Strickland Youth Center
“Grow UP” garden
Lead Gardener: Detention Officer Coordinator Desaavre Paige
Est: 2017
The Strickland Youth Center “Grow UP” Garden was established in 2017 as a part of the SYC Transitional Programming Department. Judge Edmond Naman’s vision of a garden for reflection, horticulture education, and community mindedness for at risk youth served by Juvenile Court of Mobile County was commissioned to Transitional Programming Department Coordinator Riley Brenes. Brenes designed the space and enlisted Detention Officer Coordinator Desaavre Paige to assist in the production of the site and established him as active lead gardener. This location is strictly used for The State of Alabama Department of Juvenile Probation as a training ground to prepare the teens served to connect to the larger network of MUG locations. MUG has worked with the garden from the beginning and continues to add valuable educational tools and plants to continue their mission of community connection through horticulture.
Brenes and Paige are both gardeners who have dedicated their lives to civic service. They continue to shrink divides in socioeconomic areas in Mobile County and expand MUG’s reach to the community at large.
To get involved:
Strickland Youth Detention Garden
Gardening in the ‘Cage’ began in February 2021. The youth plant, tend, and harvest vegetables, fruits, and flowers from the 45 raised beds. Volunteers from MUG, Mobile County Master Gardeners, and court staff lead therapeutic horticulture sessions twice a week with the girls and boys. This programming includes lessons in soft job skills, life skills, botany, and general plant care.
