Youth Services, a non-profit organization in Glenview, Illinois, serves at-risk community youth and provides after-school programs, activities, sports, tutoring, counseling, therapy and more. The organization won a public competition organized by Chalet, which provided a local non-profit organization up to $100,000 towards designing and installing a new landscape. Chalet donated 100% of the goods and services and provides maintenance for the project.

 
The Landscape for a Cause award provided for a landscape or garden that serves the public good. To qualify, applicants had to represent non-profit groups or organizations, be located on Chicago's North Shore and demonstrate a need for the space.

Thirty-four organizations, including schools, park districts and social service organizations, competed for the prize through an extensive application process in which Chalet's team of landscape architects and designers spent dozens of hours reviewing applications and interviewing prospective winners. The list was narrowed to seven finalists, then to four before Youth Services was finally selected, primarily because of its ability to reach many young people with special needs.

The resulting landscape makes the most of a previously empty space and features seating areas of various sizes for groups and individual counseling sessions. The firm installed a vegetable garden for hands-on learning and gardening by children, a curvilinear pathway system with adjacent patio spaces consisting of different material styles, a pergola, an irrigation system and extensive plantings for year-round interest.

Research shows that just viewing plants can result in positive changes in blood pressure, heart activity, muscle tension and brain electrical activity, and can reduce anxiety and stress and help alleviate depression. Therefore, Chalet not only made the space aesthetically beautiful, but the firm also aided in the healing process for many young individuals.

As seen in LASN magazine, March 2020.