School Garden Coordinator Certificate Training

Information: Starting a school garden is a big undertaking. We recommend that a garden committee is formed and clear goals and objectives for the garden are set before a garden is built. Consider starting small and building upon small successes. We are excited to offer our 35 hour School Garden Coordinator Certificate Training program to share best practices for building, using and maintaining school and youth food gardening programs. By the end of this training, you will have knowledge, skills and resources to implement and maintain an edible school garden project built on a foundation of broad community involvement and support. As a trained certified Garden Coordinator, you will be equipped to support long-lasting edible school/youth garden projects within the region and expand the capacity of the community to provide food garden-based education to children. This training has a focus on elementary school/youth programs, but can be adapted by those who work with middle or high school aged students. This training is geared for both those who have experience with school/youth gardens and those who are new to the field.

Sessions cover:

• Historic Context of School Gardens / Farm to School
• Community Organizing and Organizing School Garden Committees
• Fundraising and Resource Development
• Volunteer Management
• Teaching Youth Effectively/ Class Management in an Outdoor Setting
• Garden-Based Activities and Curriculum Connections
• Garden to Cafeteria
• Garden Infrastructure
• Basic Gardening Skills and Planting Plans
• Program Evaluation
• Portland Public Schools (PPS) policy on school garden installation & garden to cafeteria guidelines (optional training module)

Dates: June 25th-29th, 9-4:30pm, 2018

Location: 1137 SE 20th Ave, Portland, OR 97214 (Hinson Church)

Agenda: Download the sample training agenda from 2017

Registration:  The cost to attend is $450.

Scholarships: We know that the school garden movement is stronger when we have a diversity of identities, backgrounds, and perspectives collaborating together towards shared goals.  We especially encourage people of color and those working in Title 1 schools to apply for scholarships. Full and/or partial scholarships will be announced in early May 2018. Please fill out this simple, two question, scholarship form.

Credits: Participants have the opportunity to earn two graduate credits through Portland State University Graduate School of Education Continuing Education (CEED) program for their professional development work as part of this training.  The cost for the credits, due to PSU is $180. For the process to register for PSU credit, click here. You do not need to pay this extra fee if you do not need credits from PSU. Since PSU is discontinuing its cooperative credit program at the end of June, we have arranged with PSU to list this class for the spring term. Students will need to register and pay for the credits in the spring term, and grades will be entered after the training in the summer.

To be notified of future training opportunities, please add your name to this list.