Breaking New Ground through Partnering with Diverse Community Groups

June 21, 2023

Three Common Ground Collaborative Grants Announced for 2023

Three New York-based projects emphasizing environmental education for young people were awarded the GCA’s 2023 Common Ground Collaborative grants. Local chapters in collaboration with community groups plan to use the $10,000 grants for flower bed cultivation, horticulture curriculum, and tree care instruction to improve the lives of at-risk youth.

GREEN VISIONS - ALLYN’S CREEK GARDEN CLUB

Green Visions is a Rochester, New York based workforce development program, serving at-risk youth in the neighborhood in which they live. Green Visions plans to renovate a 100-year-old home on the site of their one-acre urban flower farm. The home and farm are in the JOSANA neighborhood, a low income, and underserved area of Rochester. 

Allyn’s Creek Garden Club (ACGC) will be working with program participants in the classroom, offering instruction in a variety of areas relating to horticulture, floral design, and conservation. Each spring, Green Visions interns install and cultivate cut flower beds on once vacant and decaying city lots–a fitting project for the “Flower City.”

GLEN COVE BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF LONG ISLAND - THE NORTH COUNTRY GARDEN CLUB OF LONG ISLAND

Inspired by the GCA’s efforts in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the North Country Garden Club of Long Island (NCGC) began a longstanding relationship with the Glen Cove Boys & Girls Club (GCBGC). Its staff, as well as the parents and children served, represent a widely diverse racial, ethnic, and socio-economic population on the north shore of Long Island.
The Common Ground Collaborative grant will facilitate building a knowledge base, appreciation, and passion for horticulture, healthy eating habits, the natural environment, and the impact we have upon it as well as its positive impact upon us. Additionally, the hope is to inspire a love of nature in children whose exposure to such is limited. 

ROOT FOR TREES - GARDEN CLUB OF ORANGE & DUTCHESS COUNTIES

Root for Trees is an experiential, educational program, that teaches tree and plant care to local students, focused on the urban park setting of Downing Park, the historic and final design created by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in Newburgh, New York. 

In their very last project together (1894-1897), Olmsted and Vaux designed Downing Park as a tribute to their friend and mentor, Newburgh native, Andrew Jackson Downing. Its 35 acres are filled with hills, sweeping meadows, streams, a pond, serpentine pathways, a wide variety of plants and trees, and today, a two-acre urban farm.  This historic site provides an ideal classroom for budding horticulturists.

In 2021, The Garden Club of America created the Common Ground Collaborative grant to support GCA member clubs in building long-term relationships with diverse community groups to develop, improve, and maintain public land and programs. The 2023 CGC winners were announced at the 2023 Annual Meeting.

 

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