Have a training idea or request?  Interested in becoming a trainer?  Please contact us.

Emma’s Garden builds community relationships.  By “organizing,” we mean bringing individuals and groups together in a coordinated plan or vision.  To contribute, please post a comment below or contact us.

Training

We provide trainings as an exclusive benefit for our members.  Building job and life skills, our trainings are designed to develop members’ nutritional and social knowledge and skills.  For a training schedule, please visit “Trainings” or contact us.

Advocacy

Our organization is rich in social capital.  We offer a network of people and resources to the community.  Our advocacy is a collaborative process beginning with sensitivity to local needs and concerns.  We’ve got no ‘agenda’.  The agenda is yours.

If you are a Cully resident, please post your needs and concerns below or contact us.

Economy

Our strategic initiatives will improve the local economy by:

• localizing agricultural production
• localizing agricultural distribution
• enhancing healthful consumption
• inspiring entrepreneurship

Ecology

Our urban gardening methods will improve local ecology by:

• reducing toxic buildup
• reducing fossil fuel reliance
• preserving topsoil and conserving fresh water
• enhancing organic farming methods
• increasing public knowledge and practice of environmental sustainability

Equity

Our organization’s processes will improve local lives by:

• deepening and widening community participation
• increasing collaborative decision making
• encouraging “ground-up” neighborhood control

Emma’s Garden’s viability is tied to the community.  Our concept of economy is not just about the bottom line.  It’s about the top line as well: meeting people’s needs.  We focus on organizing–sensitive to these needs–bringing people and groups together in a coordinated plan or vision.

Emma’s Garden also values a positive relationship between people and nature.  We see Portland’s food system moving toward environmental sustainability.

…[economic] development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising
the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.*

Emma’s Garden’s decision making model encourages direct democracy, emphasizing stakeholder participation and the public good.  We’re ultimately about empowering residents and enriching our democracy.

* The ‘Brundtland Definition’ of Environmental Sustainability, 1987 UN World Commission on Environment and Development.

• Our market research gauges supply and demand trends in the local market for fresh produce.
• Our feasibility study examines the extent to which the community would welcome Emma’s Garden’s services and principles.

What we examined

1. poverty
2. fresh produce access & consumption
3. community participation
4. enthusiasm for a community garden
5. infrastructure
6. available land
7. public services
8. housing
9. private business
10. overall community character
11. community organizations

Where we looked

Of Portland’s 95 neighborhoods,* 23 meet the federal definition of “blighted or economically depressed.”  Our research is limited to these 23 neighborhoods.

How we collected our data

We read reams of literature, poured through census data, scoured school lunch price data, walked and drove through neighborhoods, surveyed a handful of locals in person, and called hundreds of randomly selected residents.

What we found

The Cully neighborhood is particularly suitable for Emma’s Garden.  Our snapshot of Cully indicates:

• incomes characteristically low
• strong and growing demand for fresh produce
• weak access to fresh produce
• weak consumption of fresh produce
• demand for increased community participation
• weak community participation
• direct competition with Emma’s Garden not evident
• neighborhood supportive of Emma’s Garden services and principles

With nearly 13,000 residents, over half of all Cully households are considered at or below the federal poverty level.  The neighborhood is uncharacteristically diverse for the Portland area, home to over 5,000 non-white residents, including a large proportion (19%) of Latino/Hispanic residents and significant African-American (10%) and Asian (8%) minorities.

Cully

Please contact Jim Mignano, Research & Policy Director, if you would like further information on our research.

*Identified by Portland’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement.

]]> http://www.emmasgarden.org/community-assesment-survey/feed/ 0 http://www.emmasgarden.org/the-staff/ http://www.emmasgarden.org/the-staff/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:19:03 +0000 admin http://www.emmasgarden.org/?p=12 Emma’s Garden’s executive team includes highly skilled staff experienced in organizing, advocacy, and administration.

Adam Case, Executive Director

Adam Case

Adam graduated from the University of San Diego, receiving a B.A. in Political Science, Philosophy, and History.  His academic background offers a theoretical and practical basis for community and labor organizing.  He founded Just Cause and was involved in campus and community organizing with the Center for Policy Initiatives.  Adam recently served as a workplace organizer with the Industrial Workers of the World, improving work conditions by building shop floor solidarity and through direct action.

Jim Mignano, Research & Policy Director

Jim Mignano

Jim received his B.S. in Political Science from Portland State University and is now a graduate student of Non-Profit Management.  In many forms–but always under the auspices of social justice–he’s organized workers, community members, and students.  Since 2006, Jim has worked for the Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education, a state agency specializing in systems, standards, and support for early childhood education in Oregon.

• Vision of social change articulated
• Values, principles, goals, and objectives agreed

October 2009

• Emma’s Garden founded
• Articles of Association ratified
• Bylaws ratified

March 2010

• Emma’s Garden recognized by IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity

March 2010 – May 2010

• Market Research & Feasibility Study conducted

June 2010 – Present

• Strategic planning
• Board of Directors search, interviews, and elections
• Grant writing

July 2010

• Website launched

September 2010

• Submitted grants to several Portland-based Foundations