Youth Help Transform Vacant 53206 Lot into Community Garden

A vacant lot between West Concordia Avenue and North 12th Street is being transformed into Coaches Corner Garden. The new community garden is a space that has local teens eager to give back to the neighborhood when it opens in early June, organizers of We Got This Milwaukee say.

We Got This Milwaukee works with youths ages 10 to 18 to maintain 15 formerly vacant lots in the 53206 ZIP code by planting produce and flowers to give away to residents for free, while cleaning up the neighborhood. The work helps build leadership skills through paid opportunities.

“53206 has over 800 vacant lots with liabilities or assets, but we want to create more assets,” said Meg Bruzan, board member of We Got This Milwaukee.

Developing Coaches Corner Garden

The idea of developing a new garden came when violence broke out in the neighborhood a few months ago involving a teen.

We Got This student leaders Nariah Eubanks, 17, and Denzil Brinson, 16, said they were hesitant about working on the vacant space because of how unsafe the area felt.

Eventually, participants agreed to move forward with the garden in hopes of inspiring others to get involved and create positive change.

“We realized that if we’re scared then it’s going to show that everybody else is scared too,” Eubanks said.

Organizers chose the vacant corner lot for the garden because of its access to water and it being in a high-traffic area.

“There’s a corner store right next to it and we think it would be nice for people to have more access to food that they can grab and go along the way,” Bruzan said.

Bringing the garden to life

According to Bruzan, the garden may have six rows of garden beds with benches placed under the trees.

“We don’t have an official layout yet,” she said.

We Got This Milwaukee is supplying lumber to the South Milwaukee School District, which will help build the garden boxes.

Youths will put the garden boxes together then place them where they need to go.

Brinson said he’s eager to contribute to Coaches Corner Garden by helping build the garden boxes and adding soil, since he missed the chance to help develop the neighborhood’s other gardens.

“It’s beautiful to see a garden like this about to flourish in our neighborhood,” Brinson said.

He initially didn’t like to plant, but after being invited by a friend to participate in the organization, he said he knew that We Got This Milwaukee was the place for him.

Eubanks spent her childhood helping with her grandmother’s garden and watering house plants.

She said the initiative expanded her knowledge of gardening and she enjoys learning the origins of each fruit and vegetable she plants.

The work behind the growth

Eubanks hopes that the new garden will engage more youths who want to give back to the community.

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“Even though our numbers are growing, we want more people to be involved in it,” Bruzan said.

On Saturdays in the summer, youths typically line up at 6 a.m. to split into groups and prepare to work in different areas including gardening, mowing and trash pickup.

The youths get $20 and student leaders receive $40 for working on a Saturday.

Brinson said the effort they put into each garden is worth it because residents stop by often while he’s gardening and give him recognition.

“The adults definitely give us our thank yous out here,” he said.

Though Coaches Corner Garden is still in development, Eubanks wants residents to know it is a symbol of change and unity that is coming into the 53206 neighborhood.

“The adults around here see us out and tell us that we’re doing good,” she said. “There’s other things to do other than violence and what you see on television.”

Getting involved

If you or a child is interested in being a part of We Got This Milwaukee, click here.

Children can come and help in the garden whenever they like.

If you are interested in donating items to contribute to the neighborhood’s garden, here’s a wishlist.

Monetary donations are also accepted, which will always go right to the children.

This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.