A project some hope will act as a catalyst for change in the Holden Heights neighborhood is one step closer to reality, thanks to a hefty grant.
- Cycles and Sprouts turns shipping containers into learning labs
- Project wants to give hope and confidence to Holden Heights community
- Group wants project to blossom elsewhere
Nonprofit Kaley Square, the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council and others won a $100,000 grant from Aetna for their project idea, called Cycles and Sprouts, which turns shipping containers into learning labs in order to teach neighbors about urban agriculture and bike maintenance.
“One of the things that I see in our community is hopelessness, and I think this program can provide hope and confidence," said Demetrius Summerville, executive director of Kaley Square. “We have some beauty amidst the brokenness.”
In 2011, Summerville moved to Holden Heights with his wife and children. He's aware of the neighborhood's reputation, but believes that Holden Heights is ever-improving.
“We have similar struggles to Pine Hills, to Parramore, to Mercy Drive. It’s a distressed community with high crime rates," he said. “But, it’s a beautiful place, beautiful treescape.”
After conversations with friend Stephen Bender, an architecture lecturer at the University of Florida, they came up with the idea of re-purposing shipping containers as a backdrop for learning.
Bender had been using the containers, housed in an old warehouse off I-4, as labs for his architecture students, but classwork ended in the spring.
“We were there, we were listening. And Demetrius had a really good ear to the community," said Bender. “I felt like Holden Heights was a place that needed some attention."
Bender, Summerville and others invested in the project reached out to Luis Nieves-Ruiz with the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council.
“We partner a lot with communities to find grants," Nieves explained. “It’s about how to find innovative approaches to economic development.”
Last spring, with the help of the planning council, the proposal of Cycles and Sprouts was submitted for an Aetna grant — and won.
“We were jubilant on one hand, and oh my goodness. We have a big program to implement now," Summerville said.
“One of those surprises when you’re really, really excited and you see the possibilities," added Nieves, calling the now-vacant lot on West Kaley Avenue – the future home of the project – a space of "hope" and "revitalization."
But, Nieves added that the project is about more than growing geraniums or fixing Schwinns. It's about fostering learning and teaching soft-skills.
“It’s like, how do I turn up on time, how do I complete a project," explained Nieves. “Those are soft skills that sometimes people in the community don’t have.”
Summerville, who shared that he grew up in poverty in Birmingham, Alabama, expanded that notion.
"When I learned how to play an instrument or I learned how to do something, it gave me the confidence to try new things. So these skills they’re gaining through agriculture or bicycle repair, they’ll be transferable to other aspects of their life," he said.
In coming weeks, UF students will help move and install the shipping containers onto the lot, which sits adjacent to the Kaley Square community center.
After they finish working hand-in-hand with the community on building a curriculum, they hope to start classes in the labs by spring.
If successful in Holden, the group envisions seeing Cycles and Sprouts blossom elsewhere.
“We can do it in other communities as well," Bender said. "A shipping container is just a box of potential."
When asked if he thinks it will work, Nieves replied, "I am a believer.”