Neighborhoods Now- Banana Kelly by Van Alen Institute

Neighborhoods Now

Dear friend,

for small businesses on how to apply for relief loans. They drafted legal templates for short-term leases to occupy vacant storefronts. They collaborated with senior staff at City agencies to help neighborhoods access programs like Open Streets and Open Restaurants.

As the pandemic took root in our city in March, its uneven impact on the lives of New Yorkers quickly became painfully clear. While our city’s well-resourced communities and businesses benefit from the ability to purchase expertise, the The work is far from over. Many of these firms are committed neighborhoods where many of our essential workers live do to continuing these partnerships in service of long-term not have the same access and resources. efforts to address systemic inequities and greater community In response, the Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute ambitions. The need for this work is profound, and we hope this effort inspires the design community to come together in tapped into our collective network of architects, designers, continued service of New York’s neighborhoods. Ultimately, and engineers. In a matter of weeks, more than 65 firms the long term value of this approach will be the alliances mobilized to support the recovery of four neighborhoods forged across demographic and professional boundaries. hit particularly hard by the pandemic: Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn; Jackson Heights, Queens; Kingsbridge, Bronx; and We are humbled by this outstanding display of teamwork, Washington Heights, Manhattan. To date, these firms — including architects, planners, engineers, graphic designers, creative problem solving, and immense generosity. We thank the 200+ community experts and practitioners who and attorneys — have contributed thousands of hours of pro have given their time and passion, and we look forward to bono expertise to support fellow New Yorkers. continuing the work. In partnership with community leaders, they piloted open-air With gratitude, extensions for restaurants, created neighborhood signage with COVID-19 health protocols, and developed proposals Deborah Marton for relocating community events and educational programs Executive Director, Van Alen Institute into open space. Our partner neighborhoods’ needs also went far deeper than design, so our working groups expanded their support beyond physical interventions. They organized a seminar

Daniel McPhee Executive Director, Urban Design Forum

Neighborhoods Now

The use of the information contained in this document is at the sole risk of the user, and the Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design Forum shall not be responsible for, or liable in any way for, the accuracy, completeness or any other matter with respect to the contents herein. The user hereby assumes all risks of the use of the information, and irrevocably and unconditionally waives, releases and discharges the Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design Forum and its direct and indirect members, directors, officers, employees, agents, affiliates, volunteers and representatives, from any and all liability of any kind or nature whatsoever, in connection with the matters contained herein, and the use of the information contained herein.

SOUTH BRONX COMMUNITY GARDENS Created in collaboration with Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association and community members

Produced as part of Neighborhoods Now

Summary Report 30 June 2021

INTRODUCTION In 1978, residents of a stretch of Kelly Street in the South Bronx came together to renovate three buildings on their block by hand. At the time, the South Bronx was devastated by a combination of systemic forces: a city program to raze all buildings not slated for federal rehabilitation, rampant arson, the withdrawal of city services, and incentivized white flight. Over 70% of housing in the Hunts Point-Longwood area, where Kelly Street is located, was destroyed in the decade of 1970 to 1980.

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B Within this context, these Kelly Street residents’ radical act of community redevelopment through ‘sweat equity’ was not only a statement of pride in their neighborhood, but also a necessary action for its survival. Finding a welcome place within the resilient local culture of art, music, and the occupation of vacant lots for play and community organizing, this rebuilding movement took hold. Over

40 years later, the organization—now formalized under the name ‘Banana Kelly’—continues to maintain housing and provide the resources necessary for people to come together and take action in the South Bronx. Amidst Banana Kelly’s portfolio of 65 buildings of affordable housing, four community gardens and one newly

Hunts Point

acquired lot stand out as vibrant gathering spaces for way to touch base on the ground and get people what the neighborhoods. Closely tied to local histories of resil- they need. ience and community-based renewal, these gardens took on a new dimension of importance amidst the COVID-19 pandemic as critical service distribution hubs for Banana Kelly—when it could be difficult to stay in contact with residents virtually, these outdoor areas provided a safe

WORKING GROUP

WHAT IS A COMMUNITY GARDEN?

During spring 2021, Neighborhoods Now advanced Banana Kelly’s goals of generating short, medium, and long-term design visions that facilitate the organization of residents and neighbors in the community gardens. Given the individual character of each garden, the relatively short timeline of five months, and the need to keep the power in the hands of the Banana Kelly community for years to come, the working group focused on defining a set of priorities and tools that can be further refined through future implementation.

Community gardens are not one thing; rather, they are diverse spaces constantly evolving and reconfiguring themselves to address community needs and desires. They are safe, green havens for community members that offer opportunities to escape the urban neighborhoods many of us live in as well as spaces alive with culture, art, food, and people. Rising amidst vacant lots and in apartment buildings’ overlooked backyards, these gardens are deeply connected to place and the people who tend to them.

Garden BD Feliz

Graphic Designer + Artist

Silman

Youth Organizers

Horticulture

Structural Engineer

MVVA

Garden Leaders

Banana Kelly

Urban Nature

Landscape Architects + Planners

Neighborhood Residents Fried Frank

Lead Organizers

Design Team

Food Security

Productive Landscape Mental Health

Intergenerational Programming

Community Organizing

Lawyer

Garden Stewards

The Greenest Fern

Youth Leadership

Service Delivery

Sustainable Designer + Planner

Activity The Neighborhoods Now team came onboard in February 2021 to work closely with Ian Gray-Stack, Banana Kelly’s Director of Community Organizing, to meet Banana Kelly’s goals for their community gardens. Lola Vieria joined us as Banana Kelly’s Community Gardens Organizer midway through the spring. Our design team was led by landscape architects Michael

Van Valkenburgh Associates and included graphic designer BD Feliz as well as sustainable designer and engagement planner Fernando Ortiz of The Greenest Fern, both Bronx-based designers with a wealth of local knowledge. Fried Frank provided legal support and Silman assisted with structural engineering queries.

Banana Kelly’s community gardens each have their own unique local character, different needs, and distinct ways to serve their community. More than just places for food production, each of these spaces are defined by the activities and connections taking place within them. These complex and localized identities require spatial configura-

tions that are not only closely tied to the needs of their gardeners and organizers, but can also support garden production and communal gathering within relatively small areas. Our designs and strategies for Banana Kelly’s gardens intend to support each site’s unique relationship between ‘garden’ and ‘activity’.

COMMUNITY BUILDING Investing directly in the community to involve new perspectives is critical for achieving the longevity of these places. The more visible the benefit of the gardens is to the community, the more welcoming it is for youth and newcomers—and a powerful tool in unifying any community engagement is a dialogue that spans multiple generations. Amidst the ongoing pandemic when traditional in-person outreach was less viable, our team had to be creative both in how we worked with each other and in how we involved the community. Our strategies to support Banana Kelly’s organizing focused on creating places that are lively, colorful, and inviting to new participants.

The design team met weekly, with our Banana Kelly partners joining every other week, to pitch design ideas, share updates, and coordinate engagement and implementation strategies. The multifaceted nature of our project required close and non-hierarchical collaboration with Banana Kelly from the beginning, a team relationship that proved to be productive and creative.

In February, a tour of the garden sites formed the basis for our existing conditions analysis and provided an early opportunity to speak with garden leaders. These conversations drove much of the subsequent design work, which was brought back to the leaders for their feedback over two virtual engagement meetings. In the spring, Banana Kelly employed Neighborhoods Now

funding to hire several youth organizers to become garden stewards and leaders in their communities, whose interest was sparked through outreach posters by BD Feliz. Youth organizers, associated with specific gardens, work closely with more experienced garden leaders and share the responsibility of garnering local interest and spurring engagement. This spring, they canvassed

residential buildings, led garden cleanups, and shared invaluable insight on design proposals during our virtual meetings. The youth organizers and garden leaders became an integral part of our team’s effort to amplify the larger community’s voice and respond to their needs and wishes to create long-lasting connections that will endure beyond the Neighborhoods Now program’s close.

SITE DESIGN RECOMMENDATIONS From the outset, the five sites presented unique opportunities and constraints—all are distinct in their scale, orientation, sun exposure, existing programming, and condition of garden infrastructure. Following our initial site visits, we put these observations into dialogue with the goals expressed by the gardeners to extract common themes and determine how our thinking could best address both individual and overarching needs of the gardens. This resulted in both site-specific visions and toolkits that can be deployed across many sites, depending on their needs and priorities at any given time.

E 163rd St Lot Kelly St Garden Bryant Ave Garden

Prospect Ave Garden

College Ave Garden

Hours of Sunlight on Equinox 12 Based on commonalities identified among the sites, informed by what we heard from the community, key ideas structured the design team’s recommendations for the Banana Kelly gardens and provided baseline intentions for the tools we developed: Transformation + Activation, Multifunctionality + Flexibility, Accessibility + Inclusivity, Celebrating + Sharing, and Sustainability + Connectivity.

The emergent design recommendations took a variety of forms—from community surveys to understand how residents perceived green space in their neighborhood, to site-specific furnishing and circulation plans, to the development of a Banana Kelly resident-authored newspaper and virtual newsletter. Rather than fitting neatly into the categories we developed to frame our work, all

of the project outcomes touched upon these different themes in different ways, setting the stage for each to evolve and support one another: A strategy that helps one garden become more accessible and inclusive can, in turn, facilitate community building, which can open new doors for connectivity and sharing, and so on. The resultant diverse set of tools and recommendations is unified

0 under the steadfast intention to meet each garden where it was in the spring of 2021, center the needs and desires of the community (or build interest and engagement around spaces without robust existing community activity), and be adaptable enough to build momentum in the continued evolution of the community gardens both this summer and for years to come.

TRANSFORMATION + ACTIVATION Undeveloped sites present opportunities to invite the public to help guide investment in and in definition of the space. At gardens with existing communities and infrastructure, transformation and activation meant rethinking how spaces function, identifying overlooked potential, and building on resources already available. Through an arrangement with New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Banana Kelly plans to acquire a vacant lot on East 163rd Street. In addition to developing appropriate, affordable, and flexible design ideas for the unfolding evolution of the space, the design team helped author concise surveys for local businesses and passerbys which were deployed by youth organizers at a community cleanup in April. We also developed posters to generate interest and open the conversation to neighbors before the space officially opens. Opportunities to hear from the local community will be integrated into programming, with pop-up visioning activities putting the future development of the pocket park into the hands of those who use it.

Once acquired, this vacant lot can be brought to life with temporary, versatile interventions of play, planting, and seating that invite people to engage with the space and actively take part in determining its final form. Tiered seating relates the site to the classic New York City stoop, an especially important hangout spot during the pandemic, while pulling it off the street provides shady

Transformation and activation strategies ranged from rearranging garden bed layouts to dynamically fit real-time needs, to building kiosk structures for information sharing and sun protection. These improvements would bolster the sites as both thriving community gathering places and functioning garden spaces.

THERE’S A GREEN SPACE COMING TO THIS LOT VERY SOON. This will be a place to gather, enjoy the shade, and kick it with the entire community.

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respite from the heat and bustle of the city. An astroturf lawn will be the setting for varied activities, such as movie nights, intimate concerts, food vendors, and more. With this proposal, we intend to define a starting point for this new place while centering the clear message that it should evolve from this initial form and circumstance to best meet the needs of the community.

Another opportunity was to add color—a strategy we pursued through a combination of murals, furniture, and bucket gardening. Aside from creating a major visual impact, vivid color mirrors the vibrancy of the community the garden serves. With respect for the existing murals, we designed colorful garden wall art that is friendly, inviting, and consistent with the visual language

used in our other designs. At the College Avenue Garden, we decided to create something different—an interactive mural that invites youth to scribble on its chalkboard surface and feel the artificial grass along a strip of the mural. Bold pops of color draw attention to the space while patterns and motifs help orient visitors, define the garden’s identity, and link to other Banana Kelly gardens.

MULTIFUNCTIONALITY + FLEXIBILITY While budgets will always be strained, the measure for a good investment in a garden’s infrastructure should be its ability to accomplish multiple goals. Valuing the balance of ‘garden’ and ‘activity’ will shape resilient community hubs that support productive growing practices as well as collective action and power building. Crafting

Crafting a built environment to support horticulture along with food giveaways and Resident Council meetings spurred hybrid solutions, including DIY furnishings for collective build days and prefabricated options, such as the custom-built storage bench for gardening tools and visitor gatherings at the College Avenue Garden.

A Bryant Avenue gardener’s successful method of coating five-gallon buckets with peppermint oil to keep rats out of her vegetables was the catalyst for our team’s exploration into bucket gardening. The resulting designs allow the buckets to become modular rolling garden beds, vertical planters, and the building blocks for an ‘Adopt-aBucket’ engagement program that will be piloted by Ba-

The team suggested that varying heights could be one way to support the discovered programmatic value and maximize accessibility of these bucket gardens. Complementing the moveable beds that float low to the ground on casters, the verticality of the double-height chain link fence at Bryant Avenue was envisioned as a stage to construct a colorful, lush ‘bucket wall’ using

nana Kelly’s organizers this summer at multiple gardens. The flexibility of the bucket units led us to imagine a kit-of-parts for how they could be tailored to the needs of each individual site as pollinator flower gardens, community-decorated art pieces, and stationary (or rolling) objects that could change pathways of circulation and test new spatial configurations.

hanging and cantilevered supports. In what is a long, narrow site with minimal space for furnishings, lifting the garden off the ground minimizes rat infestation, lightens the dominance of the chain link fence, and opens up space for gathering, which aims to catalyze the formation of a new Block Association for tenants of multiple nearby buildings.

ACCESSIBILITY + INCLUSIVITY Gardens should also be inclusive, allowing people of all ages and abilities to lend a hand with planting, meet their neighbors, and enjoy respite from the city’s heat. Our team explored a variety of material and infrastructural strategies that could make each garden space more visible, easier to navigate, and inviting for all.

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Accessibility is an vital goal for any community space, but also focuses infrastructure improvements with the co-benefit of making a site eligible for new funding opportunities. A community garden with a stable collection of financial resources is more resilient and less vulnerable to institutional, regulatory, or economic instability.

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An access agreement and the construction of an entry ramp would make the garden more visible and inclusive of everyone.

ACCESS ROUTES

Signage and vinyl sidewalk markers in the form of colorful garden produce direct visitors to the garden on the street.

Bill Rainey Park Such challenges exist at all the gardens, especially those hidden behind buildings without orienting signage. As a short-term solution, BD Feliz developed a series of vinyl stickers to optimize wayfinding and enhance gardens’ visibility on the street. The markers can be easily installed or removed at a moment’s notice to guide visitors to entrances and contribute to the greater garden identity.

With a thriving cultivation practice, youth programming, and partnerships with local organizations, herbalists, and even hot sauce producers, the Kelly Street Garden has less need for infrastructural or programmatic support. However, the space is only minimally accessible via two narrow stairwells off the street, which limits grant funding and is inhibitive to full community participation.

In response, MVVA identified alternative access routes and entries that would not require navigating stairs, which would make the garden more visible and expand programming to a broader population. Feasible routes conveniently lead through the landscape of an assisted living facility to the garden’s back fence, where we propose adding a new gate and ADA-compliant ramp

that would minimally interfere with the garden’s existing layout while catalyzing the reconfiguration of the activity area. Fried Frank is leading ongoing negotiations with the adjacent property owner to progress an access agreement that would extend the reach of this celebrated community hub in the South Bronx.

CELEBRATING + SHARING As the visions for each garden’s development unfold over the summer and the years to come, the ways that implementation is carried out will be very important. One of Banana Kelly’s goals from the beginning was to activate these gardens to facilitate connections and knit together local communities across several scales.

Both in-situ and more ephemeral media strategies can bring existing gardeners, Banana Kelly residents and organizers, and South Bronx neighbors together around the hubs of the gardens to celebrate the work of the gardeners, build interest and excitement, and share resources among the community.

The official newspaper for Banana Kelly residents, by the people for the people. VOLUME 01 • MAY 2021

CLEAN-UP DAY ON 163 WE’RE BUILDING A PUBLIC SPACE... By Eugene C.

APRIL/MAY 2021 BKCIA COMMUNITY EVENTS CALENDAR For more information or to have your community event listed on our monthly calendar contact Ian Gray-Stack, Director of Community Organizing at Banana Kelly, at IGRAYSTACK@ BKCIANYC.ORG or via telephone at (917) 808-0496

Scan the QR Codes below with your smartphone camera to learn about the event and RSVP

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15 4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

12:00 PM – 7:00 PM

CARRIBEAN BLENDZ THURSDAYS

THE BRONX VENTURE POP UP SHOP PARTY HALL

Flava’s Restaurant Lounge 3114 3rd Avenue Bronx, NY 10451

727 E 213th Street Bronx, NY 10467 Free

Free

WED

21 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM

2:00 PM – 8:00 PM

4:00 PM – 10:00 PM

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

SPRING & FLING STOP & SHOP

POP UP SHOP BY T’A MAGIC LEAF-A PRE 420 CELEBRATION

PUFF & PAINT PARTY

RESTORATION WEDNESDAYS WITH BRONX RIVER ALLIANCE CONSERVATION CREW

478 E. Tremont Ave, 2 FL Bronx, NY 10457

2922 Light Street Bronx, NY 10466

250 Jackson Street Bronx, NY 10454

Burke Ave Bridge Bronx, NY 10467

Free

Tickets from $35

Tickets from $20

Free

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3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

11:00 AM - 4:00PM

VIRTUAL STEAM WORKSHOP: EARTHDAY

CARRIBEAN BLENDZ THURSDAYS

BRONX RIVER CLEANUP FROM BURKE AVE BRIDGE IN BRONX FOREST

Virtual Event

Flava’s Restaurant Lounge 3114 3rd Avenue Bronx, NY 10451

Free

Bronx Blvd & Burke Ave Bronx, NY 10467 Free

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Photograph taken by Eugene C.

The Community Wall is a unique approach to community engagement that we developed for Banana Kelly and its neighboring residents. It is both a communication tool and physical location where residents and local shops can share events, resources, and news locally. Drawing inspiration from local community fridges, we wanted to create a focal point that people can adapt, personal-

ize, and continue developing. Working from the basic concept of a grid of slots for fliers and other community postings mounted on a wall or solid board, the wall becomes a flexible hub of information, learning, and gathering. The Community Wall could be a board mounted on the side of a bodega, community garden, a mural painted in a building lobby, or anything in between.

10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

4:00 PM - 7:00 PM

6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

BRONX RIVER AT SHOELACE PARK CLEANUP

BRONX: RIVERDALE PARK CLEANUP WITH WAVE HILL

CARRIBEAN BLENDZ THURSDAYS

OPEN SHOW NYC AT THE BRONX DOCUMENTARY CENTER ANNEX

East 219th Street Bronx, NY

Riverdale Park / Spaulding Lane and Palisade Ave Bronx, NY 10463

Flava’s Restaurant Lounge 3114 3rd Avenue Bronx, NY 10451

364 E. 151 St Bronx, NY 10455

Free

READ IT ON PAGE. 6

In response to a goal expressed by our Banana Kelly partners early in the scoping process, team members helped develop Banana Kelly’s first community newspaper, entitled The Peel. Through the development, launch, and ongoing creation of The Peel, the idea is to further community engagement by creating an easy-to-read publication that residents can look forward to each month. Ultimately, the team behind publishing The Peel will include an array of talented journalists, designers, students, and community members spanning beyond Neighborhoods Now and even the Banana Kelly community. Leveraging BD Feliz’s experience with newspaper publication design, we helped draft The Peel’s brand identity and created a comprehensive template with a variety of spread layout options and set guidelines for operating and maintaining the paper.

Suggest. Donation of $10

Intended to be entirely by and for residents, the paper includes a community calendar, features content by local contributors and staff writers, and sponsors local businesses through a selective and conscious approach to advertisement. In this way, The Peel facilitates engagement throughout each step of its monthly publication—from the artists and writers creating content, to the businesses submitting their promotional materials, to those overseeing distribution, to the people picking up their free copy in a Banana Kelly building lobby. Before the publication of the first issue, The Peel has started to build connections and create opportunities for Banana Kelly with an editorial-focused internship program, early efforts to build interest among local businesses, and a digital newsletter already in circulation.

SUSTAINABILITY + CONNECTIVITY Developing a system for tracking and understanding available resources and performance indicators is essential to sustain the life of a place in a landscape that is constantly in flux. As the community evolves, our team wants to make sure the gardens collectively evolve with it.

SUSTAINABILITY INDEX PLAN

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SUSTAINABILITY INDEX PLAN

INDEX 01

INDEX 02

COMMUNITY

HEALTH & WELL-BEING

INDEX 03

INDEX 04

INCLUSIVITY & ACCESSIBILITY

RESILIENCY

Knowledge sharing between gardens across the city and within Banana Kelly’s neighborhoods works in tandem with a toolkit of sustainability strategies to measure the progress of their garden spaces over time, connect gardeners with a wider community of mutual support, and support the gardens into the future.

TABLE OF CONTENTS SUSTAINABILITY INDEX PLAN (SIP)

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INDEX 06

GROWTH

GOVERNANCE

SIP Goals SIP Scorecards How to Use SIP How to Use Scorecards INDEX 01 COMMUNITY Education Public Events Community Participation Information Sharing Broader Community Engagement Art/Culture Youth Leadership Intergenerational Programming Garden Identity

05 GROWTH Economic Development Programming Visitors, Volunteers and Vacancies

02 HEALTH + WELL-BEING Food Security Comfort Safety Mental Health Play and Recreation

07 MATERIALS MANAGEMENT Supply Management Waste Management Pest Management

03 INCLUSIVITY + ACCESSIBILITY Physical Accessibility Wayfinding and Circulation Inclusivity and Membership 04 RESILIENCY Climate Change Water Energy Biodiversity

06 GOVERNANCE Rules and Regulations Reporting and Sharing Maintenance and Management Transparency

08 INFRASTRUCTURE + HORTICULTURE Tools and Furnishings Technology Lighting Planting Garden Innovations

INDEX 07

INDEX 08

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT

INFRASTRUCTURE & HORTICULTURE

APPENDIX SIP Scorecards SIP Community Resource Map Community Outreach Plan + Tools

The Sustainability Index Plan (SIP), developed by The Greenest Fern, is a guide to facilitate the long-term planning of community gardens as well as the sustainable reporting and management of these spaces. Organized around eight indexes that represent key themes related to community gardens and sustainability, the SIP is intended to offer community members and gar-

den leadership a tool to set goals, track progress, share knowledge, as well as reflect on and connect between gardens. SIP Scorecards accompany the guide to help identify strengths, envision improvements, and self-evaluate achievements within individual community gardens, while the shared framework offers opportunities for cooperation with other gardens.

Our team looked into the landscape of organizations, online resources, and local programs in New York City that could offer support to Banana Kelly’s community gardens. The resulting resource guide will support the health, education, and organizational capacity of gardeners and their communities by providing tangible opportunities for partnerships, education, and resource

sharing. This is a companion to the SIP, allowing gardeners and organizers to execute the sustainability strategies outlined within each index, but also to be a flexible independent resource that Banana Kelly can publicize, share widely, and regularly update for anyone interested in learning more about community gardening in New York City.

CONCLUSION The Neighborhoods Now initiative fostered a meaningful, multidisciplinary collaboration to reconfigure Banana Kelly’s network of gardens across the South Bronx as sites for community organizing and programming. This process offered the working group invaluable learning opportunities to be inventive outside of our usual project scopes and adapt to evolving community input, especially in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the community-led visions for the community gardens spans well beyond this year.

Kelly Street Garden Site Visit, February 2021 The spring’s work has built momentum for the gardens to evolve and grow with the community they serve. Looking ahead, Banana Kelly’s focus this summer is reacquainting residents with the gardens after a year of isolation. With funding provided by Neighborhoods Now, Banana Kelly is implementing the Adopt-a-Bucket program to get hands in the dirt, foster excitement in the

community, and start growing produce right away. Reactivating the community gardens also means focusing on activity through community build events with neighbors and designers. Summer 2021 will mark the inaugural issue of The Peel and the introduction of several Community Walls, to keep residents informed of activities inside the gardens and around the neighborhood.

East 163rd Street Lot Clean-Up Day, April 2021 Over the next few years, Banana Kelly can focus attention on more permanent and cost-intensive interventions, such as building the entry ramp to expand accessibility and inclusion at the Kelly Street Garden. These plans require more coordination than five months allow and these ambitions will take time to fund. Cost estimates provided by the design team will help guide

practical decisions while the SIP will inform how to prioritize efforts. The toolkits will be refined and updated as new programming matures. No matter the timeline, our designs are meant to be resilient and grow with the gardens’ ever-changing needs, guided by the communal effort of youth organizers, garden leaders, and community members.