What is Growing Power and how does it relate to the JCCP’s Reimagining Justice Initiative? 

The Jewett Center is invested in using the resources at our disposal to support organizations working toward justice. Re-Imagining Justice (one of the Center’s 3 focus areas) has supported groups that advocate for decarceration, criminal justice reform, alternatives to incarceration, and prison abolition. We are also supporting groups working on increasing community investments in the socio-economic growth of those most marginalized, and most likely to make up prison populations. Cultivating Justice is an extension of Re-Imagining Justice. Cultivating Justice strives to meet community-identified needs around food security, land access, environmental justice, and pathways toward agriculture for BIPOC and formerly incarcerated people. Our goal is to nurture the next generation of farmers of color in Connecticut. Growing Power seeks to connect or reconnect families and young people—specifically BIPOC, incarceration-impacted, and low-income families—to agri-culture, ancestral relationships with nature, and skills that promote food security, intergenerational relationship building, and wellness. You can learn more about Cultivating Justice on our website. 

You can find the schedule of events, registration link, and workshop descriptions below. 

SCHEDULE

• 10:00am- Welcome and Remarks
• 10:30am-12:00pm 
  • Gardening 101
  • Black Herbalism & Healing
  • Fishing 101
  • Garden and Farm Story Time with Russell Library
  • Urban Chicken Keeping Course
• 12:00pm Lunch
• 12:30pm-2:00pm
  • Gardening 101
  • Black Herbalism & Healing
  • Fishing 101
  • Garden and Farm Story Time with Russell Library
  • ​**BLOC Organizer Training- **Don’t forget to also register with Katal for this workshop
    • BLOC Organizer Training Registration (google.com) 

Saturday, February 18th at 10am at Wesleyan University

45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown, CT- 3rd floor

Register at: bit.ly/cultivatingjustice23 

WORKSHOPS

• Gardening 101- Hosted by Fire Ring Farm with Kristianna Smith, and Stacey Barka
  • Learn how to plan out your garden and make your own bucket gardens to take home.  
• Black Herbalism & Healing- Co-Hosted by Sasha’s Whole Earth and Fruitful Ascension 
  • Learn about Black herbalist traditions of natural healing. Sample juices and teas, and more! 
• Fishing 101- Hosted by Life 1122
  • Learn the basics of fishing using plastic fish and magnets. Limited number of fishing licenses (for people 16 & up), and fishing kits (for kids) available.
• BLOC Organizer Training- Hosted by Katal Center for Equity, Health, & Justice
  • Building Leadership and Organizational Capacity (BLOC). This session is intended for current community organizers and/or any individual interested in an examination of how power functions in community and how to shift it towards those most marginalized.  
• Urban Chicken Keeping Course- Hosted by Amy Grillo and Lorenzo Jones of Chicks Ahoy
  • This is the first chicken keeping class in our course. We’re making it available to anyone interested in a general overview of what it takes to keep egg-laying chickens.

We’re grateful for all the folks who have so generously offered to support this project. We encourage you to click through all their sites linked above and check out their work.