The Mansfield Community Garden is just a few blocks from the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Youth Center on Highland.
It was longtime Center volunteer Shawn Kravich, an attorney with a green thumb, who saw a ripe opportunity to make a connection.
For the past three months, Kravich has spent two mornings a week at the garden with groups of youth who have come to consider the space a haven.
“It’s the thing I look forward to most each week,” says Kravich, who has been gardening since he was a child.
“We are able to give people a sense of pride of ownership over their specific plot. A lot of youth here have felt like they don’t have a sense of ownership.”
The program Kravich has designed divides larger plots into smaller, individual spaces. This allows each person to express their own perspective and to have a space of their own.