Leave it Better Than How you found it

The Yellow Jackets was created out of collaborations with Black women who share a love of nature and community. They are Mother Nature personified.  They are the neighbors that you'll see sweeping the entire block, they'll hold trash until there is a trash can to put it in, they pot flowers and plants and care and talk to them as if they birthed them. The Yellow Jackets is about returning to our natural practices and benefiting from the power that comes from maintaining our own lands, and growing our own foods. Being from the inner city it is so easy to be content with the way many of our neighborhoods look. It seems as if no one cares, but we deserve better and our youth deserve environments that aid them in their journeys, not cause mental and health issues along with subconsciously reinforcing they are not worth a clean, nice living area free from paraphernalia, pollution and trash.

Upon our inception we were able to train and employ  youth ages 14-28. It was an amazing experience and we were happy to be able to provide in-depth, 1on1 training. Participants went through two weeks of training to start (if applicable) and operate equipment safely, identifying trees/plants/weeds specific to our area, cleaning and beautifying areas throughout the city with concentration in Frankford, North and West Philadelphia. Our course also includes community garden collaborations which focus on planting flowers and food. Training covered basics of how to interact with the public and ways to obtain contracts for landscaping. It is our goal to continue to expand, educate, and employ.