Difference between revisions of "Learning Gardens Laboratory/Community Meeting Report"

This page is the home of the Learning Gardens PSU capstone class' individual reports on our community meeting as we edit them together to make our collaborative final report. (Pretty please log in or leave your name in the summary box right above the save button so we can know who made what edits. Contact Kristina if you have any problems or you can take a tour.)

Vincent

The outreach to the community has been researching, planning, mapping and updating new information to better accomplish our goal.

We have planned to give our team a general idea what we going to do. We set up times and date that we going to meet. We brought with us the mind how to accomplish to the task in the shortest time but most effective. There are outline speech that need to read before hand and need to memorize. We walked Knap street from 60th avenue to the 52nd avenue street. Each person spoke to one person from one house; other person does the next house. The second time each individual does their own section. We divide the task in order to accomplish the outreach fast and convenient. Recording the information from people who is interested the Learning Garden and willing to participate. We informed them about upcoming events; The location and street that we have planned to work on is researched. We know which block has businesses, school, community center and which block is more active. Thus, we knock people doors; inform them with the Learning Garden Fall Festival Harvest and upcoming events. Some people are interested while other doesn’t care at all. The people don’t care at all; we still give them flyer. Thus, the people that interested we give them flyers, speech, and exchange information. The majority of the first outreach is just getting to know the residents that live there. What time they would be home. What is their schedule like. We have no way to cross the barrier since we are new to the neighborhood. We need to build trust between us and the neighborhood. The second and third times outreach to the community, people are more open to us. They’re more comfortable to us than the first time. We are able to get more information like name, phone, email and home address. We have accomplished more than we expected due to the effort each of us put in. We thought that we couldn’t get more than 30 people to come to the garden. The Fall Festival Harvest is a success because so many residents in Brentwood Community come to the Learning Garden on that day. At least 50 or more has come to celebrate it.

For future outreach to the community, I recommend that we start to outreach to the community as soon as possible and get to know the people. Dress to impress residents because professionalism that counts. Give the products that Learning Gardens grow that they can appreciate. Let them know what this community has to offer rather than what they have to offer in return for something. Last but not least is event should be held on the weekend. These allow people to have free time and show up to the event.

On 60th avenue On Duke there is a Dairy Queen which has many people as well as student come to enjoy food. It’s really close by with the Learning Garden. One time we outreach at about 5 pm, we saw students were coming to that place. We gave them flyers. On 52nd Avenue on Bybee Street, there is a Café Shop and Catholic Gift Shop. On the 61st and 62nd, there is a community center which is a great place to get the words across. Perhaps we can use that place for future meeting and planning as well. Within the community, the Lane Middle School is also another great location to spread out news. We have outreached to the community and we see Odgen Street and 57th has more people interested in the Learning Garden than other streets. We only outreach to the community that close by the Learning Garden; next time we should go farther away from it. The more people the more they will be involve. Soon it will be a thriving community for everyone to socialize, planting, and a place for nurture for everyone.

Cheri

Team B was assigned meeting planning and facilitation. At the onset of the quarter, the team planned to do the following per the class syllabus: research outdoor kitchen designs and activities to present at the community meeting as starting points for discussion; work with LGLab staff to understand practical and legal parameters of kitchen facility; brainstorm kitchen ideas with students at Lane Middle School; plan meeting logistics, such as place, time, refreshments, etc. based on work of outreach team; prepare meeting agenda and activities; and facilitate the community meeting. The plan was altered per the Farm Manager, Yveline Wilnau, to exclude kitchen research. Initially Ms. Wilnau wanted to do the research herself so the class could concentrate on community outreach. After Ms. Wilnau had a meeting with city leadership, it was determined that the project would focus on an outdoor classroom instead of kitchen due to city codes.

Work on the community meeting began with all capstone students doing outreach before dividing into teams to organize the labor efforts. I did not participate in the whole class outreach due to transportation problems, and then illness. On October 31, 2007, I met with Amani at the LGLab prior to our garden work to discuss the meeting. We drafted an agenda to include the following events: a garden tour via slideshow, brainstorming for the classroom and other ideas the community might have for the facility, compile a list of skills available from those present, request a commitment from participants to attend a second meeting, give out two flyers to all present and serve refreshments. I typed out the meeting agenda and e-mailed it to my team (Amani and Kristina) as well as Ms. Blackman and Ms. Wilnau. The agenda I sent out had the date and time of the meeting at the top and included logistical questions regarding technology capabilities of the garden, asking if a slideshow already existed, questioning if the meeting could take place in a Portland classroom onsite rather than a green house due to weather, and asking Ms. Blackman if she could obtain the AV equipment.

In response to the first draft of the agenda, Ms. Blackman confirmed she could obtain the AV equipment, Kristina posted the agenda on the wiki web site she had created, and Ms. Wilnau sent an e-mail asking the date and time of the event. Ms. Wilnau provided the names of some additional people to cc on the e-mails, stated she would lead the brainstorming portions of the meeting, and asking that time be incorporated for greetings and a closing. I composed a second draft of the agenda to incorporate changes requested by Ms. Wilnau and send it out.

The capstone class meeting on November 5, 2007 included a class review of the agenda, and further changes were made. Ashley and Tori volunteered to bring food, Ms. Blackman volunteered to bring liquid refreshments, Ashley suggested having a prize give away as well as activities for children who may attend. Ashley took responsibility for both of her suggestions. The class viewed Kristina's wiki creation, and Kristina briefed the class on items she would add. The class ended with teams meeting to discuss further plans. Team B agreed that Amani would create informational flyers to hand out at the meeting per specifications agreed upon during class. I agreed to follow up with meeting facilitators to obtain answers to the questions sent with the first draft of the Agenda. I resent the revised (3rd draft) of the agenda to all parties with the date/time of the event highlighted, and retyped the questions from draft one, addressed each one to a specific person and included a note asking that people read and respond to the questions.

No response was received to draft #3. At that point I fell ill and missed class on Wednesday, November 7, 2007. Between November 8, 2007 and November 12, 2007 I made two outreaches to my teammates to discover the status of our meeting plans. On November 12, 2007, I received a phone call from Kristina in advising me that the third agenda was accepted and the meeting was going forward as planned. She advised that a slideshow would not be presented, but that Ms. Wilnau indicated she had visual aids she wished to use. I confirmed this information with Ms. Blackman on November 14, 2007, via e-mail.

I arrived at our community meeting one hour early per Ms. Blackman's request to aid in set up. The set up was complete when I arrived. I put on a name tag, carried a bowl from the kitchen to the meeting area for use as a garbage for sugar wrappers, wrote the agenda on the white board, and drank tea. I kept silent during the meeting except for introductions and closing remarks elicited from everyone to avoid invoking a coughing fit. I borrowed Ms. Blackman's cell phone and kept time for Ms. Wilnau as she made her presentation motioning when she had 10 minutes, 5 minutes, and when time was up. I left approximately 10 minutes after the event ended without helping with clean up as I could not hold back coughing any longer.

In hindsight, I have the following recommendations:

1. Start community outreach earlier, and require it be done during the "golden hours."
2. Make outreach at Lane Middle school a focus to a) educate the teachers, and b)provide flyers for take home to parents. Perhaps a representative could make an appearance at a staff meeting at the school.
3. The presenter(s) at the meeting should be flexible and tailor their comments to the audience who is present, rather than the ideal audience. Our meting had 5 attendees outside of capstone students: 1 grad student who volunteers at the facility for his degree, 1 teacher from Lane who voiced specific questions regarding rules teachers will have to abide by when using the proposed outdoor classroom and asking for ideas of how teachers can incorporate it into their lessons, and a family consisting of a student from Lane with his father and mother. The father had minimal English skills and stated he started volunteering at the garden when his son began having lessons there. The presentation that was delivered did not address the teacher's questions, and included so many concepts from PSU (such as placemaking) that it may have been esoteric to a family for whom English is a second language.

Chi

What you planned to do for Team A

• Survey the neighborhood for local business
• Contact the school official to seek permission to distribute flyers to the student
• Bag the garlic to be distributed to the neighborhood
• Do as much outreach as I can
• Help getting ready and taking note for the meeting

What you actually did

I surveyed the neighborhood for local business. There is a Dairy Queen on 59th and Duke, Open Spirit church on 65 and Duke, Flavel Street Baptist Church on Flavel and 69th, Mehri’s Bakery and Deli on 52nd and Bybee blvd, The Floor Store on 56 and Woodstock, Cascade machinery and Electric on 62nd and SE Reedway.

Besides bringing the flyers to Lane to be distributed to the students, making photocopies of the flyers and bagging the garlic to be distributed to the neighborhood, I did the outreach on the following street:

• SE 60th from the garden to SE Tolman (with Molly on the first day)
• SE 60th from the garden to SE Flavel, and SE Knapp Street from SE 60th to 57th (with Vincent on the second day)
• SE Ogden, Rural and Bybee street from 60th to 52nd Ave (with Tori and Vincent on the third day)
• SE Ogden and SE Copper Streets from 62nd to 68th Ave (by myself on the fourth day).

The evening before the meeting, I made approximately 18 reminder calls and sent out 4 emails from the outreach list. I arrived at the garden at 5 to help getting ready for the meeting and took note as the meeting progress.

Outcomes of your work

Even though we tried to conduct as much outreach as we could, we didn’t seem really succeed with the process. Of the 18 people I called, about 6 said that they would try to go to the meeting. For some reason, none of them showed up. I don’t know whether it was because of the rain or some other reason. I do feel really frustrated about it. Overall the meeting was nicely planned and organized (except for the lack of participation from the community).

Future recommendations

Since the sustainability of the learning garden rely heavily on donation and contribution from many organization and institution, as well as on volunteer efforts, it’s extremely important that we have to outreach the communities and make connection with them. In the future, I think we should have people with really good interpersonal communication skill conduct the outreach. While I did the outreach, I also noticed that majority of people didn’t know about the garden. So beside the flyers, we should have something more informative, factual and formal like a small pamphlet (2-4 pages) which provides information and fact about the learning garden such as its history, its current development, and its goal etc. For people who conduct the outreach, I think it will be more convincing if they wear something that represent the garden, maybe wearing a t-shirt or a hat with the learning garden imprint. Most important of all, we should conduct the outreach at the time when many people are at home so we can actually have a chance to talk to them (maybe after 5 p.m.). There are two churches near the school, in which we didn’t have chance to contact, they can be very resourceful if we can make connection with them. So in the future, we also should outreach these organizations. I think we should also do the outreach at PSU (aim at students major in agriculture or social service and civic development).

I’m not sure if any team members had made contact with the PTA, in the future we should definitely work with these people closely because I think these are the most devoting, committing, dedicating and giving people. Information about the meeting should be distributed to the student as early as we can.

Besides all of theses, a visible and impressive sign should be implanted on the pavement of the street where people can actual see it. This is the least effort way to draw people attention to the learning garden. There should be a nicely constructed website devoted to the garden which provides all the information and fact about the garden, from the past to the current as well as news and announcement (The Venice High School in California has a great learning garden website, we can follow this model, http://www.thelearningarden.org)

Kristina

What I/we did

For my part of the project I initially did one round of outreach on Knapp Street with Tori and Vincent. I started a wiki page on AboutUs.org for basic information about the garden for potential Google searches and to give an example of how the wiki worked (Learning Gardens Laboratory). For the Meeting Team Cheri stepped up and drafted the schedule and tried to get more input from Yveline to tweak it and see what would be necessary. As a whole the class we decided what things we would need such as refreshments and pens. For the meeting I brought a basic sign-in sheet to get contact information from meeting participants. That evening I helped man the parking lot entrance to the garden with Vincent to welcome and direct whoever may come, and I kept notes of the brainstorming ideas discussed during the meeting. Throughout the planning process I kept a page updated with Cheri’s e-mails in the hopes that the schedule draft process could be facilitated on the wiki from those involved, which didn’t actually happen. However, the URL of main LGLab wiki page (that included a link to the page with the schedule) went out on the flyer during the main outreach push. The Learning Gardens Laboratory page received some Google love and currently turns up on the first page of results for searches such as “learning gardens laboratory”, “LGLab”, “learning gardens lab”, “psu learning gardens”, etc. I lent some minor help to Tori and the great MySpace page she created, adding a link back to the wiki page and finding the band that played the Harvest Festival to befriend.

My Recommendations

• Trying out a daytime and/or daylight meeting time
  • I think this would help make a tour of garden possible and make the meeting more inviting, although it may not ultimately be better than a weekday evening, but I think it is worth a shot.
• Outreach more to Lane teachers and parents
  • I think that this already established local partnership is the most important and accessible connection to make, and particularly with the outdoor classroom project it is naturally going to be something that they are likely to care the most about.
• A permanent sign for the garden visible from 60th

Ashley

Copy/paste individual report here. What I planned to do for:

Team A • Outreach in Brentwood Darlington Neighborhood (62nd st) • Work at the garden to become self aware of the environment and what I was to promote to the community

Team B • Make a Welcoming Sign • Provide two door prizes and tickets • Create a children’s space by providing activity and coloring sheets/ crayons • Make a delicious vegetable tray for attendees to enjoy • Welcome guests and introduce Yveline to start off the meeting

What did I actually do? How did my actions differ from the plan? What did I accomplish?

In the beginning of our class we were asked to do research about the neighborhood. Following our research we were to meet up next class and discuss our knowledge of the area and what we found out to be possible good resources for out reach. In class we came up with lots of great resources. I found out that they were a neighborhood association with monthly meetings. We agreed that attending the meeting was a must. We talked about a lot of business and local churches that could be good for outreach. Once talking with Yveline we decided to narrow down our outreach to just the surrounding streets of the garden. This meant canvassing the neighborhood, door to door, in hopes to connect with the gardens closest neighbors in effort to create an audience for a community meeting about the garden. In class we laid out what streets to hit up and narrowed down the core housing around the garden. Team A was to be responsible for outreach. During our next visit to the garden we decided to clean and prep garlic for something to take door to door, a little piece of the garden, in which people could have and maybe get them excited and interested about the place. In class we bagged up the garlic along with a slip of paper about the garden and hopes of a community meeting. Once everything was set in place it was time for door to door out reach. Transportation and time was definitely a huge factor in my efforts to canvass out. I was able to do 62nd after more then one tempt to do it by myself and with a partner do to sickness, bad transmission, flat tires, and lack of free time. I was able to go out on a Friday before work and canvassed all of 62nd between Flavel and Duke. The time was from 11:00 to 1:30 and I spoke to only two people in person and left lots of garlic along with information on door steps. Back in class we talked about the type of environment and setting we wanted to create at the meeting. We discussed the break down of all the basic things we wanted to cover and details we didn’t want to forget. This is when I suggested door prizes to influence attendance and the idea of considering children who might be attending the meeting. For that I was to get two door prizes and tickets. For the children, coloring and activity sheet were going to be provided as entertainment during the meeting. We discussed food and beverage as a big part of the meeting. I was to provide a fresh vegetable tray. For the front entrance we decided it would be beneficial to have a big welcome sign, since a garden sign in front didn’t already exist. I was to create and bring a sign the night of the meeting.

Recommendations for future outreach or planning efforts:

Amani

Sewing a community with students

To grow The Learning Gardens

Final Report - First Draft

11/16/07

Portland State University

Senior Capstone

UNST 421! / Section 548, CRN 15723

Fall 2007

Compiled by Amani Greer

Table of continence

1. Mission statement
2. Meeting preparation and Assignments
3. Agenda
4. Calendar
5. Hand out Flyers
6. Take home garden publicity flyers
7. Out reach - asset map.
8. Minutes – meeting photos
9. Report -
10. Personal work re-cap -
11. Recommendations

Mission statement

The Students of PSU in Partner with The Learning Gardens Plans to actively engage, the Brentwood Neighborhood and boarding neighborhood of Woodstock, in the Future development of the learning gardens. Thru the establishment of assets mapping the class begins the first steps of community outreach. We hope to expand the personal awareness along with the communities to there by strengthen the support system of the learning gardens growing family. Creating a tree of local residents to lend a hand in the living art of place making in collaboration with Lane Middle School and any other projects that arise at the learning gardens.

Meeting preparation And Assignments

Building an Agenda First order was a Brainstorm meeting on Wednesday 10/14 7:00amlearning gardens parking lot. Attendees- Cheri Scott & Amani Greer We created an agenda and Cheri later typed it up and e-mailed it to Yveline for review.

1. 6:45 - 6:55 Capstone Person - Introduction of participants
2. 6:56 - 7:10 Yveline - Introduce Garden
3. 7:11 - 7:41 Yveline - Brainstorming session

1. Any ideas for garden
2. Ideas for outdoor classroom
3. What participants can contribute?
4. What participants may be able to obtain via their contacts?
5. 7:42 - 7:52 Yveline
6. Advise of what roles are available for volunteers
7. Schedule another meeting
8. Distribute 2 flyers/person (1 for self-1 to give away) to include: map of location, contact info for Garden, hrs of op, pictures, opportunities for involvement, Next, scheduled event, etc.
9. 7:53 - 8:00 Capstone - Person Closing

• Hot drinks, water and a few light snacks to be available at all times as provided by capstone

QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED:

Yveline:

1. Where would slideshow take place? One of the classrooms, or would it have to be in a greenhouse? If in a greenhouse can we turn the heater on?

1. Does a slideshow already exist that can be used, or would one need to be compiled? If needs to be compiled, then capstone does not have photos to do it. (We can get equipment, but need photos). Alternative (if needed) would be to use any visual aids already existing).

Supplies list - dry erase board & markers, Pens, Name Tags,

Door prizes, & children’s activity area. 

Sighn in sheet

Make sure heat is on and gate and bathrooms stays unlocked.

Refreshments - Coffee, tea, hot coco, vegetable platter, gluten free delicious brownie.

(Dishes from green house 3 were used, washed and returned, no waste was made)

Advertisement / Posters

Placed on PSU campus, over sized hand painted posters by Amani in Wood stock Business district, land middle school, and door to door in Brentwood neighborhood.

Out reach - asset map.

Brentwood neighborhood walking trail

Photos of meeting

• camera’s flash wasn’t working well

A total of 19 people attended

Report- Personal work-recap

The night of the meeting

I distributed garlic, flyers, and friendly greetings to the Brentwood neighborhood on 60th between SE Flavel to two blocks north of duke, the Woodstock business community, I announced our meeting in all my classes, and left flyers on many school bulletin boards. I helped with the meeting planning and handouts. I brought a white board and helped set up. In the days prior to the meeting I spent time voulenteering in the garden. September 24th thru October 10th our class the indicated with the learning lab, and began volunteering for two hours a week every Wednesday spending time Harvesting, salvaging plants, weeding beds, cleaning orchard floor, and put garden to bed for the winter season. Simultaneously from October 15 thru November 4th we canvassed the gardens neighbors planting the fist seed of outreach, with information and garlic. November 14th we held a meeting at the garden to discuss the first stages of planning and a call for assets for the future building of an onsite learning pavilion. I re surfaces the chalkboards in green house one. Now, at the end of the semester I contributed to the final analysis to be presented to the staff of the learning gardens.

Recommendations

Seek to unite the learning gardens with other nonprofits that may complement up coming projects or could help provide fund raising and mailing list support.

Art Art ARt - get the artist to join in let then display there works and help create space's

Look perhaps at the Oregon school of art and craft!

Three helpful contacts - The Rebuilding Center of Our United Villages - Preserving natural resources, providing free or affordable, quality used building materials, When it comes time to building be sure to connect with some one on 3625 N. Mississippi Ave or for additional information, call 503-517-0953 or email They may also have a volunteer base willing to help support The Learning gardens development.

Habitat for humanity – a Good source for donations of plumbing and other building materials. Wouldn’t recommend seeking volunteers here as they run primarily of community service workers. Contact: Darin O’Neal- store manager - 503.283.6247-

Portland Compost – contact Andy Schneider – 503.823.2866 www.sustainableportland.org

Continue asset mapping & out reach Keep Good Notes

Utilize wiki site - its great its like place making on the Internet.

Gather assets & fund raising

Naming the future structure may give foundation and accountability to project Penny Pavilion built by The Good Cents of our Community

Tori

What I planned to do for:

Team A

• go to the Brentwood Neighborhood association meeting
• design the flyer for the community meeting
• go “outreaching” three times
• create a Myspace page for future outreach
• work at the gardens to understand what I was promoting
• distribute flyers to students of Lane middle school students and parents

Team B

• take notes at the community meeting and create secretarial minutes
• make brownies
• be on the welcome team!
• help clean up
• bring soap for a door prize

What did I actually do? How did my actions differ from the plan?

• I didn’t attend the Brentwood Neighborhood association meeting. I was sick the night of the meeting. I did retrieve a contact list of the keep association members from Karen Wolfgang, and gave it to Vincent to email about our meeting.

• I made the meeting flyer by hand and photocopied it so that people doing outreach that Wednesday would have something to hand out.

• I walked door to door in the Brentwood neighborhood twice.

-I met with Vincent and Kristina to pass out garlic, list serv slips, and invitational flyers for the LGL Harvest Festival. We went door to door for about two and a half hours hitting every house on Knapp St. one way or another. -The second time I missed because I was sick. -The third time, Chi, Vincent, and I passed out flyers on Ogden, 52nd at some businesses and had some good chats with the lady at the antique store and The Little Flower Bakery. Both said they would display the flyer and that they knew about the garden. We also did outreach on 58th (?) (the street right behind the garden on the other side of 60th, I bet Chi knows).

• I started the creation of a LGL Myspace page. I felt this would be a ‘hip’ forum for LGL to represent. I emailed Stephanie Rooney, the Garden-Market Manager, and asked her to please present the idea at the LGL staff meeting they were having. The staff approved the idea and I started a couple weeks later.

The easy navigation, simple picture sharing, networking connotation. It will be fun to see the LGL Myspace “friend’s list” develop over time. The capabilities of Myspace as a widely used forum for communication allows us to create bulletins of upcoming events, and give commentary of past events. I feel that the creation of this space could be kept up by LGL capstone students in the future.

• Created a LGL email to enable the Myspace account.

• I planted trees to make up for the classes when I left earlier from the gardens. This Saturday morning opportunity allowed me to connect to other LGL outside of class. I met some representatives from Friends of Trees, LECL students and graduates, while learning the correct etiquette for planting trees!

• I went to Lane Middle School to find out about the distribution criteria for students to get flyers to take home to their parents. Thanks to Stephanie for making copies and running them back to school by the school 5pm on that same day!

Team B

• I took notes and the meeting but they are in Portland right now (and I am in Massachusetts). I am going to try to call my roommates to have a.)find the notes in a notebook somewhere b.)have them read back to me my messy handwriting. I could have been a lot more organized about this.

• I baked gluten-free brownies (and also ate my fair share of ranch and veggies provided by Ashley!).

• I brought a bag of soap as a door prize

• I kept the Welcome Team company by clicking my heels, doing a little Irish jig for them. Sorry for showing up so late, flat tire on bike and time crunch on the baking.

What I accomplished:

I feel that I have learned a lot from my experience at the LGL, doing outreach for the construction of the outdoor classroom, and learning about volunteerism, place making, and networking in order to build a world that we want to live in. I learned the importance of democratic decision making and realized I have a lot to work on when it comes to my communication and team work skills. I have a problem with asking for help, even if there are those that are working with me. I have a tendency to stress myself out by taking too much on, knowing how busy my schedule is. I was sensitive to the subject of communication while working on this capstone project, sometimes it is very hard for me to communicate with others because of my lack of technology (computer, cell phone, ect). The creation of the phone/email contact list in class was a direct result of my feeling left out. In the future, when working with people, I will always introduce the idea of a contact list due to my special non-technological position. As Yveline talked about, door-to-door outreach is a very touching way to approach a community. When knocking on a stranger’s door, always offer something physical (flyer, garlic, something) so that they do not feel like they are being taken from. When a gift is taken, a bond is formed. I had a difficult time asking people for their personal phone number or email address unless they seemed super interested. I feel that the effort that we put forth this semester has taken the first couple baby steps to help the construction of the outdoor classroom to occur. We were one of the first waves of broadcasting the goods the LGL has to offer the community, now our work needs to be built upon.

Recommendations for future outreach or planning efforts:

I feel that we did a great job coming into this project with a short time span to work with. I would recommend that students could come together and create a goals list as the semester progresses. I think that the outreach part of the project was the hardest. I was used to making flyers. I knew how to talk to people. It was a totally new experience to go up someone’s door, not knowing if they would be friendly, home, or both, and telling them why you interrupted their day. I would suggest sticking to the groups of outreach, it was always much easier to handle some weird experiences if a friend was there to relate to. Also, it seemed to be beneficial to first flyer the streets and give out garlic, then go back to the same houses and do a second wave of outreach, collecting contact info.

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Final Report: Planning Section

On September 24, 2007, the Learning Gardens and Civic Affairs Senior Capstone project was initiated. The original division of labor included weekly volunteer time at the facility from October 10, 2007, through November 7, 2007 to acquire knowledge and engender enthusiasm for the Gardens. Canvassing efforts in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood by the whole class were conducted during the week of October 15, 2007, to promote the Gardens and the planned community meeting. Subsequent to the week of October 15, 2007, the class was organized into teams to focus efforts. The tasks assigned to each team represent an amalgamation of the Senior Capstone syllabus and input from Ms. Wilnau, Learning Gardens Laboratory Farm Manager.

Team A: Outreach for Community Involvement

• conduct outreach in residential areas to gauge interest, establish relationships, and recruit meeting attendees
• recruit participants for the meeting from the community
• communicate outreach efforts to planning team
• attend and assist at initial community meeting

Team B: Meeting Planning and Facilitation

• plan meeting logistics, such as place, time, refreshments, etc. based on work of outreach team
• prepare meeting agenda and activities
• facilitate community meeting

Executive Statement

Mission Statement: The Students of PSU in Partner with The Learning Gardens Plans to actively engage, the Brentwood Neighborhood and boarding neighborhood of Woodstock, in the Future development of the learning gardens. Thru the establishment of assets mapping the class begins the first steps of community outreach. We hope to expand the personal awareness along with the communities to there by strengthen the support system of the learning gardens growing family. Creating a tree of local residents to lend a hand in the living art of place making in collaboration with Lane Middle School and any other projects that arise at the learning gardens.

From September 24th thru October 10th our class the indicated with The Learning Gardens. We began volunteering for two hours a week every Wednesday spending time Harvesting, salvaging plants, weeding beds, cleaning orchard floor, and put garden to bed for the winter season. Simultaneously from October 15 thru November 4th we canvassed the gardens neighbors planting the fist seed of outreach, with information and garlic. November 14th we held a meeting at the garden to discuss the first stages of planning and a call for assets for the future building of an onsite learning pavilion. At the end of the semester students intend to present their final analysis to the staff of the learning gardens.

Final Report: Outcomes Section

The participants in the Learning Gardens capstone learned many skills this semester. Starting from scratch with the idea of formulating a meeting that would create a forum for the discussion of an outdoor kitchen. After discussion among the LGL staff, the structure's purpose was reformulated. The vision was the construction of an outdoor classroom made out of cobb.

At the beginning of the semester a lot of us did not have much experience on where to start with this complex task. With the help of our professor, Stephanie Blackman, and the LGLab Outreach Coordinator, we got a briefing on different approaches to outreach and formulating a meeting.

Some team members were unsure about their impact on their community, others were nervous about the face-to-face interaction that would occur during outreach sessions. This psycologically involved experience showed our willingness to grow and change individually and with the project as we began to broadcast this "brain baby" to the Brentwood neighborhood.

When doing the "first wave" of outreach, we implanted the Learning Gardens branding with the distribution of the organic, locally produced garlic. The garlic was a tool in which we "fed" the community our ideas about the garden while we were on their doorstep, but also, when they took the garlic out of the bag to use, cooked it in their food, or even threw it out. This was a very important part of the "first wave" of outreach.The garlic was gifted to the community, along with a flyer about the Harvest Festival.

Our class started from near scratch. We all learned skills of networking, how to be a "project-starter", and allowing to act with the trust of our professor and the LGL staff.

Now that we began the outreach for the construction of an outdoor classroom,we enabled preceding teams to learn from our mistakes. Our participation with the LGL to make this outdoor classroom come true was the first of its kind. Our initial work shows the amount of work that has been done in a semester's time. Our accomplishments will shape the expectations of project teams in the future.

Now that we have started to process of outreach and have organized a meeting, others can begin to ask critical questions. The work that we have done his semester could be viewed as a social experiment in outreach and meeting organization. It could be reflected upon in a scientific manner and answering questions such as: "How can we get more community members to attend the second meeting in the series"?

It will never be clear how our outreach work will impact the future of this project or other LGL projects. There will be those that we initiated outreach that will come to another event in the Learning Gardens in the future. Yet, next-time if our stategies and systems are examined, outreach could learn the benefits and drawbacks and their outreach could to bring in more Brentwood community members to participate in the Learning Gardens.

Final Report: Recommendations Section

Outreach Strategy

• The outreach team should be a more self-elected group of people with good interpersonal communication skills and a working knowledge of the garden.
• Since many of the people that the outreach team spoke with were unfamiliar with the garden, some sort of informational booklet about the garden would be helpful.
• Giving out garlic during outreach seemed to be a great approach all around and something worth doing more of in the future.
• Creating a professional image could be helpful, either by way of a shirt with some sort of a logo on it or even a button or name tag.
• Most important of all, we should conduct the outreach as soon as possible andduring the “golden hours” (5-7 pm) when most people at home so we have more chance to talk with them, trying to facilitate a face-to-face interaction.
• It seems beneficial to first flyer the streets and give out garlic, then go back to the same houses and do a second wave of outreach, collecting contact info. By doing this, we assure that people feel more comfortable to give out their personal information.
• A well organized record of outreach efforts is an important tool for tracking what has already been done so that future efforts can benefit from this knowledge

Asset Mapping

• Lane Middle School seemed like a scarcely tapped connection that may have proven very fruitful with earlier and more thorough outreach. Getting in on a PTA meeting, the meeting being listed in some sort of event calendar, or getting flyers to teachers, students or parents are just some of these possibilities.
• Connecting with local business, churches and non-profit organizations more may have been useful.
  • Open Spirit Church (6536 SE. Duke St. Portland, OR 97206 (503) 788-0085)
  • Flavel Street Baptist Church (6911 SE. Flavel St, Portland, OR 97206 (503) 774-4229)
  • Mehri’s Bakery and Deli (6923 SE. 52nd Ave, Portland, OR 97206 (503) 788-9600)
  • The Floor Store (5628 SE. Woodstock Blvd, Portland, OR 97206 (503) 408-6488)
  • Cascade Machinery and Electric ((503) 788-2850)
  • Dairy Queen (5934 SE. Duke St, Portland, OR 97206 (503) 771-4637)
  • Brentwood-Darlington Community Center (7211 SE. 62nd Ave Portland, OR 97206 (503)988-5961)
  • The Rebuilding Center of Our United Villages which dedicated to preserving natural resources, providing free or affordable, quality used building materials. (3625 N. Mississippi Ave 503-517-0953)
  • Habitat for Humanity is a good source for donations of plumbing and other building materials. We wouldn’t recommend seeking volunteers here as they run primarily off community service workers. (Darin O’Neal at 503.283.6247)
  • Portland Compost (Andy Schneider at 503.823.2866 or http://www.sustainableportland.org)

Meeting Strategy

• Trying out a daytime and/or daylight meeting time may prove to be a better time for potential attendees, and if nothing else sunlight would provide the opportunity for a tour of the garden.
• Adjusting a meeting's content and original plan to those in attendance and why they came may ultimately be more successful and productive.
• Allow for and encourage more discussion and brainstorming time so that attendees feel more engaged and perhaps more likely to come back and help in the future.

Other

• A permanent sign for the garden visible from 60th only makes sense. It would have to increase the awareness of the garden's existence in the community and it may make the garden more welcoming and less like private property.
• Having one reliable and up-to-date web presence for the garden would be useful, whether this is the wiki or any of the other existing sites.