38th Annual GreenThumb GrowTogether Conference: Day 4

Join us for the fourth day of Part I of this year’s NYC Parks GreenThumb 38th Annual GreenThumb GrowTogether Conference (bit.ly/GTGT2022). Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will be hybrid this year, and spread out over the course of two weeks. Part I takes place virtually from Saturday, February 19 to Friday, February 25. You can register for the full conference or individual sessions, all free of cost, on Eventbrite at gtgt22-virtual.eventbrite.com . Part 2 will be in community gardens around the city in April 2022 (registration coming soon).

Wednesday, February 23:

Growing Healthy Soils: Gardeners’ Roles in Protecting Human and Environmental Health
Noon – 1:00 p.m.
Hannah Shayler and Perl Egendorf (Cornell University)
Urban gardeners continually create healthy urban soils, and many experienced growers know how to effectively limit exposure to soil contaminants. These skills and best management practices have emerged from collaborations between growers and researchers, in NYC and in cities across the world. Come discuss some trends across the U.S. in community-engaged research on soil contaminants, and the roles you can play in better protecting your community and environmental health.

Hannah Shayler is an Extension Associate at Cornell University, where she coordinates Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities and other programs. She works together with gardeners, farmers, community members, agency partners, researchers, educators, and others to address concerns about lead and other contaminants in soils. Through a better understanding of our soils and healthy gardening practices, we can support urban food production and the many other benefits that gardening, and farming bring to our cities and our communities.

Perl Egendorf learns from soils and people who work with them. Currently, she uses biogeochemical and participatory action research methods to study bacterial and fungal communities in newly constructed soils. In collaboration with many experts outside of academia, she conducts experiments on the ways urban soils can mitigate climate change, promote food justice, and support BIPOC-led movements for justice and liberation.

Best Practices for Youth Engagement
5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Lila Elman (NYC Parks Greenthumb) and Maureen Connolly (CBK Associates)

This webinar will bring together facilitators youth members to share lessons learned and best practices for meaningfully engaging youth in community gardens. Community gardeners will learn practical tips for sustaining consistent youth participation. A leadership development expert will present skill-building activities and exercises for gardeners and youth. GreenThumb will also share key findings from its recent evaluation of the YLC program, based on surveys and interviews with youth participants and adult facilitators.

Lila Elman is NYC Parks GreenThumb’s Youth Engagement Coordinator, working to support community gardeners in facilitating Youth Leadership Councils, in partnership with NYC Service. She is a community gardener herself and has experience as a children’s garden and nutrition educator.

Maureen Connolly of CBK Associates plans, develops and delivers content for the Youth Leadership Council program in NYC. Of special concern have been integrating service learning across the curriculum, understanding reflection, and Meeting Common Core Standards through a service-learning lens.

For a complete schedule with webinar descriptions, please visit our website at bit.ly/GTGT2022 and FAQ page for answers to frequently asked questions. You can register for the full conference or individual sessions, all free of cost! Registration does not guarantee a spot, which will be first-come-first serve at the beginning of each session. All of these sessions will be recorded and available after the conference on our YouTube channel. The keynote address will be available through the end of April.

Todos los seminarios web serán grabados y traducidos al español.
All sessions will be offered with live Spanish language interpretation.