Page 20 - Caring_for_your_community

The cases of Cranbourne BG and SottoVico BG illustrate As part of a project to restore Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest
projects that benefited from a deep supporting level of
engagement right from the start (see pages 21 and 19). ©an environmental education centre was established. Here children
Cranbourne BG had been building a relationship of trust
with their local indigenous community for over a decade can learn about plants Auroville Botanical Gardens
and expressed their understanding of the ‘desire to pass on
the aboriginal language and their concern that there were The case studies in this manual illustrate that botanic gardens
young families in the region who would not be able to access have adopted a variety of community engagement levels in their
services such as maternal, and healthcare services. These sort of activities, not on the basis that higher levels are always better, but
supporting services are valuable and help children get ready for based on whether they fit the purpose. This section of the manual
kindergarten and school’ (Cranbourne BG staff). The approach to aims to demonstrate the value of considering the engagement
development and running of the bush playgroups also illustrates approach for a community project right from the initial
a deep level of engagement: ‘We established a steering group development, as well as the importance of being flexible when
at the beginning of the project that was made up with botanic working with communities. Even if a community project starts
garden staff and the indigenous elders and our partner the local with predetermined objectives and activities, in order to succeed
library. And we sat up in a bush with the elders and asked them in meeting the community’s needs and achieve a long-lasting
what traditional knowledge or skills they wanted to pass on to impact, including the development of a relationship of trust, it
this audience. And there were also some parents involved in is important that the garden staff are open-minded and flexible.
that group. So I guess we established our curriculum. And at the This means listening to the participants, responding to emerging
very first meeting of the Playgroup we talked about what their interests and ideas and tweaking the activities accordingly.
curriculum would be with the parents to find out that we met
their needs. And they were pretty vocal…’ (Cranbourne BG staff).

A supporting level of engagement was also adopted by
SottoVico BG. The garden was designed from the start to
be accessible for everyone. Local families who got to know
the ethos and concept of the garden asked whether disabled
members of their families would be able to get involved in
activities and with the garden. A member of staff explained
how this activity started in a rather spontaneous way: ‘So, the
fact is, the people who are around the area and their families, if
they have children [with a disability] … they ask if we need any
help with something, so they are coming.’ SottoVico responded
by offering suitable volunteering opportunities, so that young
people with disabilities are able to support the running of the
garden by contributing to activities ranging from propagating
plants to making labels.

18 CARING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY | A MANUAL FOR BOTANIC GARDENS