By Stacey R. Hamman

When you enter the Neighborhood Resource Center in Fulton Hill, you might be stopped immediately by a young entrepreneur who is raising money for a school project.

If you veer to the left, you should see a computer room where local teens enjoy hanging out.

You should also notice a sound-recording room on the opposite wall of the entrance, something included as a means to teach songwriting to the children of this neighborhood. They learn the entire process and are rewarded with their own recordings.

The general goal?

To provide a productive after-school outlet for creativity in the younger generation.

And for those who work there?

“It’s one of those places that if you walk in too far, you might never leave,” said Annette Cousins, co-executive director of the NRC.

The NRC is in its third month of combining an art and gardening class for the neighborhood kids, offering the perfect opportunity for encouraging entrepreneurship and creativity.

Half a dozen Virginia Commonwealth University art students have teamed up with a horticulturist from Tricycle Gardens, coming in every Thursday this semester to share their knowledge with the neighborhood children.

This September, several children donned oversized NRC T-shirts before diving into a painting project. A selection of paintbrushes, flowerpots and their favorite colors of paint were close on hand.

They stood a couple dozen feet from the garden—the décor of its surrounding bricks in a stage of semi-completion.

Tricycle Gardens invested money into starting community gardens across Richmond, Va., and this was one of them.

“They came up here and made this beautiful design, which now you can actually kind of see taking shape in that it’s in the shape of the flower – like you’ve got the thing in the middle and you’ve got the petals coming out from it,” Cousins said.

The NRC planted four flowerbeds this growing season, but will be ready to plant all nine in the spring, she said.

Thursdays’ combination art and gardening class began with a plant pot-painting project, and will continue with a series of seed planting once winter has arrived.

“They’ll be taking some of them home and then leaving some of them here, so that we can put them in these beds in the spring,” Cousins said. “The kids will be able to see all of it grow and then we will be able to use it inside for them to eat in their afternoon school snacks in the café.”

Cousins said that the workers at the NRC hope the construction of the café will be completed by the end of the year. They’re looking to do a grand opening some time in January or February.

“We’re crossing our fingers for that,” Cousins said.

Laura Fisher, of Tricycle Gardens, is both a gardening teacher and a landscape designer.

“Part of what we do — besides building the community gardens — is trying to get community involvement and education,” and teach kids who are able to have an after-school program, Fisher said.

The VCU art students collaborating with Fisher to teach the class are spending the entire semester doing projects like this.

“I can’t imagine getting out there and not having experience with kids whatsoever, so it’s nice to get some heads-up on it,” said Darcy Byrnes, a VCU sophomore.

Another goal of the NRC is to encourage the children to develop small businesses, even utilizing flowers and vegetables grown in the NRC garden.

“We could have them grow them here. We could start seeds that they could take home,” Cousins said, saying that those were “grand visions that we have” – not necessarily concrete plans.

“We hope that we can grow them into doing something in the garden as well, and have it be a reward for them.”