Youth Staff at Galego Community Farm, Summer 2025
Galego Community Farm has been part of SCLT’s work in Pawtucket for more than a decade. Tucked into a 161-unit affordable housing development where nearly half of residents live below the poverty line, the farm sits on land that has long held potential to be something more: a genuine gathering place, a green refuge, a site that signals to the people who live there that their neighborhood is worth investing in. This spring, SCLT received the funding to start making that real.
In March, Bloom Rhode Island announced a $50,000 Violet Grant award to SCLT, the largest single gift the initiative has ever made. Named after Rhode Island’s state flower, the Violet Grant was created to support high-profile planting projects that bring joy and beauty to Rhode Island’s cities. Bloom Rhode Island Program Manager Kevin Essington described the award this way: “Southside Community Land Trust has improved food access for thousands of people, using urban properties to grow food and build community. We are thrilled to expand this work to joyful cut-flowers, bringing bursts of natural beauty into people’s homes while lifting up local young people.”
The funding will support a significant transformation of Galego Community Farm’s landscape. Plans include native flowering and pollinator meadows, expanded cut-flower gardens, educational signage, and intentional gathering spaces with regular open hours for residents of Galego Court and the surrounding neighborhood. The expansion builds on what SCLT has already learned from working at the site. “People from Galego Court like to hang out here but not garden as much,” said Chandelle Wilson, SCLT’s Youth & Education Program Manager. “We learned last year that flowers attract our neighbors into the garden, not just here but at our farms in the Southside of Providence.”
Galego will continue to operate as a production and demonstration farm, where youth from SCLT’s Workforce Development program and the Green Changemakers, a joint program of SCLT and Groundwork RI, learn and work alongside experienced farmers. As part of this Bloom project, four young people from SCLT’s Workforce Development program will participate in the design and implementation of the new landscape plans, earning competitive wages while building portfolios and developing skills in green industry careers.
There is a lot of work ahead. The landscape transformation at Galego is a multi-phase project, and this summer marks the beginning of a new phase. SCLT will share updates on the progress, the people doing the work, and the space as it takes shape.
We are grateful to Bloom Rhode Island for this investment in the community at Galego Court, and we look forward to the neighbors, the young people, and the flowers doing the rest.
