The Oakland Museum of California is devoted to educating the public about California's art, history, and environment, through its programs, collections, and exhibitions. This mission encompasses concern not only for California's dwindling natural environments, but for its urban environments as well.

In 1992, we invited more than 200 community leaders, residents, environmentalists, and business people to help us set our agenda for exhibits and programs about the urban environment. Large group meetings and individual interviews yielded an astonishing range of opinions and input, yet several clear themes emerged: violence is the most pressing urban environmental problem; and creating more training and job opportunities for teenagers is critical.

The notion of violence as an environmental, rather than social, issue led us to explore violence as an indicator of a community's health in an ecological sense. We found that many scenarios involving violence share a few common characteristics: the violent course of action favors short-term survival over long-term thriving; it often emphasizes competition rather than cooperation; and it frequently values isolation and individualism over connection and interdependence. In short, violence is emblematic of communities in which the fabric of interconnection is in tatters, and in which individuals do not sense themselves as being an important part of a larger whole.

This was a perspective that we wanted to weave into our programs and exhibitions. At the same time, we wanted our work to help support an actual community in rebuilding its sense of interdependence, cooperation and connection -- to each other and to the land.

We formed the Urban Spaces NEED Leadership Project to meet this goal. The "NEED" in our program name stands for "Neighborhood Environmental Education and Discovery," and reflects our belief that through learning about the history and ecology of neighborhood open space, community members become better able to plan for their community's future. The project's three Youth Leadership Interns worked for more than a year, helping Jungle Hill's neighbors to revitalize their relationships with this one-acre vacant lot, and with one another. This is Our Land! tells the story of their work.

Sandy Bredt
Director, Urban Spaces NEED Leadership Project
March, 1997