Operation Weed & Seed Inc.
OPERATION WEED & SEED
Training: August 10 - September 26 and November 7 - December 12, 2007; West End Mt. Carmel Outreach Center and Cote Brilliante Elementary; Lois Ingrum, Instructor
Exhibition SITE #1: PPRC Photography Project Gallery
February 19 - May 18, 2008
Exhibition SITE #2: West End Mt. Carmel Outreach Center
February 26 - May 17, 2008
Website: www.weedandseedstl.org
Operation Weed & Seed, Inc. is a national program of the U.S. Department of Justice which came to St. Louis in 1995. The West End and Hamilton Heights neighborhoods are Weed & Seed's current St. Louis sites (2006-2011). "Weeding" initiatives include enhancing law enforcement efforts, promoting community policing through a more visible police presence, setting up Neighborhood Advisory meetings, and encouraging resident involvement in programs like Community Block Units, Court Watch, and National Night Out. "Seeding" initiatives include prevention, intervention, and treatment services, along with resources for individuals, youth, and families in crisis. Restoration initiatives are also implemented to help coordinate community clean-ups, community gardening, and support for economic and residential development.
In the summer of 2007, PPRC Photography Project Instructor Lois Ingrum worked with children attending a summer camp at West End Mount Carmel Community Outreach Center. Ms. Ingrum and the young participants focused on three aspects of their neighborhood: "the positive, the negative, and the possible." Lois asked the children to think in terms of "How we would LIKE our neighborhood to be?" and helped them photograph and journal about some of the troubling contrasts they lived with every day. While the West End's Amherst Park boasts a huge set of new playground equipment, just around the corner, in trash-strewn Parkland Park, you have to wade through water to sit down on a rickety bench, and the swing sets are too dangerous to play on.
Two photographs exemplify the children's thoughts on "How they would LIKE their neighborhood to be." During a field trip to the pool and water park at St. Vincent Community Center in neighboring Pagedale, Labronya Sowell (age 10) photographed a little girl rejoicing under a waterfall on a hot summer day. This provided a poignant contrast to Preshis Mosely's (age 11) photograph taken at the West End's Parkland Park entitled "No Water at All." It documents a dry, non-functional water fountain.
--Mel Watkin, Instructor and Director
PPRC Photography Project
Texts by Participants:
"I like my neighborhood because it's quiet. The one thing I would like to change is people shooting each other."
--Lenard Cushshon, 10
"I like my neighborhood because it is fun and I live by my school and friends. The one thing I would like to change is the littering."
-- Preshis Mosley, 11
"I like my neighborhood because I have a lot of friends. The only one thing I would like to change is people being bad, loitering, littering, and stealing cars. And can we get a water fountain that works?"
-- Amber Cole, 12
PARTICIPANTS:
Meca Brown, 11
Leonesha Clay, 13
Amber Cole, 12
Lenard Cushshon, 10
Lenell Cushshon, 10
Saquina Davis, 12
Marcus Groves, 13
Jaylan James, 10
Javon Miller, 12
Preshis Mosley, 11
Renee Sanders, 11
Labronya Sowell, 10
Destiny Standers, 11
Darlette Towns, 11
Diamond Turner, 11
Dymon Tyson, 11
COMMUNITY PARTNERS:
Operation Weed & Seed, Inc.
West End Mount Carmel Outreach Center
Cote Brilliante Elementary School