City Sprouts is City Green’s youth gardening program, taking place at community gardens, schools, after school facilities and churches.  City Sprouts works to teach city children the importance and wonder of nature, how food grows, the joy of cultivating plants, lessons about preserving the natural environment, as well as leadership, collaboration and communication skills. This program aims to offer city youth structure and support, while connecting them to each other, the earth, healthy organic food, and compassionate adults.  City Sprouts nurtures productive individuals who act as articulate advocates for their community and environment while enhancing community livability.

City Sprouts Program Goals Are To:

• Support the creation and maintenance of permanent gardening projects in public schools and youth-centered community based organizations throughout urban areas of Northern New Jersey.
• Create increased access to fresh, organically grown produce through the creation of a garden projects in schools and youth-centered community organizations.
• Develop and implement environmental education and gardening curriculum in public schools and youth-centered community-based organizations throughout urban areas of Northern New Jersey.

City Sprouts is …

(click on a each item for more information)

• After School and Summer Programming at Satellite Locations

  Through direct participation in a garden project, the children we work with in our after school and summer programs are taught about health in a way that includes the health of their neighborhoods, communities, environment as well as the health of their bodies. They are taught that every ‘body’ needs clean air, water, soil and food to flourish, and that they can be actors and contributors in caring for themselves and their community. In the process they get to work outdoors, connect with nature, soak in the sun, and have stories read to them. They get to bring bags of tomatoes, collards and green beans home to their families and say they grew it themselves. And they benefit from the one on one interaction with the caring City Green staff that supports their efforts, ideas and imaginations.
  
  New this year! City Green is launching its new “Dirt to Table” curriculum, a curriculum professionally developed by City Green based on our direct experiences gardening in the city.  This program teaches children the entire process of growing food from “Dirt to Table” and includes hands-on lessons in science, nutrition, the environment and the community.

  At Our After School and Summer Garden Programs:

  • All participants plan, build, and grow a garden (vegetables and flowers).
  • All program lessons take place in the garden and include watering, weeding, composting, discussing and noticing changes, and garden journaling.
  • All participants have specific responsibilities in the garden to foster leadership and responsibility.
  • Participants take home all food grown
    

  Locations include:
  
  YWCA
  YMCA
  Boys and Girls Club of Paterson
  St. Paul’s Church
  Paterson Public Library

• Summer Programming at the City Green Learning Garden

  Five days a week for eight weeks in the summer, City Green runs “Seedlings Garden Camp”.  We work with a different age group each day from the Paterson Recreation Eastside Park Day Camp.  Each group has their own raised bed for vegetable growing, which they tend throughout the season in addition to engaging in fun educational activities. Friday programs are open to the public and include a “Wildlife Gardening” program and the Seedlings Program. 
  New this year! City Green is implementing our new “Dirt to Table” curriculum, a curriculum professionally developed by City Green based on our direct experiences gardening in the city.  This program teaches children the entire process of growing food from “Dirt to Table” and includes hands-on lessons in science, nutrition, the environment and the community.
  In addition, City Green hosts a group of ten “City Serve” youth from St. Paul’s Church each week, teaching about sustainable food systems and the benefits of locally grown organic food.

  City Green hosts six high school interns for the summer to support programming at the Learning Garden and our other locations, runs a “Green Market” twice during the season with produce from the Learning Garden, and hosts several “Family Days in the Garden”.

  
  
• School Programming

  City Green offers three programs for interested schools; an Environmental Club program, a School Garden Program and a School Beautification Program.  Each program include teacher training, a program curriculum manual with step by step lessons and instructions including links to the core curriculum standards, and support for program implementation by City Green staff.  Contact City Green at
  201-444-7514 or info@city-green.org for further information.

  The City Green Learning Garden is a new field trip site for Paterson Public Schools – field trip programming incorporates lessons about local food systems, sustainable agriculture and urban environmental issues. Contact City Green for further information about taking your class to the Learning Garden.

• High School Internship Programming

  City Green hosts high school interns each summer to assist with our youth garden programming, while gaining valuable employment, leadership and communication skills. The eight week paid summer High School Internship program provides employment as well as education and development programming to at-risk inner city youth. It includes Junior Master Gardener certification, leadership training, goal setting, financial literacy and general youth development programming. High School students that successfully complete the internship program at City Green can then apply to be a City Green Ambassador and help with after school programming, speak on behalf of City Green at our Fundraising events and at other schools to generate interest in our programming, and represent City Green at city and community based organizations.

 

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