Urban Agriculture Resilience Program Capstone Cohort
In 2020, the U.S. Botanic Garden and the American Public Gardens Association initiated the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program. Since its inception, the program has provided financial awards to 73 urban agriculture projects nationwide, promoting public garden participation in collaborations that combine food growing and education while addressing food security challenges facing communities.
Having established a strong foundation of public garden engagement in community-based urban agriculture collaborations, the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program is poised to pilot a new component focused on growing urban agriculture capacity and leadership in the public gardens community.
The Urban Agriculture Resilience Program Capstone Cohort will comprise a small group of established urban agriculture projects seeking to sustain and institutionalize their work. Eligible projects may be previous Urban Agriculture Resilience Program awardees or established urban agriculture projects new to the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program. Awardees will receive mentoring and technical support from Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest to help build the sustainability of their programs.
Capstone Cohort awardees should be willing to:
- Commit staff time to participate in a mentoring program provided throughout the award period.
- Present their program models for other awardees and peers in the public gardens community.
Award amount is $50,000.
This is a highly competitive award category; we anticipate funding up to seven Capstone Awards. Capstone Awards will be awarded to a project only once.
Interested applicants may review the full criteria for participation. Eligible institutions may apply by using the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program Capstone Cohort online application.
An informational webinar for interested applicants will be held on Thursday, September 29th from 3:00-4:00 pm Eastern. Please register here to attend.
Learn more about your eligibility for the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program, check out a complete list of criteria and access the application form.
Applications are due no later than Nov. 1, 2022 by 8:00 p.m. EDT/5:00 p.m. PDT using the online application form.
For a preview of the application questions click here!
Key criteria for applicants:
- All eligible applicants must be a U.S. public garden.
- Must use award funds by February 1, 2024 to support urban agriculture or other food growing programming in urban/metropolitan areas serving audiences experiencing food insecurity; programs must combine food growing and education components.
- Must be able to clearly describe the budget and anticipated impact of the funds received.
- Awards will support existing projects seeking to sustain and institutionalize their work.
View the recording of the information session held on Spetember 29, 2022 here.
View our Q&A webpage here. We will be continuing to update this wepage as we recieve questions.
We look forward to receiving your application. Questions regarding the program and eligibility may be directed to Bailee Hopkins-Hensley at Bhopkins-hensley@publicgardens.org
