SEEDS, a non-profit working for local solutions to today's global issues at the intersection of ecology, education and community design, has partnered with local bike shop Brick Wheels to launch a Youth Conservation Corps Bike Team. This bike team is not preparing for races. Instead, Brick Wheels has outfitted a SEEDS Youth Conservation Corps team of five young women with repaired bikes, helmets and a trailer to move through their summer of farming and community services in and around Traverse City. This partnership is the first of its kind in the Midwest.

Modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930’s, the SEEDS Youth Conservation Corps connects the repair of natural resources with opportunities to empower underserved youth. Geared towards youth ages 16-25, the SEEDS Youth Conservation Corps provides workforce development, soft skills training and academic enrichment – specifically recruiting youth who are challenged by poverty, court-involvement, foster care, rural isolation or other lack of opportunity.

“Brick Wheels is thrilled to partner with SEEDS to equip the team of young women for work, teach them how to make simple repairs and help empower them with skills for a healthy lifestyle,” says Kristi Messing of Brick Wheels.

The SEEDS Farm at Historic Barns Park provides real-world training and hands-on lessons in organic growing. This year’s farm crew is all young women and includes graduates of the TBAISD Career Tech Center’s Agricultural Science high school program who also help manage the Downtown Sara Hardy Farmers Market.