A new report, led by Helen McGregor, Redefining Agriculture.
The findings in this project offer insight into both the value and limitations of the community garden networks in Melbourne as a representative model for evaluating plant health education and engagement at a local level. Most notably the importance of a tailored, strategic, integrated approach to community engagement and education, and the opportunity to leverage existing and build new social capital within communities, to support positive biosecurity outcomes. The work also identified a number of areas for future investigation, including further exploration into the motivations for joining community gardens in a highly diverse community, to conduct longitudinal data collection and analysis of community garden membership and knowledge needs, to track changes to their potential role as an important community and knowledge hub and for exploration of overseas models for garden governance, resourcing, engagement and as educational hubs and networks to inform the future Australian context.
Go the Project Page here.