Greenings from Harlem.

Bernadette Cozart and Dr. Barbara Barlow are proof that if people work together, anything is possible. Barlow, a pediatric surgeon at Harlem Hospital, was troubled by the lack of safe places in Harlem for children to play. Cozart, a gardener for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, wanted to do something about Harlem's lack of open space, trees, and gardens. They formed a coalition and together are turning Harlem's dangerous and neglected lots and playgrounds into greenspaces where children can play safely and communities can flourish.

Barlow started the Injury Prevention Program in 1988 because of the unusually high injury rate of children in the community. The program provides safe and creative activities including art, dance, and outdoor recreation. "Children need safe places to play," she says. "There was too little for them to do; after-school programs had closed due to lack of funding and all the play spaces were concrete and broken equipment."

Barlow went to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, the Commissioner, and the Board of Education. With their help, she began working to fix up Harlem's playgrounds and parks.

Cozart was already working to involve Harlem residents in planting trees and gardens in local parks. It began when she was renovating the 16-acre Carl Schurz Park that surrounds the mayor's Gracey Mansion and she noticed a group of teenagers following her around. She decided to get them involved and put each of the nine kids to work creating his or her own flower garden. "They did a great job," she said. "I thought it would be a grand idea if they could do parks in their own neighborhoods."

Greenspaces in Harlem, she says, were so dangerous that the community did not even use them. "They were overrun by all the wrong elements," she says, "including drugs, crime, illegal dumping, lead paint, broken glass, and asbestos."

Later that year, Barlow and Cozart met at a community meeting called to discuss the future of Harlem's public spaces. They found they shared the same concerns and visions, and with permission from the city, they formed the Greening of Harlem coalition.

The Parks and Recreation Department allows Cozart to direct the program, but she must go outside the department for funding. Texaco Foundation pays for the children's gardens and the trees - at least one is planted in each playground and large garden - and a variety of foundations provide the rest of the funds.

So far, the Greening of Harlem coalition has completed 29 projects including school playgrounds, vacant lots, and street-tree pits. They even created a five-lot "farm" - with apple and pear trees and grape vines - along 121st Street. There are about 1,500 vacant lots and 1,800 abandoned buildings in Harlem, according to Cozart, and she and Barlow see potential for turning many of them into greenspaces.

Children work on the projects around schools, but Cozart has extended the program to include adults as well. After each project is finished, community members - with their newfound skills - maintain the trees and gardens. "I notice what I call the domino effect," says Cozart. "The first year after the first garden was planted, flowers and plants started appearing in windows and on stoops. Where we put up one garden, others appear. That's what it takes; people just need a push."

Barlow says the program has been a tremendous success. The renovated playgrounds and after-school activities have led to a 42 percent reduction in major injuries since 1988. She can also see the positive emotional affect the trees and gardens have on the children. "They are learning to nourish the garden and nourish each other," she says. "I think it's very important for people's emotional and physical health to have gardens, forests, and parks with trees. Living in a concrete world is an abomination; it's not good for anyone - adults or children."

Many children in Harlem have not been outside the city or even to Central Park, says Cozart. She teaches basic botany and gardening classes as part of the Greening program, and says she finds that most of the kids are very confused about nature. "It's not something they've experienced; it's too far away" she says. "But then you see a light go on, and by the time the seeds they planted begin to germinate, they're in total wonderment."

Cozart says it is all about the power of transformation. "If you can take a garbage-strewn lot, or anything else in your neighborhood that you don't like, and turn it into a thing of beauty that benefits the community - a thing of usefulness - then you know you can transform other things," she says. "You can transform things you don't like in your own life and in yourself - and that's power."