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Case Study
GREENBRIDGE – MAKING BROOKLYN BLOOM, GREENEST BLOCK IN BROOKLYN, STREET TREE STEWARDS,
COMMUNITY GARDEN ALLIANCE, BROOKLYN URBAN GARDENER (BUG), BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN, USA
Description: GreenBridge is a community environmental Making Brooklyn Bloom: Networking
horticulture programme, founded in 1993, that promotes
urban greening through education, conservation and creative ©and exhibitors in the Palm House
partnerships. It comprises a series of 5 integrated projects Brooklyn Botanic Garden
that overlap and build on one another. The Greenest Block
in Brooklyn is an annual free contest that encourages Engagement approach: Brooklyn BG has adopted different
community building through borough-wide beautification
and greening: About 200 blocks enter the competition every levels of engagement with their communities through
year. BUG is an annual 8 week/10 session training programme
on urban horticulture and community organizing: 15 people GreenBridge, varying from providing information to offering
out of approximately 100 applicants are trained each year.
Graduates are certified as BUG volunteers who continue support through new programmes based on community
to support greening projects in Brooklyn. The Community
Garden Alliance brings together about 3,000 members of requests. For example, BUG was added to GreenBridge in
Brooklyn community gardens who are interested in promoting
sustainable gardening practices. Activities include gardener- 2010 after a consultation on what local gardeners needed:
led workshops and seasonal gatherings where people can
learn from each other, network and get technical horticultural a programme for Greening activists in Brooklyn. GreenBridge
assistance. Street Tree Stewardship is an initiative that
encourages New Yorkers to care for their neighbourhood offers both one-off workshops and more intensive training,
trees by providing a minimum of 15 classes annually on street
tree bed care. This initiative is partnered with the Million Trees as in the case of BUG. For both, through questionnaires
NYC Campaign. Making Brooklyn Bloom is a free annual
one-day symposium of exhibits, workshops, films, networking or informal discussions, the GreenBridge Staff identify the
activities and keynote speeches focused on topics related
making gardening more sustainable that attracts over needs and interests of different target groups and tailors
1,000 participants.
training sessions accordingly. The garden also ensures that
Focus of the programme: GreenBridge is closely linked to
Brooklyn BG’s mission to promote the greening of the urban continuous contact is kept up with all those individuals and
environment through conservation, stewardship and best
practice. GreenBridge is helping to establish the garden as a communities that form the different strands of GreenBridge,
leader in the community’s progress in addressing environmental
issues by encouraging sustainable horticulture practices and via biannual e-newsletters, printed flyers, mailing lists, and so
the use of native species in urban gardening. GreenBridge’s
projects reach many areas of low socio-economic status in on. There is a continuous drive to ensure diversity of target
Brooklyn and supports grassroots efforts to create and sustain
green spaces in the community, with benefits for the residents’ audiences – in geographic and cultural terms. New communities
health and wellbeing. The project also encourages community
building, community organizing, greater civic participation are encouraged to enter the Greenest Block in Brooklyn
and leadership development, it engages youth and elders in
intergenerational activism and contributes to making streets competition by means of promotions at local Community
safer and creating a sense of belonging.
Board and neighborhood association meetings and through
Brooklyn Public Library. GreenBridge hopes to expand outreach
activities to greenmarkets and merchant organizations. All the
members of GreenBridge work together to build relationships
between the garden and its constituents and with the
community. To this end, the garden follows an ‘asset-based
community development’ model (see page 6). k
Vanderveer P lace during
©Greenest Block in Brooklyn 2014
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
CARING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY | A MANUAL FOR BOTANIC GARDENS 33