Partners/contacts: We will be working with Christine Kingston, who is awesome and a volunteer for Americorps in charge of overseeing and coordinating a handful of Power in Dirt initiatives as well as doing other jobs at Bon Secours near downtown. We’ve met with her once so far, in Pearlstone, when she handed off to us several helpful pamphlets and documents and gave us some advice on where to get started. We’re also working with, indirectly, Vu Dang who works for a government office in downtown and who initially put us in touch with Christine (and one of whose emails to us was cc’d to “Mayor”!). We’ll also be communicating as much as we can with the residents who live in the community near our lot (located at 5316 Ready Ave, ten minutes’ drive down York Road). We’ve spoken to just one person from the neighborhood, a passerby we met when surveying the place (who was very receptive to our ideas and enthusiasm), but hope to return this weekend with a questionnaire and survey of possible ideas or preferences for the community garden, to get a sense of both what residents would like to see and what kind of energy they would have for a project like this. It would also be an easy way to generate interest.
Plan of action: All sources tell us that creating a community garden is a complicated project that requires a lot of organization, resource management and networking. But the steps have already been broken down and laid out for us, leaving us, for the immediate future, just a checklist to follow. Because it is too late in the season to expect to be able to set up the garden and begin planting, our first, most important goal is to bring all the resources together and successfully put the actual community garden together. Actual use of the garden will begin in the spring. Basic first steps will include collecting a soil sample and sending it to the University of Massachusetts for testing (sometimes soil on vacant lots contains lead left over from demolished buildings; if it does the garden will require raised beds), getting mulch and wood chip donations from the city or a group called SeeGreen, getting tree donations, buying top soil from Home Depot and determining the cost (top soil is typically not donated), and talking to Goucher about collaborating on a compost pile (optional). Our second goal is to spread the word about Power in Dirt at Goucher, and talk to people about working with us next spring to get the community garden off to a successful start. We think we might be able to find a couple of students from next semester’s ISP class who would like to take it on.
Why we’re undertaking it: Our group’s first aim--which we accomplished by signing the lot adoption form--was to identify and join in on a project that was already underway rather than beginning our own. That way, besides still being able to head and organize our own project, we also got to explore the channels of communication that connect and surround undertakings like these. For instance, finally getting in touch with Christine required dozens of phone calls and emails (many of them unsuccessful); we now have a better sense of the barriers you have to get through to find something where you can really get involved. (One thing we discovered was that if you only say you’re dedicated and committed and have a lot of time to give, people will recruit you for almost anything. One email we sent to a volunteer coordinator, which must have been cc’d several times to several different people, is still getting back occasional replies from fledgling business and eager volunteer groups). We chose this particular project not only because we fully support its community-oriented and environmental aims, but because it offers the right amount of authority and flexibility. We’re still in touch with Christine, and are working all the time underneath the branches of the Power in Dirt program and the city. But we are otherwise free to create our own ideas and develop them on the lot in whatever way we feel is best and most appropriate (which will be decided mostly by the community). We’ll be doing hands-on work, communicating with the residents of the lot and (later on) working closely with them, as well as bringing together a large amount of resources, which will test our management skills. Other projects, such as the penpal one, might have allowed us to ideologically get behind the cool ISP principle of international communication and bringing people of different backgrounds in touch with another, but it wouldn’t have had nearly the real-world impact the Power in Dirt project offers. We also turned down one volunteer position (among others) that resembled an internship at a non-profit because it didn’t allow much room for creativity and taking responsibility.
ACTION PROJECT PROPOSAL
ReplyDeletePartners/contacts:
We will be working with Christine Kingston, who is awesome and a volunteer for Americorps in charge of overseeing and coordinating a handful of Power in Dirt initiatives as well as doing other jobs at Bon Secours near downtown. We’ve met with her once so far, in Pearlstone, when she handed off to us several helpful pamphlets and documents and gave us some advice on where to get started. We’re also working with, indirectly, Vu Dang who works for a government office in downtown and who initially put us in touch with Christine (and one of whose emails to us was cc’d to “Mayor”!).
We’ll also be communicating as much as we can with the residents who live in the community near our lot (located at 5316 Ready Ave, ten minutes’ drive down York Road). We’ve spoken to just one person from the neighborhood, a passerby we met when surveying the place (who was very receptive to our ideas and enthusiasm), but hope to return this weekend with a questionnaire and survey of possible ideas or preferences for the community garden, to get a sense of both what residents would like to see and what kind of energy they would have for a project like this. It would also be an easy way to generate interest.
Plan of action:
All sources tell us that creating a community garden is a complicated project that requires a lot of organization, resource management and networking. But the steps have already been broken down and laid out for us, leaving us, for the immediate future, just a checklist to follow.
Because it is too late in the season to expect to be able to set up the garden and begin planting, our first, most important goal is to bring all the resources together and successfully put the actual community garden together. Actual use of the garden will begin in the spring. Basic first steps will include collecting a soil sample and sending it to the University of Massachusetts for testing (sometimes soil on vacant lots contains lead left over from demolished buildings; if it does the garden will require raised beds), getting mulch and wood chip donations from the city or a group called SeeGreen, getting tree donations, buying top soil from Home Depot and determining the cost (top soil is typically not donated), and talking to Goucher about collaborating on a compost pile (optional).
Our second goal is to spread the word about Power in Dirt at Goucher, and talk to people about working with us next spring to get the community garden off to a successful start. We think we might be able to find a couple of students from next semester’s ISP class who would like to take it on.
(cont.)
ReplyDeleteWhy we’re undertaking it:
Our group’s first aim--which we accomplished by signing the lot adoption form--was to identify and join in on a project that was already underway rather than beginning our own. That way, besides still being able to head and organize our own project, we also got to explore the channels of communication that connect and surround undertakings like these. For instance, finally getting in touch with Christine required dozens of phone calls and emails (many of them unsuccessful); we now have a better sense of the barriers you have to get through to find something where you can really get involved. (One thing we discovered was that if you only say you’re dedicated and committed and have a lot of time to give, people will recruit you for almost anything. One email we sent to a volunteer coordinator, which must have been cc’d several times to several different people, is still getting back occasional replies from fledgling business and eager volunteer groups).
We chose this particular project not only because we fully support its community-oriented and environmental aims, but because it offers the right amount of authority and flexibility. We’re still in touch with Christine, and are working all the time underneath the branches of the Power in Dirt program and the city. But we are otherwise free to create our own ideas and develop them on the lot in whatever way we feel is best and most appropriate (which will be decided mostly by the community). We’ll be doing hands-on work, communicating with the residents of the lot and (later on) working closely with them, as well as bringing together a large amount of resources, which will test our management skills.
Other projects, such as the penpal one, might have allowed us to ideologically get behind the cool ISP principle of international communication and bringing people of different backgrounds in touch with another, but it wouldn’t have had nearly the real-world impact the Power in Dirt project offers. We also turned down one volunteer position (among others) that resembled an internship at a non-profit because it didn’t allow much room for creativity and taking responsibility.