Promising Model #1: Intergroup Bridging in Community Gardens A community garden can be an accessible space to bring newcomers and longtime residents together to work on a shared project and cultivate a sense of belonging. Many localities have a community garden or network of gardens, and others have resources to support residents in starting one.
CASE STUDY
Gardens are a natural venue for cultural exchange, teamwork, and relationship building, both through designing and maintaining the garden itself and in sharing meals and experiences with the food grown in the garden. Both newcomers and longtime residents can share their knowledge and talents while working together on common goals.
REFUGEE AND IMMIGRANT SERVICES & EDUCATION (RAISE) COMMUNITY GARDEN IN NOEL, MO
Noel is a small town of about 2,000 people in rural Southwest Missouri, where the meat processing industry employs many people who emigrated from other countries. Over time, RAISE found that longtime and newer residents of Noel had little meaningful interaction with one another in their daily lives, and this contributed to division and discrimination, particularly from longtime residents toward newcomers. As a result, RAISE expanded its mission to help encourage relationships between longtime and newer residents of Noel, with a goal to increase understanding and foster community development for all Noel residents. With the help of a grant from Walmart and technical assistance from Welcoming America, one of RAISE’s first intergroup bridging efforts was a community garden. Over nine months, RAISE developed a new community garden where residents of Noel could work and play together. Through gardening activities, residents who previously did not know each other connected through shared projects and developed leadership skills.
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Taste of Belonging