Women for Green Spaces

About

Women for Green Spaces was initiated as a project of the Women’s Committee of Working Family Solidarity (WFS), and we remain as a project of WFS. Claudia Galeno-Sánchez, Coordinator, and other women volunteers started raising monarch butterflies indoors after learning about it from El Valor Guadalupe Reyes Children & Family Center - where their children’s early education began. Considering the current climate change issues and the lack of green spaces in their neighborhoods, they decided to form a group led by women to help their neighborhoods have access to green spaces.

To begin their mission, a small butterfly sanctuary was built in front of a Pilsen residence. Bringing awareness to Pilsen residents and to those that visited the neighborhood about the importance of pollinators - specifically monarch and black swallowtail butterflies - and native plants to our ecosystem.

Having the small sanctuary brought the idea of building a larger one in the back portion of the residence, as well as painting a mural in the garage. With the support of artist-muralist Héctor Duarte, painted butterflies were added to the front of the residence and the mural in the garage is being created. Host plants for black swallowtail and monarch butterflies were planted in the sanctuary, creating a safe and ideal ecosystem for the butterflies.

As the project has progressed, alliances and collaborations with Field Museum, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Chicago Botanic Garden, DePaul University, University of Illinois Chicago, as well with local schools and community gardens have been established to both encourage and teach residents on the importance of having gardens with native and host plants for pollinators. We are also seeking to develop women’s leadership, especially women of color, as we help to expand working families’ access to green spaces.

Images: (top left)structure of the first butterfly sanctuary; (top right) front of the residence; (bottom left) larger sanctuary with garage mural in the background; (bottom right) workshop hosted in July 2022 with organization allies to speak about the pollinators in Pilsen.