MA SLM 602 - Innovation Movie: Let Kids Return To The Nature
Video by: Xiaoli Yan, Wenxiao Jia and Lingfei Yu
SLM 602 – Case studies in Sustainability
Instructor: Dr. Nicole L.Vaugeois
November 2014
Let Kids Return To The Nature
Food security is a big issue in people’s life. This movie profiles one of the food security projects from Cowichan Green Community, named KinPark Youth Urban Farm. As a non-profit organization, the CGC has been serving and promoting environmental sustainability, with a focus on increasing food security in Cowichan Valley since 2001. By looking at all the food action plans and urban projects which CGC has worked with, the KinPark Youth Urban Farm probably is the most innovative and noticeable one. It is known that Youth are an important segment of the population, who are also the future drivers of economy and employment growth. However, the voices of the youth are often scarcely heard in the process of food security and food production. This really brought a challenge to the local government on how the society can provide the youth actual social training by making the youth involving in. Therefore, in 2007, CGC began to turn vision into this reality by building a community garden in an urban park located next to a high school in north Cowichan. After a series of innovative transformations of the park, such as removing the outdoor public swimming pool and replacing with grass, transforming the unused storage room into an outdoor classroom, with a feature of green technologies and natural building techniques, in early 2012, the first-ever youth urban farm was officially established. The mission of this youth project is to create a sustainable social enterprise that will train youth how to prepare nutritious meals, provide increased access to local organic food and educate youth on how to grow food sustainably in their own backyards. By initiating this youth urban agriculture demonstration site and working farm, it is believed that the young generation in Cowichan will obtain a lot of fun and unique learning experiences from this innovative garden, and they will also develop the self-confidence and enhancing social life skills, and it is a very significant part that will absolutely contribute to make a livable and sustainable development in the future.
