WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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the national medal for Museum and
Library Services is the nation's highest

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honor for libraries and museums that are
serving their communities in exceptional

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ways Garfield Park Conservatory director
Unita rushing and Community member Tiara

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Livingston traveled to Washington from
Chicago Illinois to receive the national

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medal and spoke to imls about how the
museum impacts the community the

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Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance is a
nonprofit

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organization that uh empowers people and
changes their lives through uh the power

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of nature and the alliance raises funds
to develop and Implement uh Innovative

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programs there that educate people about
the importance of plants in our lives

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every day so we uh provide educational
programs as well as special events

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geared toward uh School AG children
families and adults

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[Music]
well the Green Team program consists of

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14 to 19 year olds and it can be over a
period of time you can participate in it

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from freshman year to senior which is
what I did well working at the

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conservatory me meeting most of the
staff that worked at the conservatory so

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they would come in sometimes and just
give us an overview of what they did and

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how they got to where they were at and
then just like a boost for us to stand

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up I guess and want to want to learn
more about the conservatory it's

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collection the plants and all of those
things I did it because I just wanted

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something to do after school because
living in the community that I lived in

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there wasn't really too much for me to
do one of the aspects that the community

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said that they really would like to have
addressed was uh more opportunities for

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Youth and we felt that this was a real
opportunity for us to engage them on

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various levels if you think about
maintaining and running a conservatory

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there's so many uh jobs and career paths
that we could expose them to we have

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over 200,000 visitors annually and so if
they're on the floor uh giving tours

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acting as dosant if they're in the
greenhouse helping to propagate plants

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if they're creating objects to be sold
in our gift shop they're getting a

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myriad of uh exposure and Hands-On
skills development that is really

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important to a Young Person's
development I am attending the Paul

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University um in Lincoln Park I am
majoring in

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sociology and I'm also currently working
at the conservatory with the Graff Park

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Conservatory Alliance um as an
administrative assistant as well as a

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gift shop um associate uh it is
important for teens to have

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opportunities in the communities where
they live because teens don't

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traditionally travel outside of their
communities very far and the

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conservatory has been an institution in
the Garfield Park Community for over a

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hundred years and it is the right thing
to do for us to reach out and engage

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teens in the programs and the
initiatives that we have at the

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conservatory because these teens will
become adults and if they support and

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believe in what we do there when they
become adults they'll hopefully continue

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to support the work of the conservatory
and can come back and talk about what it

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meant to them and their lives we're
mentoring them helping them to make the

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right decisions for their lives and
their future the teenss will become like

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Tiara thinking far beyond High School
thinking about who it is they want to be

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as adults when they grow up what they
want to be and how they want to make a

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contribution to society