Southside Occupational Academy

Southside Occupational Academy is a transition center for students aged 16-22 years with disabilities. Students are placed at our school by Chicago Public Schools' Office of Diverse Learners and Support Services. We provide students with educational training opportunities in the areas of Independent Functioning, Social Learning, Vocational, and Applied Academics. 

Although our school has had a horticulture program and a raised bed garden since it was founded in 1988, our expectations for the potential of these gardens when integrated into our curricula have increased dramatically in the past three years. We have expanded from the one raised bed to the building and use of a learning garden created in cooperation with The Kitchen Community and seven in-ground gardens created in cooperation with an architecture firm called VOA, as well as a fruit tree orchard and landscaping projects around the school. The building of each of these areas has incorporated school-wide activities and we all appreciate the green space, the harvested food, and the beauty of the gardens!

The horticulture, agriculture, and science classes maintain the growing areas, but have realized what a challenge it is to manage so many gardens. We are always looking for ways to become better at realizing the full potential of the spaces in the academic, social, behavior therapy, and culinary aspects of our school. We have Culinary Arts and Daily Living classes that do such great work preparing students to cook in both commercial and home settings and hope to tie these cooking classes more closely to the garden.

If you'd like to learn more about us, please visit southsideoccupational.org If you have any advice for how we could better incorporate academic, independent living, or cooking classes into the gardens, please contact gksullivan1@cps.edu Thank you!