what′s new : Story about our Youth Program - December 16, 2009

It is always a pleasure and gift when someone chooses to highlight what goes on at Faith in Place. Our own Katy Regalado and the From the Ground Up youth program were recently the subject of an article by Northwestern School of Journalism grad. student Tawny Flechtner.










Building green awareness: From the Ground Up  by Tawny Flechtner



She wears a long-sleeved T-shirt that reads, “Mujeres Visionarias”—visionary women—and sits atop a large red exercise ball as she types at her computer. There are two normal office-variety chairs in the small room, but she is having none of them.



Katy Regalado, the 29-year-old youth coordinator at “Faith in Place,” an interfaith organization that works to provide religious people the skills and support they need to green their congregations, has spent the last three years of her tenure with the organization designing and delivering the portable environmental stewardship curriculum known as “From the Ground Up.”



“I think it’s really critical that a lot of these kids get an opportunity to have a say in how they can be stewards in their own right,” Regalado said.



Regalado instructs her From the Ground Up participants, who range from early elementary through high school, by leading them hands-on interaction with their urban environment accompanied by “teachable moment” type direct instruction.



Recently, Regalado and the kids have been putting in a lot of work planting and growing vegetables, and learning about hothouse condensation, at their very own plot at the Altgeld Sawyer Corner Farm in Logan Square.



The children are especially excited about the Monarch butterfly garden they’ve been constructing at Christopher House, a community center in Logan Square that provides resources for low-income children and families.



“The program is centered around trying to hone in on how to get kids to explore their relationships to the natural world, whether that’s trying to do some urban exploration in their own neighborhoods, on their own school grounds, in their own community centers,” Regalado said.



Despite the religious trajectory of Faith in Place, there is no religious content in Regalado’s curriculum. Because the program runs mostly through public middlemen, (i.e. schools and community centers), it is entirely secular.



Regalado envisions one desirable end to her and others’ green efforts.



“I’m hoping eventually there will be less convincing to do with people, and more support, more resources, so it can be part of the public education experience.”



On Friday, Regalado and the From the Ground Up kids at Christopher House took a walking field trip to neighbor Nancy Freehafer’s home a few blocks away. Their mission: collect the seeds of the native plant life Freehafer grows in her back yard for use in their own Monarch garden back at the center.












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