The Domestic Violence Services of Southwestern Pennsylvania and Flenniken Library have begun working together on several projects around the Carmichaels area.
This partnership has resulted in a mural honoring Carmichaels and a community garden that is free and open to everyone in the area. The mural focuses on the history of Carmichaels.
“I have found out that the people in Carmichaels are really passionate about their history,” Alexandra Brooks, director of prevention for DVSSP, said. “We held two public meetings with the muralist. She got some information about the community, what some important moments, people things to share were.”
According to Nicole Mitchell, director of the Flenniken Library, the mural is located just two blocks into Carmichaels. “The mural is a nice welcome when you get here,” she said.
The mural was created by local artist Randi Stewart. According to her website, she is a “muralist and mixed media fine artist” from Pittsburgh. Stewart has done other murals throughout southwestern Pennsylvania.
The mural was unveiled on November 9. State Senator Camera Bartolotta, Greene County Commissioner Betsy McClure, Carmichaels Area School Superintendent Fred Morecraft and Greene County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melody Longstreth were in attendance for the event.
Brooks said that the mural fits with DVSSP’s mission “ violence and its effect on the community, to empower those victimized by providing advocacy and safe and effective services, and to work for social change designed to eliminate domestic violence.”
“It may seem strange that a domestic violence organization is doing a mural to prevent domestic violence, but the fact is that arts and cultural expression promotes health, it promotes physical activity, social connections and community engagement, and murals in particular can help residents feel a sense of pride and connection to their community,” Brooks said. “This mural alone will not prevent domestic violence, but it’s on every single one of us to do this together, to create safe and healthy environments where we will have safe and healthy friendships, relationships, and marriages.”
Over the summer, Flenniken and DVSSP partnered together to create a community garden for the residents of Carmichaels. “It serves a few purposes. It brings the community together. Carmichaels high school students built the bench and prepared the garden. The bench was donated by the Carmichaels Women’s Civic Club,” Brooks said. “Anybody can pick from the garden. There are no hours or locks on the gates.”
The community was surveyed to see what vegetables they wanted to see planted in the garden. In the end, the library and DVSSP planted lettuce, potatoes, yellow squash, herbs, a variety of peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, cabbage, carrots and green beans. “Carmichaels ate a lot of squash over the summer,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said that she tried to connect people who were looking for fresh vegetables with the garden. “If people were asking for vegetables on Facebook, I would respond and tell them to get the free ones from the garden,” she said.
There are plans to improve the garden in the future. Improving community awareness is one issue that Brooks wants to address.
“A lot of people did say that they didn’t know it was there,” she said. “I learned that we aren’t the only community garden with this problem, so we want to create an interactive map that shows the locations of gardens. There have to be at least 25 gardens in our area that are available.”
Mitchell also plans to add a seed catalog to the library as well. The Flenniken Library will partner with a sister library in Arizona to share seeds.
“We are trying to start a seed catalog where people can dry their seeds and bring them in for others to take and grow them.”