AT RISK TEENS GET HIGH WITH GREENS

Carlos E. Lopez on the London Hotel rooftop in Los AngelesIn New York City, the Covenant House, a homeless shelter that provides at-risk teens a place to stay is cultivating green roofs on skyscrapers around the city. Their goal is to create a citywide "skyscraper garden" across Manhattan.

The teens recently completed the first stage of the project, done in collaboration with Seeding the City--planting a green roof on the ninth story of a building in mid town Manhattan.

There, they'll be watering, maintaining, and caring for the seedlings, which will eventually be planted on other roofs around the city. By the time they've finished, they'll have created a veritable citywide skyscraper garden.

Covenant House describes the benefits of the project:

Homeless Teens Seed New York City SkylinesThrough this project, residents – who would normally have to put most of their energy toward finding a place to sleep or their next meal – are learning that personal decisions made each day can contribute positively to the future of climate change and that a future career may lay in the industry

This isn't some arts and crafts hour, either--building green roofs is serious work with a serious environmental benefit. And with a growing green job market, there's a good chance that the skills learned through the course of the project could lead to some real opportunities.

It's an inspiring program led by some inspiring kids --NeverWood High wishes them the best of luck, and we'll certainly be checking in on New York's finest green roofing project for updates on their progress.