Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

GEF is launching the largest youth gardening initiative in history, calling on Pre K-12 schools and youth groups to plant 10,000 indoor or outdoor gardens in the spring and summer of 2010! GEF’s comprehensive website, provides checklists for school approvals, plot location guidelines, container gardening tips, funding sources, vegetable and flower suggestions and much more.

GEF provides a multitude of standards-based lessons linking gardening and composting to science, math, language arts, creative arts and technology. All participants receive a $10 off a $50 purchase at Lowes, and the opportunity to be awarded a $5,000 grant for their school! 

The Celebrate Urban Birds project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers mini-grants to help museums, afterschool programs, libraries, community centers, and other local organizations fund neighborhood events. These events may involve art, gardening, science, community service or other cultural activities

We’re ready to award a new round of these mini-grants which average $250-$500. If you are planning an event, you’re invited to apply for a grant at www.CelebrateUrbanBirds.org. Organizations working with underserved communities are strongly encouraged to apply. No experience with birds is required.

As you may know, Celebrate Urban Birds is a free, year-round citizen science project in which participants watch birds in their neighborhoods and report what they see. This information helps scientists better understand how birds survive in cities and make use of green spaces, including parks and gardens.
I look forward to seeing all your great ideas!

Sincerely,

Karen Purcell, Project Leader
Celebrate Urban Birds
urbanbirds@cornell.edu

Many of our CCE education gardens could be excellent candidates for this award:
The 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards, designed to give national recognition and $5,000 in plants to community groups and organizations that are improving their local environments, is now accepting applications. The annual award, sponsored by Omaha-based Nature Hills Nursery, will be presented in April 2010 to groups and organizations that are literally “greening” their communities, parks, schools and public spaces by planting trees, shrubs and other plants.
The winners of the 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards will be those nonprofit groups and organizations that truly are making a difference in their local neighborhoods. The Grand Prize winning garden project will receive $2,500 in plants from Nature Hills Nursery. The First Prize winner will receive $1,500 in plants from Nature Hills Nursery, and the Second Prize winner will receive $1,000 in plants. The plant materials can contain any combination of trees, fruit trees, bushes and shrubs, perennials and vegetable seeds that Nature Hills Nursery offers.

The award winners will be chosen from those groups that submit a local community gardening or “greening” project that makes best use of the trees, bushes and shrubs that Nature Hills Nursery will award. Potential 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Award winning projects can be:

• Creating or refurbishing the landscape in a community park.
• A local soil erosion control plan that utilizes plants to stabilize steep
  hillside slopes or river banks.
• The reclamation of an abandoned lot with the creation of a fruit orchard that will provide much needed fruit to nearby low-income residents.
• Creating a wildlife habitat for birds or animals on donated land that is (or has been) abandoned or neglected.

Applications for the 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards will be accepted nationwide from September 15, 2009 until April 1, 2010. The winners of the 2010 Nature Hills Nursery Green America Awards will be announced on April 19, 2010. To apply for the 2010 award online, visit the website at www.naturehills.com/green_america_awards.aspx.

2009 Hooked on Hydroponics

Awards Deadline: September 18, 2009 2009

Healthy Sprouts

Awards Deadline: October 17, 2009 2010

Youth Garden Grants

Deadline: November 2, 2009

Printable sheet to share with your volunteers can be found at the following state. NYS is one of the 40 states that responded so our numbers are included as long as you and your volunteers continue to submit your numbers to me I can submit to the national organizers. So if you haven’t submitted figures for 2008 yet do so immediately! If you have thanks.

http://pubwiki.extension.org/mediawiki/files/f/f5/Extension_MG_Survey_4-9.pdf

Total current Extension Master Gardener volunteers 94,865*

Total annual volunteer hours 5,197,573*

Value of volunteer hours $101.4 Million**

New Extension Master Gardener volunteers who recently achieved good standing (40 responding states) 16,471

Percentage of metropolitan county volunteer hours (36 responding states) 79%

Percentage of rural county volunteer hours (36 responding states) 21%

Personal contacts (e.g. hotline calls, e-mails returned, live audience presentation, site visits) (38 responding states) 4,850,285

Percentage of personal contacts to underserved audiences (30 responding states) 14.4%

Yearly media reach (e.g. TV, Radio, Print, and Internet) (34 responding states) 102 Million***

Pounds of produce donated to local food banks (26 responding states) 685,554

Volunteer Extension Master Gardener volunteer hours devoted to youth programming (31 responding states) 293,017

Youth served by Extension Master Gardener programming activity (29 responding states) 265,733

Extension Master Gardener volunteers involved in youth programming (30 responding states)) 7,428

Percentage of states with a volunteer training curriculum chapter dedicated to (31 responding states):

Ø Integrated Pest Management 92.7%

Ø Water issues (including irrigation and water supply) 65.9%

Ø Using native plants 61.0%

Ø Wildlife management 58.5%

More here.

Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is an award-winning national environmental education program for educators and their students in grades PreK-12. GreenWorks! is the service-learning, community action program of PLT that partners PLT educators, students, and communities in environmental neighborhood improvement projects. GreenWorks! blends service activities with the academic curriculum and addresses real community needs as students learn through active engagement.

More info here.

These awards will be presented annually to groups and organizations that are making a difference in their communities. We are looking for community groups who are committed to improving their local environment by planting trees, bushes and shrubs to make their communities a better place to live.

See grant opportunities below…people are going to want information about starting community gardens.  We are ready to partner with them for gardening success …this site list some good community gardens resource. Do you have others?

http://www.mindspring.com/~communitygardens/start.html

Department of Agriculture and Markets

The Community Garden Capacity Building Program is intended to support proposals to build capacity of existing community gardens in New York State. The projects must involve outreach materials, organizational planning, community programs, leadership development, and/or fundraising training. The program will be divided into the Upstate and Downstate Regions with funding being split evenly between the two. There are no matching requirements. Projects for which funding is sought should be completed in 1 year or less.

ELIGIBILITY: Not-for-profit corporations or must be sponsored by a not-for-profit corporation or municipality to act as a fiscal agent for the grant funding.

FUNDING: Total funding for this program will be $50,000. Each applicant may apply for and receive up to $5,000.

DEADLINE: May 4, 2009.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Ann McMahon at Department of Agriculture and Markets, 10B Airline Drive, Albany, NY 12235, call (518) 457-7728; e-mail: ann.mcmahon@agmkt.state.ny.us; or visit the ‘‘Funding Opportunities’’ section of the Department’s Web site at www.agmkt.state.ny.us.

Housing Trust Fund Corporation

The New York State Community Development Block Grant Program (NYS CDBG) is a federally funded program administered by the New York State Housing Trust Fund Corporation’s Office of Community Renewal (OCR). The NYS CDBG Program provides funding to eligible communities for the development of projects providing decent and hazard-free affordable housing, access to safe drinking water, proper disposal of household wastewater, access to community-needed services in local facilities, and fostering economic opportunities through the support of projects that create and/or retain permanent employment opportunities principally benefiting low- and moderate-income persons. The 2009 Annual Competitive Round funds are available for the funding of community development projects in the categories of housing, public facilities and public infrastructure. The primary goal of NYS CDBG economic development funds is to create permanent, sustainable jobs that principally benefit low- and moderate-income persons.

ELIGIBILITY: Eligible applicants include non-entitlement units of general local government. Non-entitlement areas are defined as cities, towns and villages with populations of less than 50,000, except those designated principal cities of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, and counties with populations of less than 200,000.

FUNDING: The total funds available for these programs are approximately $40 million.

DEADLINE: March 27, 2009.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the Office of Community Renewal, Hampton Plaza, 38-40 State Street, Albany, NY 12207; or call 518-474-2057.