Growing Community Practitioner Program
Please read about the program before applying at the link below.
The Growing Community Practitioner Program is a paid practitioner training program. Participants will be temporary (8-month, April-December 2024) part-time (20 hrs/wk) employees of Growing Places Indy. The program pays $20/hour.
The 2024 Growing Community Practitioner Program intends to expand city-based food production and food access in Indianapolis by partnering with individuals and organizations seeking to incorporate gardening/urban agriculture into existing or planned community-based projects, initiatives and businesses. Growing Places Indy seeks to hire individuals with an existing or in-planning project that interrupts food apartheid and cultivates food justice and equity to participate in the Practitioner program. The program will connect Practitioners to Indy’s existing urban agricultural workforce network, while also bolstering a network of community-based food project practitioners trained with the skills necessary to successfully implement programs aligned to intended community impact.
Application Time Frame
- Applications Open: February 2024
- Application Deadline: March 18, 2024
- Notification of Acceptance: March 22, 2024
- Program Begins: April 2024
- Program Concludes: December 2024
Location
Primary activities of the program will be located at our main farm site on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis at 727 N Oriental Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202. Opportunities for learning and volunteering at White River State Park, at GPI farm stands around downtown and in partnership with other Indianapolis farms and programs will be available.
Program Will Include
Growing Community Practitioner Training will include learning through interactive classroom lessons, guest experts, team-building activities, and hands-on farm and market work. Participants can expect:
- City-based garden/urban agriculture skill development & access to tools for project implementation
- Applied practice in a variety of city-based garden/urban agriculture settings & introduction to a robust local food and farm network
- Training from a wide network of local growers and community leaders
- Good Agricultural Practices in Urban Agriculture and Safe Food Handling training
- Technical assistance in project development, planning and implementation
- Development of movement, breath and contemplative practices that support the physical, mental and emotional wellbeing of participants through the program
- Cohort and individual study of how race and caste intersect with food and agricultural systems, exploration of local initiatives aimed at disrupting food apartheid and creating food equity
- Cohort and individual study of identity, cultural conditioning, internalization and externalization as well as practices for cultivating healing and human solidarity
- Practices (and built in time) for self-care, restoration and nourishment
- Self, Peer and Community Analysis of participant projects as they relate to increasing city-based food production and food access in ways that also disrupt food injustice and cultivate food equity
- Practitioners who do not have access to an existing garden or land will receive assistance in securing growing space appropriate to their project
Program includes weekly in-person cohort training sessions on Monday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Generally these sessions will be held at 727 N. Oriental St., Indianapolis, IN 46202. Once a month or more we will meet off-site at a partner farm or other community location. The GPI team will work with selected participants to create a customized schedule that includes at least 10 hours of applied practice per week. The remaining hours will be for independent project work/development.
Growing Community Practitioners will be recognized for the skills, expertise and networks they bring into the program by incorporating cohort co-creation and leadership, responding to the specific individuals in the 2024 program.
2024 Growing Community Practitioners will receive a certificate of completion, and ongoing resource access as part of the Growing Community network
If you have any questions or need assistance in completing the application, please contact us for assistance. If you need to complete the application verbally, having a GPI team member read and record your responses, please contact us:
Contact: Joslyn Cunningham, Program Administrator
Email: joslyn@growingplacesindy.org
Phone: (317) 345-9294