Klean Kensington Gardens cleans up wasteland to prevent teenage drug use

Growing up in Kensington15-year-old Raheem Newsome couldn’t wait to get out. The garden changed that—growing more than a crop.

In 2022, when Newsom was angry at the reality of his neighborhood and starting to get into trouble, he was approached by a man with a bun and asked if he was interested in getting paid to clean up trash in the neighborhood.

The man was Jeremy Chen, a block captain who had recently founded the company Wedge Kensington as a way to keep teenagers busy by paying them to turn empty lots into community gardens. Now, the teenagers have transformed six parcels of land on Madison, Westmoreland and Hilton streets into plots that provide neighbors with food and herbs and, more importantly, offer young people an opportunity to engage in their community.

As a permanent resident, Chen, then a PhD student, understood the challenges facing Kensington’s teenagers. So when a neighbor gave him $100 as a thank you for helping keep the streets litter-free, he had an idea: What if he could offer an attractive alternative to making quick money by paying teenagers to clean up neighborhoods?

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

Newsom initially joined for a fee, following Chen, young volunteers and other teenagers through empty lots on Madison Street with a 55-gallon trash bag and tongs in hand.

Finding drug paraphernalia, stained mattresses, construction debris and trash was the norm, along with random caches of weapons and drugs, Chen said.

In Upper Kensington, a typical block has three to four vacant buildings or lots Investigation of the requester found, and many of them show signs of neglect that facilitate the open air drug trade. Mayor Sherrell L. Parker made the area one of the first places, promising to do so end the growth of the drug market.

But some once-abandoned plots are now almost free of trash, and tomatoes, greens, and pumpkins are growing in the beds. Overgrown grass has turned into mulch or grass clippings. Metal containers became pots. On the Madison Street section, donated bricks were turned into paths. And after raising $50,000 last year, Clean Kensington raised the teenagers’ wages to $18 an hour.

The teenagers turned the unsupervised packages into “a space where we can hang out and enjoy ourselves,” Chen said. “Something a little productive and positive and good for the community.”

No one was an expert in horticulture, but the longer Newsom stayed, the more he noticed the seeds of change growing in himself and his environment. It stopped being about money.

“I started to stay away from the negative stuff and go into the positive,” Newsome said. He preferred hanging out with other teenagers in the garden and helping kids fix their bikes than spending time outside.

He was not the only one. According to Chen, children as young as 12 who are in trouble have turned to Clean Kensington.

From “Mr. Jeremy, can I work?’, the number of interested teenagers grew from a small number to 50, with 15 showing up consistently.

The materials are recycled, repurposed and easily moved if the owners require a parcel.

So far, no one has asked them to vacate the existing gardens. But several times, when they cleaned the plots, the owners appeared and asked them not to build anything there. So they finished cleaning and moved on.

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

“I wanted friends so much, but I was just one of those kids who would play video games at home all day,” Reyes said.

After joining the garden program at the beginning of the year, he gained a new sense of independence. And he helps out even more around the house, according to his mom, Rudesinda Garcia.

“Since Jeremy started cleaning these areas, everything has changed,” Garcia said in Spanish. “It’s gotten to the point where even us adults are doing yard work to keep our neighborhood safe and clean, and we’re even more helpful to each other.”

But the problems in Kensington are far from solved.

When the teenagers leave the grounds of the garden, they find themselves right on Kensington Avenue the notorious open-air drug market.

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

Before Kleen Kensington, this was also the reality of garden plots, he said.

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

For junior unit captain Jonathan Cuthbertson Jr., his time at Klean Kensington gave him the final push to apply to college, with the intention of majoring in business. The money that the 17-year-old girl earns goes to study, a laptop and other school supplies.

He hopes adults look to Kleen Kensington as proof that this community can thrive.

“But it takes everyone’s help, not just us, a group of kids trying to put gardens and plots together,” Cuthbertson Jr. said.

Part of that effort is John T. McGrath Jr., a retired floor covering business. After reading Chen’s essayhe volunteered to teach carpentry to teenagers.

Arriving in a car filled with cutting tools and wood, McGrath spent the past 10 months teaching the teenagers the basics. At 62, he is happy to leave retirement to share his knowledge.

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

The teachings of McGrath and Chen led Newsome to believe that he was capable of “doing things with his hands.” The Hilton Street garden bench created by the group is a favorite achievement.

As fall turns to winter, Klean Kensington teenagers are staying busy.

They will temporarily put away their gardening tools to work with another nonprofit helping younger kids with their homework. And they plan to start cleaning the next two areas.