Collaborating to Advance Our Local Garden Leaders

As part of unifying Atlanta’s local food movement, Food Well Alliance funds several collaborative initiatives to strengthen Atlanta’s infrastructure and solve common challenges. “Leaders Growing Community Gardens” is a collaborative initiative with the following partners: Atlanta Community Food Bank Community Gardens, East Atlanta Village Farmers Market, Global Growers Network, Metro Atlanta Urban Farm, Partners in Action for Healthy Living (PAHL), Inc., South West Atlanta Growers Cooperative, Think Green Inc. and Wylde Center.

Leadership in community gardens is essential to sustain operations and resources, and to ensure membership participation and community support. We learned through surveys and discussions that community gardeners are challenged to attract, manage and maintain engaged passionate leaders in the garden.We knew fostering collaboration across the movement would help us expand educational resources and networking opportunities.

This collaborative initiative has yielded two awesome opportunities. The first is a series of 2-Day Workshops focused on equipping community garden leaders with leadership skills and horticulture knowledge. There are four remaining workshops from now through early November in various counties. If you are a community garden leader, sign-up now to invest in yourself, and to ultimately invest in the gardens and communities you serve.

Our second opportunity is 1X1 Coaching. For the first time gardens can access local experts that will offer coaching centered around developing leadership abilities, establishing sustainable governance and cultivating horticultural expertise. There are 30 spots available for 1X1 Coaching. Register by November 7, 2016, to be considered for pairing with one of our local experts.

We are extremely grateful to the organizations and their leadership that collaborated to design and implement resources to help strengthen community gardens across the five counties.