kids have never heard of the place. So, what connects the school to the neighborhood you may ask?

It just so happens that the neighborhood of Richland Farms has a rich history of community-based environmental practices. The area is zoned for agricultural use where residents grow gardens, raise chickens, cows, goats, and even horses. The Environmental Charter High School teaches the importance of sustainability and environmentalism, and integrates these concepts into the heart of their mission statement. At the school, students enroll in a program called The Green Ambassadors, which teaches them environmental practices and how to advocate for systematic change.

Richland Farms, thus, presents an incredible opportunity for these students to research an actual urban agricultural community. These students will be able to compare ideas and theories learned in the classroom with the reality of agricultural practices and how it shapes the notion of community. They will learn how to capture this neighborhood, tell its story, and assess the value of Richland Farms as perhaps a model. Through this process, students will hopefully gain insight into this environmental crisis that the world faces and decide whether ideas of localism are viable options for our future.

Join us on this exciting adventure into an area of Los Angeles that has been linked to the past, but perhaps represents a model for our future.

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.