Community Garden Expansion Program

• The goal of The Randolph Street Community is to provide local residents, living in a food desert, the opportunity to grow or purchase healthy produce, and to pass on gardening traditions to a new generation of children.

We would like to expand this project to include:

The Intersection of Academia and Mother Witt - a town to gown initiative, working with graduate students from University of Illinois. This community led initiative is meant to increase and continue positive result of graduate student participation in research projects based in the community.

The first part of this expansion is the purchase of a property that will increase the number of garden beds available to community members. These new beds will more accessible to gardeners, particularly children who live north of Bradley and east of Neil, for whom crossing Neil and Bradley to get to the main garden is difficult and dangerous.

The second part of the expansion involves the use of the dwelling on the same property. This dwelling would be occupied by up to two 2) graduate students doing projects/research in the north end. We have identified three (3) disciplines for the initial program. They are Urban Planning, Agriculture, and Social Work (MSW).

The third member of the team and the permanent position is that of Mother Witt. This position is to be filled by a community member who will share living space in the house and act to introduce the students to the other community members and to help identify community members who would continue the projects of the team once the students completed their work.

This “Town to Gown” initiative to house, in the community, graduate students assisted by a local community organizers will allow them to:

Develop trusting relationships with community members

Conduct research (with community members) that articulates their needs

Develop and implement programs to meet those needs.

Serve as a repository and library for research papers and presentations so that knowledge can be shared, passed on, and used as documentation of need for additional projects.

 In addition to the above items, canning kitchen will offer a space where community members can learn and teach others how to preserve the summer’s bounty for the winter.

The Randolph Street Community Garden is a key site of development for the Champaign community. It is where diverse populations intersect and interact. In 2023, 2,461 volunteer hours were worked. That’s 273 people that came to the garden to help other people grow food, clear their beds, water, share knowledge and learn about one another. Just under 1044 people attended planned garden events. People who are black, brown, red, white, and yellow, city residents and university students, church and un-churched, children, men, women, able bodied, disabled, and elders. All participate at the Randolph Street Community garden, where food, fun, and friendship grow and we are building community! The Brethren (Brothers and Sisters) Garden House is the next step in the continuation of this work.

Your donation will help continue and expand this crucial community development work.

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For further information, you may contact Dawn Blackman at dawnblackmansr at yahoo dot com.