The Leadership Council of local garden leaders is growing in strength, knowledge, and abilities. In the third session of our Garden Leadership training series, our 20 plus garden leaders joined together to share strategies and practice their skills at Effective Leadership - focusing on conflict resolution, organizing and running effective meetings, and organizing work parties at their gardens.Since the Leadership series began in January, many of these Garden Leaders have taken over the tasks of The Gardens Project staff and organized and lead their first garden meetings, organized and lead garden clean up days, solicited donations and volunteer recruitment, practiced their hands at being listeners, problem solvers, and conflict resolvers. Go gardeners! Their homework between now and our July 18th meeting - organize and hold a new work party in your garden!
Additionally, these leaders have begun a PhotoVoice project where they will document their experiences by taking photos in the gardens and of their community members at work in the gardens. These photos, with their interpretations will be presented at the end of the training series and used to advance the movement of creating greater access to land for more gardens throughout our region.
Up next in the training series: Market Opportunities. Our Garden Leaders will meet at a community, commercial kitchen, learn how to use it for preservation, and the safety and labeling requirements for sales at Farmer's Markets and retail outlets. For more information on the Garden Leadership Training series, see our previous posts under Garden Leadership Training.
