Mission: Flowers that Empower.
About: Southside Blooms, a project of the 501c3 nonprofit Chicago Eco House, was started as a love story by its founders Quilen and Hannah Blackwell. Quilen and Hannah were moved by their Christian faith to relocate to the inner city of Chicago to bring hope and healing to places that are plagued by violence and poverty. This passion for the inner city is what brought them together as a couple and laid the foundation for the work that we do today: creating jobs for vulnerable youth in the floral industry by growing and arranging sustainable flowers! Our flowers signify more than mere aesthetics – they symbolize a commitment to social impact, economic development, and environmental stewardship.
Location: Chicago, IL
Quilen Blackwell
Co-Founder & President
Quilen is an innovative leader in social entrepreneurship. He combines his background in community organizing and green business in leading Southside Blooms and the Chicago Eco House, an inner city sustainability social enterprise with the mission of reducing poverty. Southside Blooms farms on 10 acres of land in Chicago, operates a commercial flower shop in the heart of the Englewood neighborhood on the city's southside, and employs at risk youth in the floral industry.
Hannah Blackwell
Co-Founder & Vice President
Hannah is the co-founder of Southside Blooms, a project of Chicago Eco House, that has the mission of using sustainability to alleviate poverty. In 2015 Hannah and her husband, Quilen, moved to the Englewood neighborhood, making their home their headquarters and developing a neighborhood-based model for their work.
It didn't take long to see that lack of jobs and opportunity was at the root of many of the issues in their community so they set out to create something with what they saw was in abundance: vacant lots. After pivoting away from growing food, they settled on flowers, opening Southside Blooms, an online flower shop, in 2019.
Currently Chicago Eco House runs 6 flower farms on the south and west sides of Chicago with a partner farm in Gary, Indiana, employing at-risk youth in their social enterprise everywhere from the farm to the flower shop.
Hannah’s main role is to oversee the operations of the flower shop and everything related to the look of their brand, as well as help build relationships with partners throughout Chicago. She oversees the handling of all of their floral and event work as well as oversees the floral design training the youth in their program. The 15 years she spent in the hair industry has given her a keen eye for design, color trends and how to make sure every client is able to see their vision come to life.
Hannah's other passion is restorative justice. She completed a bachelor's degree in Justice Studies with an emphasis in Mediation in 2015. Out of all of her accomplishments, Hannah’s greatest joy in life is being a mother to her 3 kids and wife and life-partner to Quilen. She is so grateful to God for the opportunity to do this work uplifting the good people of the inner-city each and every day.