The namesake East St. Louis–based mostly basis of celebrated Olympian and philanthropist Jackie Joyner-Kersee has shared design plans for a brand new, youth-focused instructional and useful resource hub for city agriculture and entrepreneurialism referred to as the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Meals, Agriculture, and Vitamin Innovation Heart (JJK FAN).
Launched in April, JJK FAN—borne from a private-public partnership between the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Basis, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Heart, the College of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the College of Illinois Extension—might be housed in a 12,000-square-foot former workplace advanced in East St. Louis, with Nelson Byrd Woltz Panorama Architects (NBW) overseeing a five-phase build-out of the area to incorporate a number of indoor and outside agricultural demonstration websites together with “area for youth and neighborhood members to interact in hands-on coaching and certification applications associated to rising meals, ag innovation, and diet for bettering well being and efficiency, in addition to area for athletics and bodily coaching,” in line with a press launch from the agency, which maintains workplaces in New York, Houston, and Charlottesville, Virginia.
Together with the bigger venture launch, a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the primary a part of the middle was held in April.
East St. Louis–based mostly nonprofit Lansdowne UP donated the property to the JJK Basis. The brand new heart will be used to deal with workers of the muse and its Successful in Life program, together with the College of Illinois Extension Expanded Meals and Vitamin Schooling Program and Danforth Heart’s JJK FAN Heart workers.
“Schooling and opening limitless alternatives for youth in STEAM-Ag in East St. Louis is on the core of this collaboration. Regardless that we’re three particular person organizations, we sync and work as one,” mentioned Joyner-Kersee, who serves as founder and CEO of the JJK Basis, in a press release.
The recipient of six Olympic Medals—together with three gold medals—gained over 4 completely different Olympics video games within the heptathlon and lengthy leap occasions, Joyner-Kersee was born and raised in East St. Louis, a small southwest Illinois metropolis positioned straight throughout the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. As soon as a affluent industrial heart, East St. Louis, like many Rust Belt cities, later fell right into a steep decline within the mid-Twentieth century and has traditionally struggled with excessive unemployment and crime charges. In 2021 it ranked because the poorest metropolis in Illinois. (Together with the bigger area, East St. Louis was deluged by latest record-breaking torrential rainfall; simply yesterday officers declared a state of emergency within the flood-stricken metropolis.)
The JJK was first established in 1988 to encourage, educate, and open new proverbial doorways for younger folks in East St. Louis by offering them with the instruments and sources wanted to thrive in lecturers, athletics, and management. As famous by the muse, it units out to supply East St. Louis youth with “the chance to win in life.” The newly established JKK FAN additional hones the muse’s bigger mission by providing community-based applications in STEAM+Ag, diet, meals manufacturing, bodily health, and extra. Much like massive swaths of its bigger Missourian neighbor throughout the Mississippi, East St. Louis could be very a lot a meals desert though grassroots initiatives have been launched in recent times to supply its residents with simpler entry to contemporary, wholesome, and inexpensive meals.
As for the NBW-helmed design of the brand new heart, it “focuses on youth engagement, athletics, well being and diet, and financial growth by means of metropolitan meals manufacturing.” As detailed by the agency, the design imaginative and prescient for the big JJK FAN campus aspires to:
- Interweave areas devoted to athletic efficiency, schooling, and farming with the city material of East St. Louis
- Foster synergy between all three teams by means of shared areas and collaboration
- Create outside areas and demonstration areas the place neighborhood and international residents connect with study neighborhood supported agricultural programs, meals innovation, entrepreneurialism, and financial improvement
- Create a campus surroundings that not solely advantages the youth however the neighborhood as a complete
- Improves the city material by means of the administration of stormwater, and added tree cover for shade and air filtration
- Present new and improved park area to the neighborhood for passive recreation
- Create new connections to surrounding communities and the river
- Invite native artists to contribute their voices and that of their communities
- Facilitate future progress in order that as applications evolve and develop, the campus can develop with them.
- Create a wholesome and vibrant place for folks of all ages
“This venture speaks to the significance of connecting human and societal well being with the well being of the land and the surroundings,” mentioned Thomas Woltz, principal of Nelson Byrd Woltz, in a press release. “Via schooling and coaching, we will empower a brand new technology to steward the land and perceive the whole lot it provides us.”
Becoming a member of the JJK FAN amenities in East St. Louis, the JJK Basis has future plans to understand a bigger sports activities and recreation advanced on the St. Louis campus, together with a number of fields for baseball, softball, and different athletic pursuits, together with a area home and 200-meter monitor, sand volleyball courts, venue for indoor road sports activities, and a 100-meter outside monitor.
“The panorama and structure will help applications centered on supporting the youth of ESL and igniting their creativeness to the probabilities offered by instructional and financial alternatives in meals and agricultural enterprises,” defined NBW.
The venture is predicted to be accomplished inside three years, as St. Louis–based mostly NBC affiliate KDSK reported in April.
