A Kensington garden cultivates community by keeping teens busy and cleaning vacant lots

Growing up in Kensington, 15-year-old Raheem Newsome couldn’t wait to get out. A garden changed that — by cultivating more than produce.

In 2022, as Newsome was angry at the reality of his neighborhood and starting to get into trouble, a man with a bun approached him, asking if he was interested in getting paid for clearing the neighborhood’s trash.

The man was Jeremy Chen, a block captain who had recently founded Klean Kensington as a way to keep teens occupied by paying them to turn empty lots into community gardens. Now, the teens have transformed six parcels on Madison, Westmoreland, and Hilton Streets into plots that provide food and herbs for neighbors, and, more importantly, offer young people a way to stay busy in their community.

As a longtime resident, Chen, then a doctoral student, understood the problems facing Kensington teens. So when a neighbor gave him $100 as a thank-you for helping keep the streets litter-free, an idea formed: What if he could provide an attractive alternative to fast money by paying teens to keep the blocks clean?

Through community donations and grants from the MacArthur Safety and Justice Challenge, the Kensington Community Resilience Fund, and other sources, Chen raised the funds and began inviting neighboring teens to work.

At first, Newsome joined for the pay, following Chen, young adult volunteers, and other teens through the empty lots of Madison Street with a 55-gallon trash bag and trash-picking tongs in hand.

Finding drug paraphernalia, stained mattresses, construction dumping, and trash was the norm, along with occasional guns and drug stashes, Chen said.

In Upper Kensington, the typical block has three to four vacant buildings or lots, an Inquirer investigation found, and many have signs of neglect that contribute to the open-air drug trade. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has made the neighborhood an early focus, vowing to end the sprawling drug market.

But some once-abandoned lots are now largely trash-free, with tomatoes, herbs, and pumpkins growing in planter beds. The overgrown grass has turned into mulch-filled grounds or mowed grass. Metal containers became planters. In the Madison Street lot, donated bricks turned into paths. And, having raised $50,000 last year, Klean Kensington has bumped the teens’ salary to $18 an hour.

The teens have turned unattended parcels into “a space that we can hang out and enjoy,” Chen said. “Something a little bit productive and positive and beautiful for the community.”

No one was a gardening expert, but the longer Newsome stayed, the more he noticed a seed of change growing in himself and the environment. It stopped being about the money.

“I started to keep myself away from the negative stuff and going to the positive,” Newsome said. He preferred hanging out with other teenagers in the garden and helping kids fix their bikes over spending time on the streets.

He wasn’t the only one. Children as young as 12 who were falling into trouble turned to Klean Kensington, Chen said.

With a “Mr. Jeremy, can I work?,” the number of interested teens grew from a handful to 50, with 15 consistently showing up.

Materials are recycled, repurposed, and easy to move in case the owners claim the parcels.

So far, no one has asked them to vacate existing gardens. But, a handful of times, when they were cleaning lots, owners did turn up asking them not to build anything there. So they finished cleaning and moved on.

Juan Reyes, 16, saw the changes from his bedroom window, stuck at home a couple of houses from the Hilton Street garden because his mother feared for his safety.

“I wanted to have friends so bad, but I was just one of the kids playing video games all day at home,” Reyes said.

Since joining the garden program at the beginning of the year, he has acquired a new sense of independence. And he has even been helping more around the house, according to his mom, Rudecinda Garcia.

“Since Jeremy began cleaning these lots, everything changed,” Garcia said in Spanish. “It’s gotten to the point where even us adults look after the lots to make sure our block feels safe and clean, and we even help each other out more.”

But the problems in Kensington are far from fixed.

Once the teens leave the areas of the garden, they are right by Kensington Avenue and the notorious open-air drug market.

On his way to school, Newsome constantly looks over his shoulder, scanning the ground to avoid stepping on drug paraphernalia.

Before Klean Kensington, he said, this was also the reality of the garden parcels.

“It made me feel bad about the neighborhood,” said the 10th grader.

For junior block captain Jonathan Cuthbertson Jr., his time at Klean Kensington has given him the final push to apply for college, intending to major in business. The money the 17-year-old earns goes to saving for tuition, a laptop, and other school supplies.

He hopes adults look at Klean Kensington as proof that this community can flourish.

“But it requires everyone’s help, not just us, a group of kids trying to pick up gardens and lots,” Cuthbertson Jr. said.

Retired floor coverer John T. McGrath Jr. is part of that effort. After reading an essay by Chen, he volunteered to teach the teens carpentry.

Arriving in a car packed with cutting tools and wood, McGrath has taught the teens the basics over the last 10 months. At 62, he is happy to leave his retirement to share his knowledge.

“It’s better to build something and do it right the first time than to have to repair it,” he said.

McGrath’s and Chen’s teachings have pushed Newsome to believe he is capable of “doing stuff with [his] hands.” The bench at the Hilton Street garden the group made is a favorite achievement.

As fall approaches winter, the Klean Kensington teens remain busy.

They will temporarily put aside their gardening tools to work with another nonprofit helping younger children with their homework. And they have plans to begin cleaning their next two lots.