Catherine McConnell, Lindsey Sarquilla, Emily Baver, Julie Retig, and Rebecca Fisher
INTRODUCTION
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| Intro |
| Resource at Stake |
| Challenge |
| Projects |
Engaging Communities and Children: |
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In low income communities, such as the public housing at Prospect Hill, often times abundant resources are not available to support lots of activities outside, such as gardening, even though there is a want for it. We were approached by several of the tenants from prospect hill that showed an interest in creating a garden. The want for interaction with nature goes beyond just kids, but also exists within adults. As we are approaching a time when living sustainable must be at the forefront of our minds, everyone has to maintain that connection with nature. This connection can be made in many ways, but gardening is an easy way, for it guarantees a constant interaction because of the maintenance that it requires. Gardening is just one way of engaging a community, both kids and adults, in nature and the environment. We wanted not only to plan a garden that would help beautify the community, but provide help in leaning about gardening, how to do it, and different ways to interact with there surroundings. We have the privilege of being at a university that has a lot of resources, and can use them to help energize a community and educate about how to garden, as well as using connection to provide the resources for it to happen.
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During the past year, the PHT Tenants Association expressed interest in and wishes for a community garden at PHT to Brandeis Professor Laura Goldin. She in turn asked our group if we would like to take on the project of working with the tenants at PHT to design and eventually create a community garden there. We immediately saw that the project would be an opportunity not only to work with kids in nature and to address the environmental conditions of a low-income area, but also to contribute a little to the dynamic relationship growing between Brandeis and the PHT community. We hoped that through our project we could add ties of our own to the PHT community.
Tenant Issues:
- Want to help prove resources to address this need, for often times they are not abundant in areas of public housing.
The need in the community:
- Tenants from prospect hill approached us about wanting to help them crate a garden.
- Gardening is not just for the kids, the adults want it too
- Gardening is just one way that the can help connect people with nature. It requires a constant flow of attention to water the plants, tend to them, so solidifies a continued contact with the natural world.
Community learning:
- Wanted to create something that would not only beautify the
community, but help educate them about how to garden - Wanted the event to be a bringing together, not just having
Brandeis students come, but a celebration of the area and a bringing together of people who might not have interacted on there own. - We were able to use the resources and clout of a university to get the information and resources to put this into action
