The NYC Land-Based Healing Project is an intergenerational, youth‐centered, multi‐disciplinary participatory research project, launched in the spring of 2023 to better understand what land access means to Black youth and youth of color across our city.

The project team selected five NYC community farms or gardens, representing each borough, and recruited a research team that includes ten Black youth or youth of color (Ages 14-24) who are working on the farms or gardens and one elder/mentor from each of the five gardens or farms. We explore the role of gardens/urban farms in the well-being of Black youth and youth of color while studying these gardens and urban farms as potential sites of intergenerational healing.

Neighborhood-level racism manifests structurally in ways that can include lack of affordable healthy food, toxic dumping, divestment, segregation, limited access to public spaces, hyper-surveillance, and displacement, among others. In NYC, land work such as farming and gardening has evolved as a community practice to address the impacts of structural racism and historical trauma. The NYC Land-Based Healing Project’s goal is to explore urban gardens and farms as sites of healing, strength, comfort, and safety. Our project centers the expertise, curiosity, joy, and healing of Black youth, and youth of color, shifting their role in healing work from consumers of services to researchers and designers of holistic interventions to shape the programs and approaches that are meant to support their well‐being and flourishing.

The Brotherhood Sister Sol

Manhattan

For over fifteen years, The Brotherhood Sister Sol has been actively engaged in the urban gardening and farming movement. They are the caretakers of the NYC Parks Department Green Thumb Frank White Memorial Garden located adjacent to their headquarters and have been responsible for developing the 6,000 sq/ft lot into a Environmental Learning Center that includes a functional Urban Farm (producing more than 35 varieties of fruits and vegetables), a green house, an aquaponics system, a group challenge course, as well as recreational seating and performing areas. All of these features have been co-designed and constructed by their youth members and local community residents. It is the most used Green Thumb Garden in the borough of Manhattan. 

Skyline Community Garden

Staten Island

H.E.A.L.T.H for Youths, supported by Greenthumb, maintains an active community of garden friends and members who grow flowers, vegetables, and herbs. They also engage in life skill training, workshops, and gardening programs. The space contains a Lenape Garden, a little free library, NYC Compost system and much more!

La Finca del Sur

the Bronx

La Finca del Sur is an urban farmer cooperative led by Latina and Black women and their allies. They are committed to building healthy neighborhoods through economic empowerment, increased nutritional awareness, training and education, and advocating social and political equality and food justice in low-income communities.

La Isla Youth Community Garden

the Bronx

La Isla Youth Community Garden is a little piece of heaven, where community can share our dreams, hopes, and creative possibilities for our future. The garden sits on a 1/10 acre site in the Highbridge neighborhood, between Yankee Stadium and the Harlem River. Here, senior citizens and youth alike build skills and commune with nature. Since 2020, the garden has participated in the Bronx Food Hub.

East New York Farms!

Brooklyn

The mission of East New York Farms! is to organize youth and adults to address food justice in the community by promoting local sustainable agriculture and community-led economic development. East New York Farms! is a project of the United Community Centers in partnership with local residents. They have been working with youth, gardeners, farmers, and entrepreneurs to build a more just and sustainable community since 1998.

The Garden of Resilience

Queens

The Garden Of Resilience is the first community garden existing between the tri-community of Springfield Gardens, Rosedale and Laurelton. The green space represents a labor of love between schools, communities and grassroots organizations within the Southeast Queens communities. Several years ago local organizers identified an abandoned lot in Springfield Gardens by using the interactive map powered by 596 Acres.  The map identified that the land was owned by the City of New York and had the potential to serve as a green space. Grassroots organizations, DIVAS for Social Justice & Operation Clean Up worked together with local elected officials and other community stakeholders to  ensure the land was transferred to the NYC Parks & Recreation Department under the Green Thumb Program.

Anna Ortega-Williams, PhD

Dr. Anna Ortega-Williams is a social worker, public scholar, researcher, educator, and organizer inspired by the healing alchemy of social action among Black youth. Anna is the Bachelor of Social Work Program Director, and an assistant professor, at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. A social worker since 2001, she is excited about trauma recovery interventions that push the boundary between individual and collective healing and social change. Her research focuses on historical trauma, posttraumatic growth, organizing, and well-being.

Anna is deeply inspired by local, national, and global social justice movements, in particular Black youth-led responses to interrupt systemic violence. Her work is informed by growing up in public housing in the Bronx, as well as her commitments to joy, healing, imagination, and hope while transforming the world. Anna holds a PhD in social work from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service, Master of Social Work from Stony Brook University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College.

Regina Bernard-Carreño, PhD

Regina Bernard-Carreño is a writer and professor in New York City. She holds graduate degrees from Columbia University and The Graduate and University Center (CUNY), including an MA in African American Studies and a PhD in Urban Education. She now teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Youth Studies at the School of Professional Studies (CUNY), but previously served as the Chair of Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College. She has published three books on feminism, Black Studies and Nuyorican Poetry, as well as, articles for magazines such as Audubon, Good Housekeeping, Breathe (UK), and more. Dr. Bernard is currently at work on several creative projects, most of them dealing with wellness and women of color.

Nkemka Anyiwo, PhD, MSW

Nkemka Anyiwo is a Developmental Psychologist and Social Work scholar whose research applies a multimethod, transdisciplinary approach to identify the cultural, communal, and contextual influences that shape how Black youth 1) make meaning of themselves and their society and 2) engage in practices to promote joy, social justice, and personal and collective wellness.

Vanessa Nisperos, LMSW

Vanessa Nisperos has more than 15 years of experience leading program design and delivery in community-based mental health and youth serving organizations. As the Associate Program Director, she engages partner organizations to co-design trauma-informed and equity-centered programs for New York City providers. Prior to joining the Academy, she managed a community-based mental health site through Connections to Care (C2C), an initiative of Thrive NYC. Vanessa is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and trains providers in behavioral health, mindfulness, and healing intergenerational trauma. She earned an LMSW through the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College’s Community Organizing program.

Elise Tosatti, MUP

Elise Tosatti aims to advance compassionate, community-centered care through experiential learning, multidisciplinary collaborations, and participatory methods that strengthen collective capacities for healing and belonging. As the Academy’s Director, Elise oversees strategy, programming, and budget. Prior to joining CUNY SPS, Elise managed the implementation of Connections to Care (C2C), an NYC initiative that partnered community organizations and behavioral health providers to create more accessible and effective care pathways.

Elise has worked in NYC supportive housing programs and City government, in addition to CUNY SPS, with experience in advocacy, harm reduction, integrated care, program design, implementation, and adult learning. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and a Level II Certified Compassion-Based Resilience Training (CBRT) Teacher through the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. Elise holds a Master of Urban Planning from Hunter College.

Kia-Noelle Brown, MA

Kia is the Research Coordinator for the NYC Land-Based Healing Project, an oral history project centered around Black and other youth and elders of color’s stories about the impact of their involvement in NYC community gardens or farms. Passionate about facilitating reconnection and repair between humans, the land, and the other/more than human world, Kia is committed to kindling Black joy, curiosity, healing, and resistance through practices of connection guided by the natural world. For six years, as a Community Gardens Manager in Nashville, TN, Kia engaged community members, challenging societal pressures of hyper-individualism while addressing the complexities that come with unearthing hidden stories of the past and rekindling ties to the land. Central to Kia’s work is storytelling – crafting and cultivating spaces of transformation, connection, and power that allow individuals to listen to the stories of others and share their narratives.

Kia holds a masters in Transpersonal Ecopsychology from Naropa University. Outside her work at the Academy, she facilitates programming at Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling. She is a partner at Stories of the Land, a Nashville-based organization that helps steward the stories held within the soil in an effort towards education, land solidarity, justice, reparations, and rematriation.