Community Garden & Lending Library

We are thrilled to announce that we have teamed up with S.T.R.O.N.G Youth, Inc. (an organization specializing in youth and gang violence prevention and intervention) to create a community garden in Uniondale, Long Island, NY.

We had an idea of starting a Little Free Library in a community that would need it.  We believe books (always, but especially during this time) have the power to transform, and positively impact entire communities.

After reaching out to S.R.O.N.G. others jumped on board! Students from Hofstra University created the community garden and painted the mural behind it.  The Book Fairies will help keep the library full. The Know Your Rights Campaign distributed information cards. Kids from the local elementary school were in charge of painting the library box itself. We wanted to involve the community in the whole process and them know this belongs to them.

The idea of having the library in the park comes from wanting to reverse the narrative and perception the community has about its parks - from a place that's filled with gangs and violence to a place of gathering, community, art and lecture.

Books have the power transform, to embrace, to change people, to enable meaningful conversations, to create new worlds. And that is what we aimed to do with this project - to plant seeds in the forms of books that we hope will generate long-lasting changes.

See how it went.  Swipe down to see the pictures of the event.