Amplifying CPS Youth Voices on the
Lower West Side

The HEALTH Program (Healing Environment Ambassador’s Learning Through Horticulture) is a multidisciplinary program and research project designed and facilitated by the Chicago Botanic Garden. It invites Chicago Public School youth to answer the question: how does the natural world affect a community’s health and well-being? Over the course of a 12-month internship program , Grounded in Design partnered with practitioners and institutions alongside the Chicago Botanic Garden to deliver an educational program with Chicago high school students of Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy. Through horticulture workshops, video storytelling, field trips and landscape design workshops, students learned to deepen their connections with the natural world and reveal how nature can influence the health of their entire community.

Student Ambassador’s visit and evaluate restorative therapy gardens and community spaces. Garden pictured: Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital rooftop therapy garden.

Graphics developed based on student’s research and charrette

Meeting the challenge of remote learning, Ambassador’s excelled in their internship despite the year’s obstacles.

Design Charrette and Student Presentations

Cohort group presents ideas on school courtyard desgin

Graphics developed based on student’s research and charrette