With the goal of building 10 more LBUSD school gardens in the next year, Ground Education makes a move for Signal Hill with new headquarters
Local environmental nonprofit Ground Education is moving its home base to Signal Hill with a new headquarters on E. 28th Street.
Ground Education currently teaches at 22 schools throughout the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) with a hands-on educational curriculum that embraces nature and gardening. They facilitate the building, planting and managing of local school gardens with the goal of reaching every elementary school student in the district.
The new rented headquarters includes roughly 900 square feet of warehouse space, plus a small office in the front, and the 26-person team has spent the summer making the space feel like home.
Previously, Ground Education shared space with other organizations within a co-op, but this new space resembles not only a fresh start, but a rewarding reminder of the organization’s rapid growth since its founding in 2017.
“It’s been a fun summer of pulling it together and letting the excitement of having a space where we all fit to get us ready for the school year to come and all the growth that’s still ahead of us,” said Holland Brown, Co-Executive Director of Ground Education.
To Brown, the move to Signal Hill is geographically significant, as it puts them within 10 minutes of every school they are involved with. Plus, with the positive reception received from the students and teachers at the 22 participating schools, the new space allows them to continue planning their expansion to eventually cover 54 elementary and K-8 schools in LBUSD.
“It’s exciting that so many schools and the elementary office of the district seem equally as excited about bringing nature spaces to ultimately all of the Long Beach Unified elementary campuses,” Brown said.
Within Signal Hill, Ground Education has been teaching at Alvarado Elementary since 2018 and taught summer school at Signal Hill Elementary this past summer. Brown says they are hoping to rehabilitate Signal Hill Elementary’s garden and start teaching on campus during school hours within the next year.
Ground Education’s immediate goal is to build 10 new gardens by this time next year, along with furthering connections with the 22 school gardens, two after-school programs and two Boys & Girls Club sites.
Currently, Brown and the Ground Education team are trying to finish setting up the new space, and Brown says the collaborative effort has reinforced the organization’s message.
“We have a lot of creative people inside of Ground Education and they’ve really enjoyed being part of thinking through how to make the space not just efficient, but inspiring and how to help it reflect our mission and the work we do,” Brown said.
Though there is no official date for when the headquarters will be ready, Ground Education is aiming to have an open house in October, giving community members the chance to stop by and see up close what goes into the garden program.
The new headquarters for Ground Education is located at 2633 E. 28th St in Signal Hill. For more details regarding news, announcements, and future events, visit www.GroundEducation.org
