RE: Evaluating CG's

H* A*

Friends,

There is deep woodsmoke coming up from the Missouri hills - this is where
the earth-shattering Whitmire Community Garden study is taking place. One of
the best community garden/neighborhood greening organizations in the lower
48 is Gateway Greening in St. Louis, Missouri. 

http://stlouis.missouri.org/gatewaygreening

Their Whitmire study is probably the best financed and most intelligently
planned community gardening study:

http://stlouis.missouri.org/gatewaygreening/WhitmireStudy.htm

I think they may know something that may keep you from re-inventing the
wheel. 

My two cents: 

In rating community gardens I would put service to community, accessibility
to community members ( especially wheelchair bound seniors and
children)democracy of governance, gardener committment to food security and
a favorable perception of the garden by neighbors close to the top of the
list.

The educational and/or therapeutic mission of a community garden could be
checked off and rated as well.

The other items, i.e., including best gardening practices- including
composting, organic practices, crop rotation, water conservation methods,
tool maintainance, you name it are also extremely important...

But key to my way of thinking is how community gardens grow community -
otherwise it's just gardening.

Adam Honigman
Volunteer, Clinton Community Garden, NYC
http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Berman [l*@foodshare.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 11:31 AM
To: ACGA listserve
Cc: Kim McGibbon; Laura Berman
Subject: [cg] Evaluating CG's

Hi Folks,
I recently received this request (see below) from Kim McGibbon in Thunder
Bay (it's in Canada) for help in evaluating cg programs. I don't have any
specific way of doing it other than by anecdote, but then again, I'm not a
government employee and my need for hard data isn't the same as theirs ;-).

But this is clearly something that we all could benefit from and something
that can help when writing grant applications.

If you would please send your  evaluation methods, forms, ideas, etc., to:
1. the list, 
2. to Kim 
3. and as well to me--actually if you hit "reply all" it will go to all of
the above--I will try to put them all together and post them on our website
for future reference.

Thanks,
Laura

---------------
Laura Berman
FoodShare Toronto

 ===================================
KIM'S EMAIL: 
  Hello there;
I am wondering if your group has done any evaluation reports on the
community gardens in Toronto.  I work in Thunder Bay and we help to
coordinate community gardens at our health unit and are just looking into
the idea of evaluation.  If you have something electronically I would love
to see it.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Kim McGibbon
Public Health Dietitian
Thunder Bay District Health Unit
999 Balmoral St.
P7B 6E9
Phone: (807) 625-5956
Fax: (807) 623-2369
kim.mcgibbon@tbdhu.com
www.tbdhu.com

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______________________________________________________
The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org

To post an e-mail to the list:  community_garden@mallorn.com

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription:  https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden