Ridley Grove Community Garden: A Sustainable Community Development Project

Ridley Grove Community Garden is a sustainable community development project that turned an old church car park into a community garden. The project is established on community development and environmental sustainability principles. The community garden is designed using sustainable gardening principles where the focus is on ensuring that the place is environmentally friendly. The project is not funded by any donor but rather came to exist as an initiative of community members who sought to create a sustainable environment for people to learn. The local community was entirely in charge of the whole project since it funded trees, furniture and any other resources that were required to make the garden viable. The initiative behind this community project was to establish an eco-friendly zone where people can learn how to keep the environment fit by controlling the carbon footprint.

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Ridley Grove Community Garden
Student’s Name
University
Date
Course
Instructor

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Ridley Grove Community Garden
Introduction
Community development entails the process through which community members come
together to take a collective action to develop general solutions for the issues that affect their
locality. This entails practices taken by civic leaders, professionals or citizens to find ways of
building a stronger community (Sloman 2012, p. 48). This means that, although community
development is a discipline, the act of developing communities entails a synergy of approaches
used to develop ways of making the community better. This can be through people coming
together in units which may be formal or informal to achieve a common course. Ridley Grove
Community Garden is an example of a community development process where the community
turned unused resources like an old church car park and turned it into a community garden for
children, pets and the disabled people within the locality. Since then the garden has grown and is
regarded as one of the best places that people within the locality spend their free time (Gardens
and Land 2018, pp. 3). This garden shows that the role of community development is to offer
opportunities for people within the community by mobilizing resources for a greater course.
Summary of the Project
The history of the garden is traced back to an old church car park in Woodville Gardens
to establish a community garden. This was due to the unutilized space that existed in the church
that was made useful. The community garden was designed using sustainable gardening
principles where the focus was on ensuring that the place was environmentally friendly. This
means that green approaches of developing the garden were used (Hudson 2012, pp. 4). For
example, goats were used to clear the grass rather than using chemicals to spray and then trees
were planted with the assistance of school children. The project is not funded by any donor but

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rather came to exist as an initiative of community members who sought to create a sustainable
environment for people to learn. The local community was entirely in charge of the whole
project since it funded trees, furniture and any other resources that were required to make the
garden viable. The initiative behind this community project was to establish an eco-friendly zone
where people can learn how to keep the environment fit by controlling the carbon footprint. The
garden seeks to create a sense of urgency in the local community to participate in the processes
and make a difference in the life of the entire community through their effort.
It is established on biodiversity principles where native plants have been planted to
establish an ecosystem that attracts wildlife like birds, frogs, reptiles and even insects. Since
most parts of the Ridley areas were not viable for most organisms, the garden seems to be
offering the best solutions for these organisms with its biodiversity as seen in the first Butterfly
festival held in 2009 time (Gardens and Land 2018, pp. 5). The garden has since become
prominent in the area since it creates an environment where people can participate by giving
resources or personally taking part in the community garden to create a difference.
As time goes, the community garden has become relevant since regular workshops are
held hear by volunteers who showcase the environmental management strategies in the garden,
cooking and other themes that reflect the existence of the community garden. This means that
members who visit this place gather sustainable gardening knowledge that they can apply in their
own places. For example, this is seen in the way the garden has inspired many young people to
participate in environmentally friendly approaches like growing vegetables. Therefore, the
community was established as a sustainable solution for restoring the environment and offering
food solutions to the community.
Values Underpinning the Project

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The community garden is established on community development and environmental
sustainability principles that define the way the projects operate. The first community
development principle that exists in the community project is the principle of collective action.
This forms the starting of the project since it is traced back to the time when community
members collectively came together to address the issues affecting the community like lack of a
community garden. This brought people together to generate resources for building the garden.
The garden is established on the voluntary contribution of resources rather than fundraising from
donors. Although there are donor organizations like the Rotary club who make donations, the
project is a purely collective action.
The second community development principle is that of empowerment, where knowledge
is shared with the community on sustainable approaches that can be used to make the
environment better and reduce the carbon footprint. This is why volunteers hold workshops that
seek to educate and empower locals on environmentally friendly approaches applied in the
garden that can also work in their home gardens. The number of people who have benefited from
this process can be seen in the number of people who attend sustainability workshops and those
applying the knowledge garnered in their life.
There are environmental gardening and sustainability principles also used in the
community project. The first one is the organic gardening principle focussing more on soil health
(McNeely & Scherr 2003, p.15). From the start of the project, goats were used to clear the area
and increase compost while the trees that have been planted are indigenous which nourish the
soil with organic fertilizer. The plants in this garden have been keenly to chosen to ensure that
they fit the environment of the garden.

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The second sustainability principle is the companion planting principle which allows the
community members to plant one plant with another to create an environment for insects and
nutrients that are beneficial to the companion (Holmgren 2002, p. 23). This sustainability
approach has created an ecosystem for organisms like birds, frogs, reptiles and even insects
which make the place more valuable. The success of this principle is rooted in the annual
butterfly festival.
Critical Analysis of the project
The community project is established on two key approaches of sustainable development
and community capacity building for increased empowerment. The sustainable development
approach seeks to achieve a balanced economic, social and environmental condition through the
involvement of the community (Wizemann & Anderson 2009, p. 16). This is through community
initiatives being used to make the community more viable. For example, the community came
together to restore the community garden and use it as a place for developing sustainable projects
that other community members can learn. This is not just a community garden where people
come to relax and go home in the evening but rather a place where members are enriched with
sustainable gardening practices that they can apply in their homes. The sustainable approach
seeks to create a better environment for people and other organisms that can thrive in.
According to Rogers, Jalal & Boyd (2007, p. 31), this approach offers several benefits to
the community because it creates a place where sustainable environmental friendly knowledge
can be shared with the community. This approach is the best since it benefits both the
community and the environment at the same time. The environmental management knowledge
that people gain from the projects being undertaken goes a long way in reducing the carbon
footprint emitted in the atmosphere. This means that through harmonizing the economic, social

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and environmental aspects of the community project, greater benefits are realized through
sustainable approaches the people learn (Flint 2012, p. 17). Apart from the social aspect that the
project brings, it is easy to achieve the intended results in the project. However, the sustainable
approach seems not to be working well due to the ability to meet the challenges that the approach
brings to the community. The community project seems to be enlightening people on the issues
that affect them but lacks an ideal project that is addressing community-related sustainable
issues. In such case, a special unit within the community project needs to be established to ensure
that proper mechanisms are addressed to meet the needs of the project. This calls for the need to
develop a way of mobilizing resources for the drive rather than relying heavily on the volunteers
that take part in the project.
On the other hand, Wagner (2003, p. 109) suggests that the capacity building approach
focusses on knowledge used to improve the skills and knowledge of the community. The role of
this approach to achieve behavioural change in the community and at the same time lead to
infrastructure development. For this approach to be effective, obstacles that inhibit development
have to be determined so that development strategies focus on such barriers. For change to be
achieved and termed sustainable, the community initiatives need to address barriers by
strengthening skill, abilities, and competencies of the people (Potter & Brough 2004, p. 342). For
example, when related to the concept of sustainable development, the community has to
determine the goals that need to be achieved at the grassroots level to develop ways of
overcoming any challenges in the community. This initiative makes it easy for other parties who
are interested in supporting the community initiative like the Rotary Foundation that is
partnering with the community.

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The benefit of this approach is the empowerment of communities to develop sustainable
solutions for the challenges that they face. This is achieved by fostering a sense of ownership to
gain greater control of the development issues within them (McTague & Jakubowski 2013, p.
189). For example, through planting of trees and applying sustainable gardening principles,
Ridley community members are working on reducing the carbon footprint in their locality to
make it better thus leading to feasible and reliable communities. This has been seen in the
number of young people who are already planting gardens in their homes. However, the capacity
building approach has been criticized due to the amount of time taken to realize the benefits of
the initiative. In most cases, the impact is supposed to be seen through the trickledown effect
which can take longer than expected. This has led to questions on its effectiveness in community
development especially when applied to the case of Ridley community project.
Ways that a Community Development Worker Can Work With This Project
Israel, Schulz, Parker, Becker51, Allen & Guzman (2008, p.51) argues that the role of
any community development professional is to support community programs and assist the
community to improve their lives. This means that the solutions for the problems that exist in
the community need to be based on a partnership approach taken between the professional and
the locals. To achieve such a strategy the community development expert needs to analyse the
needs of the community using tools like the visioning matrix to prioritize them in order of
priority and develop ways of addressing each of them. As a community development officer, I
will work on strengthening the existing approaches of capacity building and sustainable
development and then introduce a new concept of community economic development that I have
seen misses in most initiatives taken by Ridley community project.

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The first thing that needs to be addressed is working on the sustainable development
initiatives of the community. The role of sustainable development is to develop best practices
that the community project can use to reach higher goals in the locality (Clay & Jones 2009, P.
261). This role can be improved to make the impact of the community initiative more
recognized. One thing that I can work on is to work with the community project to identify the
sustainable areas that need to be addressed. It seems that the objectives of the community are too
wide and thus need to be narrowed down to a smaller ones that are easy to achieve. For example,
the sustainable approach entails greener gardening and planting of trees to reduce the carbon
footprint. However, there are challenges with this initiative since the project seems to lack a clear
set of objectives that can be used to achieve the project. As a community development worker,
identifying the sustainability issues and barriers in the community and then prioritizing them
based on their strength can lead to better outcomes. Community development workers are change
agents who need to work with communities to develop initiatives that address the needs they
have. Goals need to be set with clear activities and objectives that a timeframe on how they will
be achieved.
To strengthen the sustainable development strategy further, there is need to outsource
more resources and skills that will be used in such initiatives. This requires resource mobilization
skills for addressing resource challenges in the project. One clear thing in this project is that the
voluntary contribution of the community members and neighbouring organizations are the ones
that fund all the activities of the project. This process is not sustainable since the project needs to
have resource mobilization strategies for raising resources to be used in the project (Jackson,
Cleverly, Poland, Burman, Edwards & Robertson 2003, P. 342). As a community development
worker, I will work with the community to find reliable donors who can support the project

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while at the same time develop annual fundraising events for the project. This can be through
fundraisers like, sports, dinners, conferences and any other charitable event that can lead to
raising resources for the community.
Further, I will strengthen the capacity building element in the organization by linking this
initiative to the sustainability one. The role of capacity building is to empower Ridley
community project members with proper skills that can be applied in real life and community
project situations. To build the capacity of the community, different people with different skills
need to be established (Liberato, Brimblecombe J, Ritchie, Ferguson & Coveney 2011, p. 6).
This will entail planning ahead through developing the areas that need to be addressed before the
beginning of New Year to plan for them in advance. By putting measures in place to address
community issues, it becomes easy to solicit volunteer trainers who are willing to work with the
project or any organizations that are willing to support the organization. For example, leadership
capacity building is an important element that can make the project better. This means that
leadership trainers have to be solicited to train the community project leaders in how they can
make the project better. This entails areas like leadership styles, decision, resource mobilization,
sustainable development and working with other agencies (Zakocs & Guckenburg 2007, P. 361).
Once leadership has been strengthened, then it becomes easy for the organization to achieve the
intended results.
Lastly, I will use the community economic development approach as an alternative way
of encouraging the community to use local resources to enhance economic opportunities and
improve social conditions. This entails developing a holistic and participatory way of addressing
community problems like poverty, unemployment and environmental degradation. As a
community worker, I will focus on the issues that emanate from the sustainable and capacity

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building approaches to build a community that has increased access to capital, better business
climate, and stimulation of business activity. Through resource mobilization initiatives,
economic community development approaches can be developed to make Ridley region better.
According to Nour (2011, p. 81), the community needs to determine what social-economic
project that it seeks to develop so that resources can be channelled to this course of action. The
role of such approaches is to create better conditions for the community by forecasting on the
future to create a community project that all members are willing to support (DeFilippis 2012, p.
35). Therefore, the role of a community development worker in Ridley Grove Community
Garden is to assist the community to develop better ways of meeting its intended objectives
while at the same time develop sustainable community economic development projects that will
make the community meaningful in future.
Conclusion
Ridley Grove Community Garden project is one of the few community projects that have
been successful in Adelaide, South Australia. This attributed to its community strategy of having
a sustainable community garden that meets the needs of the locals. However, this project can be
better if better strategies are put in place to improve its initiatives and at the same time develop
ways of making the project outputs higher. This includes mobilizing more resources towards its
course and using the services of community development workers and other experts to refine the
activities of the project and make it more sustainable. This shows the role of the community
development professionals in projects and the role that they play in assisting the community to
meet its needs. This means that Ridley Grove community project could have been better if it had
the services of a community development worker.

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