At this year’s Garden Get Down, Grow Pittsburgh is proud to present our “Seeding the Future” award to the Braddock Youth Project (BYP)—a community-rooted program transforming the way youth engage with food, work, and one another.
Founded in 2006 as a summer employment initiative, Braddock Youth Project (BYP) has grown into a year-round leadership and work skills excellence program for youth ages 14–19. At the core of BYP’s success is a powerful formula: hands-on job training combined with tangible benefits to the community. Youth participants don’t just learn how to work—they shape projects based on the needs they see in their own neighborhood.
The program’s goals are to foster skills that will aid teens in advancing toward positive life outcomes, by providing them with the means to create meaningful and sustainable community development projects. These projects seek to harness the energy and creativity of young people to promote positive, culturally relevant change in their community.
The youth create and manage their own garden sites. And they have the opportunity to work on our urban farm. Since 2007, BYP’s deep partnership with Grow Pittsburgh’s Braddock Farms has allowed young people to connect with the full food system—from soil to sale—through hands-on growing and selling produce at farm stands. They also explore food justice, learn cooking skills through food literacy workshops, and convene other teen growers from across the region at the annual Youth Garden Summit.
Program Director Jessica Schmid Gumbert sees this transformation firsthand: “What I love about the gardening team is that there are different hooks to get different youth interested. And you can see them grow and care about the work and the garden.—whether it’s the gardening, the art, the cooking, or the chance to design something meaningful. They may not have been into gardening to begin with. Some want to be outside. Some of them care about the beautification aspect of creating garden spaces in the neighborhood. Lots of them love the art component of creating murals. A lot of teens like the cooking piece to gardening and choose it for that reason. And some start growing because they love plants.
But beyond the gardens, what makes BYP truly award-worthy is its culture of long-term investment in both the teens and the community. Many youth return year after year or even as AmeriCorps members after graduating, stepping into leadership roles and mentoring younger students.
While the physical impact of BYP is visible—murals, a community fridge stocked with free food, fruit trees, and vibrant green spaces—the emotional impact runs deep as well. “Participants who aged out of our program 10 years ago can still see a mosaic or mural they helped make and say ‘I made that’ and see something beautiful in a public space they helped create. That sense of belonging and pride is real.”
BYP’s garden team coordinator Cassie Staub sees the work as empowering and giving voice to the teens. “One of the big things is that the space is designed by the youth,” Staub said. “They make all the choices about the space – what’s planted, how it’s used, whether they plant more flowers or food. A lot of teens don’t feel like they have control over certain aspects of their life. In our garden spaces they can make those decisions about what they want the space to be and how they want it to be used.”
In a time of uncertainty—especially around critical federal funding for organizations like BYP—Grow Pittsburgh is honored to recognize BYP’s dedication to youth empowerment and food justice. Join us on August 19th to celebrate these community growers and the rest of this year’s Get Down Honorees, including our “School Garden Heroes” and our “Resilient Community Growers” awardees.
To support BYP’s mission or get involved, visit www.braddockyouthproject.org.
