Added Value

Initiatives

Youth Empowerment

Summer Youth Intensives

need copy

Academic Year Program

At Added Value, young people (ages 14-19) develop new skills and positively engage with their community through the operation of a socially responsible urban farming enterprise. Youth participants grow food on the Red Hook Community Farm, operate the Red Hook Farmers' Market, explore food systems and issues of food justice, and build their leadership skills.

Over the course of a season on the Farm, young people gain a strong foundation of agricultural skills and investigate critical issues affecting our community, such as food access, unemployment, and obesity. They hone their abilities to educate and advocate: communicating their knowledge through media projects [hotlink to Digital Horizons] and through special events, such as the Red Hook Harvest Festival.

Teens who participate in our year-long program acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve their educational and employment goals and are prepared to lead their peers and community towards a more just and sustainable future. Youth who return for additional seasons on the farm receive intensive leadership training, participate in local and national conferences, and guide first-year participants through the basics of agriculture.

Added Value works with approximately 20 teenagers annually, who work an average of seventeen hours each week on our Farm, at market, on the computers, and out in the community. They receive a monthly stipend, expanding their families' household income by as much as thirty percent.

Join us!

If you are 14-19 years old and are interested in joining Added Value's youth program, please contact us [hotlink to contact form] by clicking here, or call 718-855-5531.

We currently accept new youth participants in February for our full-season program (March through December) and in late-June for our 8-week Summer Youth Employment Program.

[note: we need to construct a form for applying to Added Value's academic year program]