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» I've always wanted to work in a field that was community oriented. I think
that that is for me my purpose. My name is Karen Ibarra. I'm a project
management assistant and I am with the office of environmental programs for the
city of Phoenix. >> I oversee the resilient sustainable
grant and the food food systems grant. >> We do come out there and will do site
visits, we'll do media visits. >> And then this was the first garden we
planted. >> Gorgeous. Look at those sunflowers. Oh
my god. >> We're doing all of this in order so that
the grantees can be successful because when they're successful then our
community is successful. >> To squash family. [music]
» I think my favorite is going out and doing site visits and getting to see the
recipients and how they've benefited and just seeing those success stories in
real life. To be able to grow up here and then also serve the same communities
that I grew up in is very rewarding. >> Um this is a desert lavender.
» Resilient and sustainable agriculture grant is one of the programs that we
offer for our local farmers and its goal is to help provide funding for local
producers so that they can adapt better to extreme heat and climate change so
that they can continue to provide food for our local community.
» Karen and the rest of my team are just wonderful people. They all care so
deeply about serving the community and helping to improve our local food
system. I see her career continuing to grow because she's so committed to this
work and improving our local food system.
I love Karen. She's great. >> The space that you're seeing here we
call Casa Caracol which means snail house. Through this program we're able
to teach people how to reconnect with the land through growing their own food,
teaching them how to utilize the things that they grow, not just
» [music] >> as food, but also as medicine, also to
reconnect culturally to their roots. And the project also
» [music] >> just helps us also learn the importance
of like we live in a desert, and how do we conserve water?
And it's a space for people to connect, to heal, and [music] to grow.
Kind of fits perfectly with this this program that we're in now.
» I think it's very fulfilling being able to be so hands-on with our programs and
being able to really see the way that our programs have impacted and benefited
people. I'm happy to work with the City of Phoenix because um there are so many
great resources and programs available to to residents.
» Do work that makes Phoenix work.
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