Gardens for Empowerment (G4E) Project is a collaboration between neighbors, landlords, community organizers and several other local agencies in Dane County, whose long-range goal is to improve the livability of neighborhoods and to create a model of community building that can be replicated in Dane County communities. The project contributes to the goal of stabilizing challenged neighborhoods by e
ngaging neighborhood residents, including at-risk youth, in flower and vegetable gardening, neighborhood clean-up, and other community-building projects. In the process of gardening and completing other place-making projects, intergenerational groups of residents gain gardening skills and values, improve their surroundings, build relationships of trust, and establish standards of behavior consistent with those of stable neighborhoods. In the near-term, G4E provides summer employment for youth referred by schools and law enforcement, reduces levels of youth delinquency, creates well-managed front-yard gardens, builds gardening skills, and produces vegetables for use by the neighborhood local food pantries.
