Let's cross our fingers! We are also working on a letter to create community partnerships with businesses, churches, etc. We do not get any of our funding from SHRA, so we have to find funding elsewhere, and the grant funding option seems to be very competitive!
Here is the information I included in the grant proposal:
DESCRIBE YOUR PROPOSED PROJECT (Be sure to include how many students will be involved as well as the age range of the participating students):
Our project is a new neighborhood community garden in a city park. This park and garden are surrounded by 230 houses, and the neighborhood includes 76 children. The ages in the neighborhood range from toddlers to adolescents, babies to 18 year olds, elementary through high school. There are 31 families looking forward to participating in the garden.
The Sycamore Hills Community Garden is asking for support from Captain Planet because we would like to make the garden as educational and interactive as possible. All of these projects would be under the supervision of the community adults and gardeners. Eventually, the teens of the neighborhood could take on training the younger children about these issues, as well.
We would like to create beautiful, instructional, and interactive signs around the garden. One such sign would be circular in shape and have two layers that spin. On the top layer, the seasons and months would be illustrated with words and images (“What’s In Season to Eat?”). Through a missing section on this layer, the child would be able to see through to the bottom layer. On the bottom layer would be images of the plants that are ready to be harvested during that season. Signage would also be placed around the plants to explain how each plant can be used and how to harvest it. Lastly, we would like the children to have 3D vegetables and fruit that will describe visually what is growing in the garden.
In addition, we would like funding to help create art in the garden. Along the sides of the fence, we would like to have children decorate wood carvings of garden objects to beautify the fence. We would like to create tall flower, insect, bird, and vegetable statues that a child could poke his or her face through for a photograph. On the back of the stand would be information about the connection of this object to the garden. Other art would include mosaic stepping stones and statues. We want the garden to belong to the community, and especially the children, but in order to do that; we need to provide opportunities to develop their sense of ownership toward the garden and community, as well as to develop an understanding of how to be stewards of the environment.
Lastly, we would like to explain the importance of attracting wildlife to a garden. We would like to make bird houses, baths and feeders with the children as a method to explain the importance of pollinators and predators in the garden. We would also like to create and post bat boxes, in the same vein.
In 2 sentences, what one or two things do you hope to accomplish?
We hope to bring together the different generations within our community through education and experience in the community garden. We hope to inspire and strengthen the children’s connection to the earth by learning how to grow food, care for plants, preserve the soil, and nurture trees.
LINE ITEM BUDGET (Please remember to Itemize your list... Quantity, Items, $ Each and Total Cost.):
1. 1 box, Nails, $5 each & total
2. 10, pine boards, $7 each, $70 total
3. 4, posts, $5 each, $20 total
4. 10, laminated paper signs, $2 each, $20 total
5. 1, Garden guidelines sign, $85 each & total
6. 1, "what's in season" sign, $190 each & total
7. 10, mosaic stepping stones, $5 each, $50 total
8. 2, Plastic vegetable kits, $20 each, $40 total
9. 1, bird bath, $20 each & total
TOTAL: $500
What will you do before, during, and after the project is completed to ensure that the youth involved have learned from this experience?The SHCG will keep a record of the number of youth engaged in the garden from the beginning of one year to the next. SHCG will use that information to begin to see how involved and supported youth feel in the CG. This will help SHCG to tailor the garden to be more accommodating and/or to continue the practices that are working well. In addition to the numbers, we will send out a survey asking the gardening youth what they learned and enjoyed about the garden, as well as any suggestions they have for the future.
On a more daily basis, the SHCG will conduct a survey before, during, and after each art and/or garden activity to understand how effective the lesson was and what the students learned. The instructor will frame the survey as “meeting learning targets.” Sample learning targets might include: I can build a birdhouse, I understand why birds are essential to a garden, I can used recycled materials to create garden art, and I can explain the difference between an annual and a perennial. Children would rate how closely they met the target by a “thumb-o-meter” in which a down thumb means “did not meet at all” a sideways thumb means “sort of” or “still have questions” and an up thumbs means “100%.”
The youth would also be invited to write on the SHCG Blog as co-authors. Each gardener could be a guest author each week, and could upload photos, write an informative or narrative journal entry, create an online survey, or more. The possibilities for ways to showcase learning with a Blog are endless.
What other sources of funding do you have available to cover costs not funded by the Captain Planet Foundation (i.e. travel, salaries, etc. See restrictions on giving):
The SHCG planners are actively seeking funding from other grant sources, as well as establishing community connections with local businesses and organizations. Donations have already starting coming in, and the garden should be only enhanced by the Captain Planet Funds, not dependent upon.
