EYA has a long history at the garden.
Transcript:
Hi there. I’m pleased to welcome you to the Youth Garden, a part of Cottonwood Community Garden that is run by Environmental Youth Alliance, or EYA EYA is a nonprofit founded by a group of high school students in 1989 that provides free, land based education and paid employment training programs to youth from equity deserving communities to help them gain the skills and confidence to become environmental stewards.
The Youth Garden, the space where you currently find yourself, was founded in 1993 as an urban agriculture demonstration site, and in it we also have this beautiful mural which you see in the space. It was created in collaboration with other local nonprofits and depicts what Vancouver could look like as a rewilded space. All of our programs are run on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples and we are committed to honouring those who have stewarded the land since time immemorial.
And we do that by continually decolonizing our practices. A huge portion of our staff and youth that attend our programs are BIPOC as well and come from those communities. Through this, we aim to support a more equitable and inclusive environmental movement that recognizes the intersections of social and environmental justice. I really love doing this work because I feel passionate that we are all a part of nature, and we all have a role to play in nature.
And I also recognize that living in like a big city, it can be hard to find that role or like figure out what that means for you. Yeah, like sit down and talk to a plant for a little while. Like introduce yourself, state your intention before you’re harvesting or picking this plant. To learn more about EYA and our programs, you can visit our website at EYA.ca
