A Community Research Project: Teaching Values Through Community Gardens Southern Oregon University Kimberly Eikenberry

1. A Community Research Project: Teaching Values Through Community Gardens Southern Oregon University Kimberly Eikenberry

2. Considerations… • How will a collaborative relationship between the Medford School District & the Medford Community Garden positively effect the community? • What can you do to facilitate the growth of a community garden in your own community? • What feedback can you provide in order to continue my own process?

3. Definitions • Community gardens: It can be urban, suburban, or rural. It can grow flowers, vegetables or community. It can be one community plot, or can be many individual plots. It can be at a school, hospital, or in a neighborhood. It can also be a series of plots dedicated to "urban agriculture" where the produce is grown for a market • Values: Values reflect a person’s sense of right and wrong or what “ought” to be.

4. Medford Community Gardens • Founded in 2009. • The community garden sits on ten-thousand square feet in West Medford. • Many of the plots are held by social service organizations dedicated to wrap-around services and citizen empowerment. • Great benefits would come to the schools, the community and our children by linking the Medford school system and the Medford Community Gardens.

5. Garden Structure • The large lot has been divided into 17 individual garden plots;three are wheelchair accessible. • Plots will range from 11-by-11 to 16-by-16 and all have raised beds. • Families and groups are free to plant whatever they like so long as it is not illegal or shading their neighbor's garden (Miles, K). • Contact Kit Miles at St. marks for a plot.

6. Management Structure • Co-managed by both the Family Nurturing Center (FNC) and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (St Marks). • The church provides the land and the water. • FNC oversees insurance and everyday operations.

7. Family Nurturing Center • FNC is a Relief Nursery. • FNC has 3 therapeutic classrooms, runs mother/father & child groups, offers family counseling, couples counseling, child therapy, and provides in-home visitation, case management and relationship-based visitation to biological parents and their children in foster care.

8. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church • Holds religious services twice a week, offers a men/women’s group, quilter’s groups, community breakfasts, runs a free-of-charge library, holds blood pressure clinics, &participates in a large amount of community outreach. • The community outreach includes running a food pantry, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity, and providing financial aid to students.

9. Relevant Demographics • The children in West Medford tend to experience higher than average rates of poverty. • These children often come from families’ which experience drug or alcohol abuse, limited mobility and high rates of unemployment. • These children may not otherwise be exposed to the process of planting, growing and harvesting their own food. • The children’s experiences enjoyed in the community garden may offer them a chance to actively explore science and thus become inspired to learn in the classroom.

10. Community Benefits • The community garden is founded and primarily supported by citizens who take active roles in the environment which we all live; the garden provides a forum for communication. • The children will be exposed to empowering role models who take pride in active citizenship. • Community gardens provide ample opportunities for engaging in environmental action – from creating new or improving existing gardens, to educating people about healthy eating or advocating for garden preservation (Schusler, T. 2007).

11. Benefits to Medford Schools • The involved children will spend hands on time exploring nature and being immersed in their community, this will positively effect their interest in academic studies. • The positive effects of community gardens on participants are: increased self-worth and self-confidence; increased self-reliance and self-sufficiency; neighborhood improvement and community development; promotion of co-operation, equity and democracy. (Jamison, 1985)

12. Pertinent Research • Children who spend unstructured time in nature experience numerous benefits, including enhancing their physical and emotional health, and their cognitive abilities (Krasney, M., 2009). • The importance of community gardens in the healthy development of children in cities has been recognized by a distinguished panel of governors, mayors, educators, environmental activists, and industry executives who are members of the National Forum on Children and Nature.

13. Research Continued • The health benefits of spending time in nature is well-documented by numerous studies, including: Nancy Wells at Cornell, Frances Kuo from the University of Illinois, and many others (Krasney, M., 2009). • Children who spend time in gardens observe ecological processes in action. • Learning in community gardens can be experiential and self-directed, i.e., children observe processes and conduct experiments that they initiate and that interest them (Wells, N. & Lekies K. 2006).

14. Conclusion • There are strong indications that a collaborative relationship between Medford School District and the West Medford Community Garden would benefit the community and our schools. • There is a great amount of research which indicates learning in the garden environment will carry over into the classroom and beyond far into the child’s life. • The gardens can act as an outdoor gathering spaces, where students, teachers and community members may take time to relax and enjoy nature.

15. Research Links • http://nccommunitygarden.ncsu.edu/research.html • http://www.forum-on-children-and-nature.org/ • http://nccommunitygarden.ncsu.edu/research.html • http://www.communitygarden.org/rebeltomato/roots/types-of-programs.php

16. References • Jamison, Michael, S. (1985). "The Joys of Gardening: Collective and Bureaucratic Cultures in Conflict" The Sociological Quarterly Vol. 26 No. 4; 473-490 • Krasney, Marianne. 2009. Kids jumping into community gardens: what bounces out. Community Greening Review. 13(54-66). • Miles, Kit, 2012. Garden manager and member of the church's outreach committee. St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Medford OR. • Schusler, Tania. 2007. Youth-adult partnerships creating positive environmental change. PhD Dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. • The Children & Nature Network website. http://www.childrenandnature.org/ • Wells, Nancy and Kristi Lekies. 2006. Nature and the life course: pathways from childhood nature experiences to adult environmentalism. Children, Youth and Environments 16 (1).