There is a lot of work being done right now about improving equity and inclusion in school gardens and outdoor classrooms. Change is in the air!
Here are a myriad of resources, webinars and articles to give you food for thought as you navigate possible changes to make learning in the school garden a level playing field for all of your students.
KidsGardening has made Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility part of their mission of creating opportunities for all kids to play, learn, and grow in a garden. They know that some of the families, educators and children they serve live within systems of oppression in their daily lives and educational spaces and gardens are no exception.
KidsGardening has also developed a webinar series called Culturally Inclusive Teaching in the Garden:
- Session 1: Principles of Culturally-Responsive Garden Education: Honoring Diversity Inclusion
- Session 2: Honoring Native American, Hawaiian, and Alaska Native Culture in Youth Gardens
- Session 3: Celebrating African American and Black Culture in Youth Gardens
- Session 4: Fostering Hispanic, Latinx, and Spanish Origin Culture in Youth Gardens
- Session 5: Nurturing Middle Eastern and North African Culture in Youth Gardens
- Session 6: Featuring Asian and Asian American Culture in Youth Gardens
Strengthening Equity & Inclusion in School Garden Education resources were compiled in order to begin to answer some of the big questions posed about equity and inclusion in school gardens to identify tools to find the best way to intertwine equity, inclusivity, diversity and justice into all aspects of each school garden support organization.
Teach ME Outside builds on the collaborative work of many different organizations and individuals and is led today by a partnership between the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, Maine Environmental Education Association and Nature Based Education Consortium. Their 2022 Census for Community Based Environmental Learning surveyed over 900 educators in Maine to promote systems change to expand access to environmental and outdoor learning across the state. Watch the presentation: Environmental and Outdoor Learning in Maine: Current status and Vision for the Future.
The IDEA Center for Public Gardens™ was launched to empower public gardens to prioritize and champion diversity and inclusion initiatives within public gardens and beyond. Public gardens and cultural institutions have the opportunity to serve communities in more exciting and meaningful ways than ever before and together they hope we can not only expand the identity of who we are and who we serve, but most importantly, how we connect with each other.
The Racial and Social Equity Assessment Tool for Farm to School Programs resource is intended to help advance National Farm to School Network’s racial and social equity priority of increasing our understanding of the work in the context of structural, institutional, and interpersonal racism by the following goals/objectives:
- Increase our capacity to identify racial and social inequities embedded within programming and policy advocacy initiatives,
- Support decision making processes which maximize opportunities for advancing racial and social equity,
- Create a community of practice to empower action within our sphere of influence, and
- Embrace our collective power to address the systemic changes needed for social transformation within the farm to school movement.
The Equity in Farm to School: Do’s and Don’ts of Food Based Education includes general guidelines for implementing garden, food, nutrition and land-based education through an equity, diversity, inclusion, poverty-informed, and trauma-informed lens. These evolving guidelines are conversation starters and critical thinking tools for educators to interrogate curriculum prior to teaching with an aim to reduce unintended harm in food-based lessons.
The Outdoor Equity Fund makes grants to BIPOC-led organizations increasing access to outdoor spaces, through a process of participatory grantmaking. Co-hosted by Maine Initiatives and the Nature Based Education Consortium, they are working together toward a future in which all Maine youth have equitable access to meaningful outdoor learning experiences!
Food Fuels Learning Toolkit: Conducting an Assessment of School System Food Security is a resource to help food security champions better understand their school food system and to identify the strengths and areas for improvement in food security programming. This toolkit has step-by-step instructions on how to conduct a school system food security assessment in your district.
Read Food Corps’ Annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Report 2022/2023 Which reports of the strides they have made in pursuit of their 2030 goal that every child has access to food education and nourishing, free school meals and their next steps to meeting their goals.
TheAmerican Horticultural Therapy Association advocates for the development of the horticultural therapy profession and the practice of horticulture as therapy for human well-being. A therapeutic garden is a plant-dominated environment purposefully designed to facilitate interaction with the healing elements of nature. There are many sub-types of therapeutic gardens including healing gardens, enabling gardens, rehabilitation gardens, and restorative gardens. For more informations read: Therapeutic Garden Characteristics
Cultivating Well-Being through therapeutic horticulture is a partnership formed by two registered horticultural therapists living and working in southern Maine whose mission is to utilize the healing power of plants with individuals of all ages, ancestry and abilities in an effort to improve mental health, physical wellbeing, and sense of community. They facilitate programs and sessions to meet the wellness goals and objectives by using plant material, gardening and horticultural techniques as a therapeutic tool and are available to help implement therapeutic, universal design elements into a garden or landscape as well as provide horticultural therapy in-service presentations for schools that want to explore therapeutic horticulture.
