The mission of Life Frames – A Living Library Think Parks & Gardens (A.L.L.) is to create garden-based learning centers where students and community members of all ages participate in the greening of their neighborhoods.
Through the collaboration of multi-generational stake holders, A.L.L. utilizes local resources to research, plan, design, implement, manage and maintain sites. As a nonprofit supported through grants and private donations, A.L.L. celebrates sustainable eco-consciousness in an era of accelerating climate change. Impact areas include water conservation, flood mitigation, urban forestry, and solutions to economic-driven pollution. A.L.L transforms sterile, barren, concrete landscapes into places of health and beauty.
A.L.L. is founded on the belief that everyone and everything on earth and in space are part of A Living Library of Diversity: people, birds, trees, air, water, and all things we create, such as parks, gardens, schools, curricula, artworks, networks, and communities. In the words of our founder Bonnie Ora Sherk, “A.L.L. is Nature.” Her extraordinary vision lives on through our Think Parks—spaces in which to think, feel, and practice empathy with our environment and with each other—as well as her archives and exhibitions.
Think Parks: Branches in San Francisco & New York City
In San Francisco, A.L.L. has worked with local communities to design and build gardens at several schools in various districts as well as an informative nature walk on the southern side of Bernal Heights. Currently, we are implementing educational services, student work programs, and ecosystem revitalization at our branch in the OMI/Excelsior district.
On the East Coast, A.L.L. has a branch on Roosevelt Island in New York City where children, youth, and aduts gain real-world experience in transforming their community into an ecological wonderland that incorporates local resources.
