Community Garden Leadership

This section was adapted with considerations for community garden leaders from Cornell Small Farms. (2024). PUA101: Deciding Where to Farm in the City – Assignment 1. Exploring Your Social Identities. https://smallfarmcourses.com/courses/1880767/lectures/42926516

Social identity groups are usually defined by some physical and socioeconomic characteristics of individuals.  The table below describes different social identities through which Americans identify themselves. The Dominant column represents identities that hold more power relative to others in society; Excluded identities are seen as subordinate to the dominant culture, and the third column describes the types of Oppression associated with these identities.

Your own identification with different social groups can affect your success as a community garden leader, especially if your identities differ from those of the surrounding community.  Reflecting on these identities can provide insights that will inform how you will approach leadership at you garden, and how you will empathize and engage with the local community.

The table below was developed by the Opening Doors Diversity Project at SUNY Brockport, with definitions sourced from the Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching at Northwestern University.    

For this exercise:

1.     Circle or otherwise note the social identities with which you most closely identify.

2.     Reflect: Which of these social identities do you think about most often?

3.     Reflect: Which social identities are most relevant in you as a community garden leader and consider why this is the case.

                Dominant                                              Excluded                                           Oppression          

*Definition sourced from Northwestern Searle Center for Advancing Learning & Teaching

 Next, complete 1.3 Assignment 2, a short-answer question.