Our mission is to cultivate the next generation of environmental leaders to grow a greener and more equitable Somerville.
Groundwork Somerville, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, has been “changing places and changing lives” in Somerville, Massachusetts since 2000. Through youth empowerment, urban farming, equitable food access, and community engagement, Groundwork sows the seeds of a healthy community.
Our work is grounded in the understanding that environmental conditions are inextricably linked to economic, social, and racial injustice. We recognize that it is impossible to build a truly sustainable community without holistically addressing these issues.
As a result, we make an explicit effort to employ and empower youth of color and youth from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Our high-school programming highlights the nuances of racism, sexism, and environmental injustice, and arms program participants with tools to address these inequities. We also work to ensure that every student in Somerville Public Schools has access to a school garden and is engaged in hands-on learning outside of the classroom. By empowering young people to cultivate a positive relationship with food and land, we help them grow into adults that are ready and able to build strong communities.
In addition to serving youth, Groundwork Somerville also provides equitable access to food and green space for all Somerville residents. As the stewards of the only farm in Somerville, we are in a unique position to grow culturally relevant crops for our diverse community. We distribute this produce through the Somerville Mobile Market and other avenues for food pickup to ensure that the people getting our food are the families who need it the most.
Our farm also serves as a community gathering and education space where we encourage Somerville residents to learn how to grow their own food and engage with their local food system. We strive to hold space where all Somervillians can gather as a community and celebrate the land and each other.
Groundwork Somerville is working to combat systems of opression with hyperlocal organizing, access to healthy food and greenspace, and youth empowerment. This work would not be possible without the orginial and conitnued stewardship of this land by the Massachuett People, as well as their neighbors the Pawtucket, Naumkeag, and Wampanoag Peoples. GWS acknoweldges the violence and genocide that settler colonialism enacted and continues to perpetuate against our Indigenous relatives, and we comit to looking to them as leaders in the struggle for climate justice and community-centered land stewardship.