"Turning Over a New Leaf" - Youth Grow Trees and Themselves
Dan Flanagan, Executive Director of Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF), writing in the December, 2014 issue, of "Tree Scapes", the organization's newsletter, talks about the recent successes of Junior and Orlando, young survivors of violence who came to FUF by way of the San Francisco Wraparound Project:
Meet Junior and Orlando, young men who have become beloved and hard-working members of our team since they joined us this summer. They came to us through the San Francisco Wraparound Project, a program based at San Francisco General Hospital that helps young survivors of violence to change their lives. For the last 18 months, Friends of the Urban Forest has been employing youth from the program, two at a time, as arborist apprentices. "I had seen a lot of FUF trees in San Francisco and Ialways wondered how they got there," Junior said recently, "so I was excited to show up for my first day and find out." San Francisco's trees Junior and Orlando work with us five days a week, planting and caring for trees and installing sidewalk gardens. Together, they have already pruned 227 trees. Additionally, both have been invaluable mentors to other FUF youth. Like many great things in life, our partnership with the Wraparound Project originated with a coincidence: David Grunwald, a resident at SFGH, is a next-door neighbor of our longtime volunteer Frank Fredericks, and realized that FUF would be a great organization for the kind of work-readiness apprenticeship that's helpful to youth who finish the program...............