(calm music)
Every time we step out of our house,
the places and spaces around us are having an impact on us,
on our thought processes, our moods, our emotions,
and even our biology.
When you look at a space that's been blighted
and overrun with weeds and nobody's investing anything into it,
you may walk past it and it may even make you have like a bad mood.
Looking at the vacant lots, right, as a young person,
I mean, they're just walking by. They've just become desensitized to it.
They're not a part of the community anymore.
Deeply Rooted is a joint initiative funded by both Penn Medicine
and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
that is trying to leverage what we know to be
the healing power of nature,
to promote health and safety in black and brown
Philadelphia neighborhoods.
Green spaces are important for events,
to have social gatherings, to have other functions.
And the green spaces that we have are lot spaces
and a lot of those are abandoned, riddled with trash,
and just not accessible for us
to have our typical gatherings.
We did the first large scale randomized controlled trial
of vacant lot greening.
We took vacant lots that were blighted with trash,
overgrown weeds, dumping,
and turned them into clean and green spaces.
And what we found was remarkable.
These spaces led to reductions in gun violence,
up to 29% in neighborhoods below the poverty line.
People living nearby reported to us that they felt less depressed.
So, there was this really strong connection between simple environmental interventions
and people's mental health.
Through Deeply Rooted, we're going to be building mini parks
throughout West and Southwest Philly.
We're also going to have community activation grants
to support environmental justice.
And we're going to be developing a leadership and workforce development program.
(engine whirring)
Our lead green space implementation partner
is the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
They're the ones who will be planting the trees,
greening the vacant lots.
It's the more best for the environment, you know,
'cause it kind of make you more healthier
and things you see.
So, if we have more things like this,
I think it will be more benefit to the community.
And doing this together as a community as well,
it's something that's fun, right? Something that's enjoyable.
When we talk about green spaces.
It's like, it's cool. You learn a new tool.
And if you have green thumb you're learning how to plant
or you're enhancing those skills.
So, it's a lot to offer for a lot of different people, which is great
because then you really start to touch the community too.
Community members really need to be at the center of all of this
because they know their community best.
We started clearing out those weeds behind the hoop house.
The rest of this is going in the next week or so.
All of this has been done in the last two weeks.
(upbeat music)
Hopefully, we'll make this a beautiful space
and make it a place that our community wants to come.
We have a park over there.
We can actually call in some young youth to come and help with to plant some trees.
And you understand me?
So, it kind of keep their mind focused on a different thing, you know?
So we wanna make sure that our community
know how to plant, know how to grow on their own
so that they're able to build their own food
and be able to sell those things.
I want parents in all of our neighborhoods to feel safe
sending their kids out to play in green space.
We chose the name, "Deeply Rooted"
to reference the groundedness and the strength
that is already in our communities and neighborhoods.
This is the start of something really wonderful, something really huge.
And it's gonna pick up so much momentum.
I'm just, I'm excited.