The Radical Root
Actionable examples of grassroots gardening, food sovereignty, and equitable food justice initiatives, empowering communities to cultivate sustainable change.
The Radical Root
Building Bridges from Incarceration to Cultivation
Keone Young's remarkable journey from the Columbia River Correctional Institution to becoming the Black Outreach Coordinator at Growing Gardens showcases the transformative power of gardening in fostering community and social justice. Tune into this episode of the Radical Root podcast as Keone shares his inspiring transition, emphasizing how the Let Us Grow program offers meaningful educational opportunities that help reduce recidivism and open doors for formerly incarcerated individuals. Through our engaging conversation, Keone sheds light on how collaborative efforts and resource allocation can effectively engage black Americans and people of color in Oregon's agricultural initiatives.
We explore the critical role of connecting communities with agricultural opportunities, highlighting initiatives like Black Futures and Lettuce Grow. Keone discusses the vision of creating a "spider web" community hub that bridges the gap between black Americans and agricultural resources, despite the challenges of institutional barriers. Celebrate the progress made in nurturing interest and participation, and hear Keone's aspirations for expanding educational programs for those transitioning out of incarceration. By emphasizing perseverance, adaptability, and systemic advocacy, this episode encourages listeners to pursue their passion for agriculture and community building, overcoming obstacles with determination and collective effort.
Welcome to the Radical Root podcast hosted by the 501c3 non-profit Growing Gardens, your go-to resource for all things radical gardening and food system advocacy. All right, welcome to the Radical Root. My name is Bea, I'm the development manager here at Growing Gardens and I'll be your host for today's episode. This month on the Radical Root, our topic is creative approaches to radical gardening and food system equity. The idea is that you don't really have to garden to be a radical gardener. You can still make an amazing and important impact in your community. Today, I'm joined by Keone of our Let Us Grow program to talk about one of the foundational cornerstones of radical gardening work, and that is resource allocation and collaboration. Keone, I'm so glad you're here with us today. Can you just hop right in and tell us a little bit about yourself, your name, your pronouns and what's your role at Growing Gardens?
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, bea. My name is Keone Young. I'm currently the he him. I am currently the Black Outreach Coordinator at Growing Gardens, or Growing Gardens for the Let Us Grow program Sorry, I always get caught up with that. So I currently do outreach through one of the 14 prisons in Oregon, which is Columbia River Correctional Institution, and at that institution we teach the Seeds to Supper, which is a prerequisite to the Master Gardener's course, and the ideal for this program is to or specifically my job in this role is to increase the enrollment of African-Americans and people of color. This is specifically important to me because I was a participant of the Let Us Grow program and found my passion for gardening and farming through Let Us Grow. I was raised in Portland, oregon. There wasn't really a lot of agriculture or anything to do with that had to do with farming. Growing up here and finding this was really inspirational for my moving forward.
Speaker 1:That is so awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that, and we're going to get into more of the details behind that and how you ended up kind of in this line of work and, like the story that is, you know, so frequently echoed by other people of color, people in the incarceration system, people really trying to get back to the land here in Oregon, I'm really excited to kind of dig deeper into this story with you. So can you share I mean you touched on it a little bit but what really brought you to growing gardens? Like how did you get inspired to do this work? When did you hear about the Let Us Grow program and kind of what went from hearing about Let Us Grow to actually working with Let Us Grow?
Speaker 2:So that is a that's a hard one. I will try my best to answer as clearly as possible. That's a hard one. I will try my best to answer as clearly as possible. So in 2019-20,. I met Rima and Mirabai Collins at CRCI. I happened to see a flyer that said Seeds to Supper come grow with us and I was like that looks interesting. I'm going to try it out. After I met Rima and Mirabai, I was kind of like infected by agriculture and like the possibilities for my community that I grew up in and had never seen any specifically Black agriculture, which is my role at Black Futures Farm, is just being a Black farmer and growing community, as my co-farmer, Daniel Grady, says.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So you at the time were incarcerated when you heard about the Let Us Grow program and got involved in the seed to supper class.
Speaker 2:I was about nine months from release and Reema and Mirabai were like hey, you don't have enough time to finish both classes, but if you would like to do some self-study and get certified, we might be able to offer you a job. And through my dedication and hard work, rima and Mirabai brought me onto the team like I was one of their own, like I'd been here forever and it was meant to be.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, that's an initiative that we are so passionate about here at Growing Gardens. Is, you know, like really working hard to educate, advocate for and then hire the people in the communities that we serve, because otherwise, you know, we need to hear those voices and we need to reflect on those voices in everything that we do. So this is just another one of those amazing stories of a program participant becoming a staff member here at Growing Gardens. So for those folks that might be listening today that haven't heard about Let Us Grow, can you just share a little bit about what our Let Us Grow program is and what we do?
Speaker 2:So Let Us Grow is in 14, all 14 of the Oregon State Prisons, as well as Sheridan, which is a federal institution, and I think we may do a little bit of work in juvenile facilities or are working to work in juvenile facilities but, based on various hurdles, it's a little harder to get with the juveniles. So ideally we would like to lower recidivism through education and programming. Just having that positive, something positive to do when you're inside, to transfer out, is super important to just your program as a community member and transitioning into a safe space. So through education we hope to offer jobs and lower recidivism.
Speaker 1:Amazing, yeah, and we offer a variety of different classes. I think it's different, right, like each facility kind of has different classes or different programs that are available.
Speaker 2:So yes, I want to say year added a plant diagnostics as well as plant diagnostics and plant identification or no plant diagnostics and plant pathology. Yes, there's a lot of plant. There's all different aspects of planting going on that we have been working on. There's also a ectomology the study of bugs, which is now being incorporated into the Seeds to Supper and Master Gardeners, just so when the AICs get out Adults in Custody, sorry are released. They have like something to put on that resume that someone may not have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you for just kind of providing that context about Let Us Grow. So you mentioned a little bit earlier that your role is. I believe you're what's your official title the Black Educator, or Black Black Outreach Coordinator. Black, outreach Coordinator with the Let Us Grow program, and this is a new role and I wanted to talk a little bit about that, like why did we decide to hire for this specific role? Like why did we know that this absolutely needed to happen and we needed someone in this position?
Speaker 2:So the low. So for one, the enrollment in African-Americans and people of color was very, very low, which I think don't quote me on this. We were able to raise by 10% last year, so that was just a calling. There's a big movement forward in agriculture, especially for African-Americans. So just restoring healthy land-based practices and giving people of color and African-Americans their right to the land is just kind of like my job, just disconnecting the trauma from gardening and farming and making it something so pro-social and acceptable for people of color and African-Americans to do.
Speaker 1:That's some powerful work right there. So I know, too, connected with this work, that there was a challenge involved because you yourself were exiting your own incarceration. So what kind of what did that look like? Like the idea was to have a person of color, a Black person, be at these gardens, you know, as you know, to represent and to say, hey, like we're here, let's do this work together and let me, you know, kind of guide you in that process. So that was the idea, but the reality was a little bit different than that, you know, once you're on the outside, because there's a lot of red tape. So I'd love to hear a little bit about what that has looked like for you coming into the Let Us Grow program.
Speaker 2:So what we all thought was going to be me being released and me going to be a teacher and having someone for our classes to identify with and just being the face of agriculture, just saying that this is actually happening outside, was the goal. After my release, we found out that I would not be able to get back into prison not back in, but into prison to teach the classes for, I think, five to six years, which obviously was not the plan. But we've been working through that, just through a lot of advertisements, flyers and just making the face of agriculture in prison more color, just diversifying our portfolio, our flyers, just just something. Things so as simple as putting more books about african-americans into the library that farm, as well as posters that portray african-americans farming in harmony just finding those ways to have Black representation on the inside.
Speaker 1:And it's amazing to me that that was such a challenge and something that wasn't available to begin with, knowing full well that people of color are disproportionately incarcerated, you know, and that somehow we had a lower rate of people of color involved in this program to begin with.
Speaker 1:Like these are the folks that we need the most support, that we want to, you know, like really help them get to that next level, you know, and give them the resources that they have not had access to because of the way that the system is set up.
Speaker 1:So it's amazing to me that, like it's almost an afterthought to have to be like, hey, let's get black representation. You know where you were, had been released, so, for whatever reason, that kind of boundary was set up, and now you're just having to come up with all of these creative ways to represent people of color on the inside, from the outside, which is amazing. What are some other ways that you're like kind of bridging the gap? Are some other ways that you're like kind of bridging the gap? I know that you do a lot of resource allocation or, like you know what happens, are you able to connect with people once they're released? Or, you know, do you meet people that were previously incarcerated and help them Like what are some other ways that you're kind of representing our work and your work and let us grow on the outside?
Speaker 2:So that is a very interesting question, because it's extremely difficult to work with the people that have been released because we are not actually supposed to reach out to them. It's a very strange connection between DOC and let us grow from my understanding is you know, I don't understand it, I couldn't tell you, but I'm almost sure that we are not able to get ahold of them. They have to get ahold of us once they are released. So that I mean kind of causes a problem all in itself because you can work with. So these classes are nine, the first class is nine months, the second one is 12 months. Classes are nine, the first class is nine months, the second one is 12 months.
Speaker 2:So just, and then once somebody releases, it's not like, oh well, I'm going to call Keone it, let us grow. It's, it's not that easy, as much, as much, as great as it be, because you know you're getting out, you have to get all your stuff, all your ducks in a row, and gardening is probably the last thing on anyone's mind. So it's like it's just, it's a constant hurdle of okay, how do how do we get in contact with you? Who do we get in contact? And it's not, and we actually don't offer jobs. We offer a community network that offers jobs, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't usually offer jobs internally, and I mean because it requires funding for us as well. Like every one of our positions is either grant funded or, you know, as a nonprofit organization. We have to hit that milestone. You know, we bake it into our budget and we say this is who we would like to hire. Maybe can we raise the funds to make that happen, which, by the way, you know, you can always donate to Growing Gardens to help us so we can add more staff.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, these are the unique challenges that we have. Like, of course, we would love to be able to say, hey, you know, like we have a program where we hire previously incarcerated individuals to work for us in this capacity, but we can't, it's just not that easy. And then there's these other you, these other roadblocks that come up, like in the situation of Keone, where you can't go back in but you want to be able to bridge the gap in this way or they can't directly reach for how you can actually provide resources for them. So it's just another way that the odds are stacked against people of color and another reason that we actively need to be doing this work that we're doing every day. So, thank you.
Speaker 1:That sounds like a really complicated and frustrating position to be in. What are some other like creative ways that you have gone about this? I know you mentioned before that you also work in addition to working with Growing Gardens. You work with Black Futures Farm and there's kind of a relationship there where you kind of bridge the gap. I don't know if you want to share a bit about who Black Futures Farm is or any other organizations or any other ways that you kind of help people of color on the outside like tap in and reconnect with the earth.
Speaker 2:OK, so that was. That was a lot of question, so I'm going to try to. I'm going to try to stay on point. So at Black, so my role, how it directly corresponds with Let Us Grow and Black Futures I would say that Black Futures is like a hub. That is where I find the people that are looking to have more African-Americans in their programming, because obviously at Black Futures we are a community nonprofit that works to reestablish the connection between African-Americans and the land. So we get a plethora of people throughout the community that have jobs in agriculture, that are working in agriculture, and that's kind of like my spider web. So I'm constantly like looking around, like, oh, what do you do? Oh, you're looking for help. Well, I know this guy that's really good with bugs or so-and-so. So that's kind of where my work at Black Futures and Let Us Grow collide.
Speaker 1:I love that you called it a spider web. So you kind of just you know you're the connector, you find those you know those threads that really pull the community together in that way?
Speaker 1:Yes, so what would you say now, knowing like on the outside, this position doesn't look like what you expected it to look like, and you're kind of finding these creative solutions and you know, like, regardless of all of the red tape and all of the ways that they're trying to prohibit this position from really like looking like we wanted it to in the first place, how do you feel about the position that you have? Like, what are the results of the happy medium that you found? Do you feel like you know you're able to really go out in the community and make an impact in this capacity for growing gardens?
Speaker 2:I think for sure. I get inquiries almost three times a week about how I can, how people can get like involved and like what they can do, and it's a constant puzzle of oh I can send you here, and sometimes the pieces don't fit Like, sometimes it just doesn't work, but most of the time, from my experience, it's like the people that are looking to do this work are genuinely looking for community not only community, but something that's sustainable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely I'm curious what kind of where do you see or I know you mentioned that it could be upwards of six years before you can actually be in a facility you know as an educator Like, do you have any big projects or anything kind of that you're hoping to add to this position in the future, while you kind of wait until you can get in and do that education piece?
Speaker 2:So we would really like to maybe have like a for it. So, like me, I was not actually able to do the whole 21 months of class in jail. So just to have like that class, so to have a group of people that have been released that were like, oh well, I couldn't finish the class, is there a way to do the class? That would ideally be until I can go teach in the prison. That would be my ideal, our hopes, but hopefully in the next, really the greatest hopes of all will be that my lockout will be over soon and I will be in prison teaching the seeds to supper and master gardeners.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And I know we have such such an amazing and powerful team of folks like working together to help make that happen, to kind of offer those classes afterwards for folks who couldn't finish, because that just it gives them something you know on the outside, something to look forward to and something to do and accomplish and you know like feel really strong and good about.
Speaker 1:So I think that's like an amazing idea and I really hope we're able to make that happen.
Speaker 1:And overall, keone, I just want to thank you for taking the time to be here because this is such a powerful story for anyone listening who just feels like they want to get involved or they want to do the work but, for whatever reason, their circumstances prohibit them from making it happen. You know, like maybe they themselves, anyone listening who has been previously incarcerated that really wants to do this kind of work, or you know, whatever life throws in our way that makes us feel like you know, we want to do something but we can't. I think this is an amazing example of how, like there's all of these different ways that we can approach a problem and, especially if you have community and resources, that we can make that happen. So I'm curious from your own you know perspective, having lived this and having kind of worked into this position the way that you have, what advice can you give to any listeners out there that might be feeling like they can't? You know what advice can you share?
Speaker 2:If you feel like you can't farm or garden or be an agricultural like force, you're doing it. But the minute you have that feeling you are accomplishing a milestone and it's just all about busting that barrier and getting to the next. Oh, I can't do this. And that's when you know you're really farming and gardening because something changed. That was supposed to be easy, breezy, beautiful, and it is going to be beautiful. You just have to get it to that point.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love the get to the next. That's awesome advice.
Speaker 2:And it's farming Like nothing is ever going to be the same. The climate is constantly changing, the regulations are constantly changing. The space is constantly getting smaller, although we hope it's getting bigger. There's hurdles.
Speaker 1:That's such a good call in. Yeah, even when, you know, even for those that feel like everything's coming up, daisies, and it's all going great, you know there's always something around the corner that feels prohibitive, you know. So just keep going. I love that.
Speaker 2:Look for, I mean like, look into green stuff there's. There's things in places where you can make a difference in green voting and making read, read your packages, go to your legislators and read your packages and you will find.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that advocacy piece, that you know it's so easy to say, okay, let's get out, and you know garden, get our hands in the soil. Yes, let's definitely do that. But that other piece of this work, that like real systemic change and advocacy, cannot be overlooked. So I always wrap up these interviews by asking people to share their most useful gardening fact or just something that you absolutely love and adore about nature and our ecosystem.
Speaker 2:I love that it is constantly changing and that just goes back to if it's easy, breezy beautiful, it's too easy to believe, just believe there will be a bug, there will be something and it will still be beautiful yeah, whatever, whatever it evolves into, I mean, and that's amazing, it makes me think of like compost, you know, or just like that process of you know, finding something beautiful and that degeneration, and then it really becomes like rich, fertile soils, rich fertile soil for the next thing.
Speaker 2:Because I would never eat anything out of a compost pile.
Speaker 1:Not advised, definitely not advised, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Something grown out of a compost pile is the most beautiful thing in the world.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Thank you, Keone. Is there anything else you'd like to add or anyone you'd like to shout out before we wrap up here?
Speaker 2:Shout out Rima Green, jason Skipton, black Futures Farm, malcolm and Mirabai Collins, the Black Food Sovereignty Coalition and everybody that plays a part in this beautiful agricultural world that we live in.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much and, for anyone listening, you can find links to those resources in our comments and any person that was mentioned. You can find them in our directory at Growing Gardens and you can reach out to us If you have any questions. If you wanna reach out to Keone, if you're someone who's really interested in local resources or just what you could do in your own community and you're just looking for some advice or you know some feedback on an idea, we are always here for you at Growing Gardens. You can go to our website growing-gardensorg and look up who we are our team, for a complete team directory there, or check the show notes from this episode. Keone, it was really great connecting with you. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for your time B.
Speaker 1:Absolutely All right, have a good one. We'll talk to you again soon.
Speaker 2:Yep, I'll see you soon.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Radical Root podcast hosted by the 501c3 nonprofit Growing Gardens. To learn more about our work or to donate to keep our programs and services thriving, please visit us at growing-gardensorg. While you're there, don't forget to download your free copy of the radical gardening resource guide, your step-by-step action path to a greener future for us all.