Cultivating Communities Queensland
Empowerment Through Gardening Together
Cultivating Communities Queensland is an outreach program dedicated to helping community food gardeners thrive. Through ‘group-fit’ training, hands-on gardening skills sessions, and holistic design days, we empower passionate volunteers with everything they need to build something truly lasting, while also creating meaningful pathways to employment.
The CCQ program helps people get:
– ‘Group-Fit’: We facilitate training for long-term management, volunteer attraction and retention, and clear and fair decision-making processes.
– ‘Food Gardening Fit’: We bridge the decline in food-growing knowledge through expert-led hands-on gardening sessions.
– ‘Design Fit’: We facilitate community planning design sessions using the permaculture holistic planning framework to create new community food projects.
– ‘Employment Fit’: In partnership with our funders and hosts, we offer vocational training in horticulture and facilitation to people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Why are we doing this?
The cost of living, social isolation and personal wellbeing are all at crisis point, and community gardening is a proven part of the solution for many neighbourhoods in our region. When people come together to garden they:
– Learn how to save money by growing food and keeping fit
– Interact with each other and build friendships
– Improve their health by getting away from screens, doing gardening tasks and harvesting fresh, nutritious produce.
However, across Queensland, many community food projects face a common challenge: they have the space and the passion for growing together but lack a long-term plan and the specific skills needed to sustain them.
Who can we help?
Our program is for any group that wants to grow food and community together. We partner with:
– Schools & Childcare: Helping the next generation get their hands in the earth and learn where their food comes from.
– Community Gardens & Neighbourhood Centres: Strengthening local food security and creating welcoming spaces for everyone.
– Residential Estates & Apartments: Turning shared spaces into vibrant, edible landscapes for all neighbours to enjoy.
– Health & Wellbeing Hubs: Creating healing gardens at hospitals and aged care facilities to support physical and mental health.
– Workplaces: Engaging teams in meaningful, earth-care projects that build connection and purpose.
Whether you’re just starting out or your long-term garden needs a fresh spark of energy, we’re here to support your journey.
Our Services
Community Planning Days
A thriving garden needs clear strategy and processes. We facilitate sessions to help your community:
– Define your shared vision and purpose.
– Map out rosters and workflows to create manageable and engaging volunteer engagement.
– Establish communication plans, decision-making and conflict resolution techniques that actually work.
– Identify funding and other income streams.
– Leave with a documented roadmap and a clear governance structure that increases efficiency and prevents volunteer burnout.
We often facilitate community planning days upfront with communities that may then lead on to ongoing garden coaching sessions.
Coaching Sessions and Workshops
Build the collective know-how so your group can garden confidently without external help. During these 2-3 hour sessions at your garden, we coach your group on organic horticulture practices.
– Hands-on learning: Participate in activities including composting, weeding and watering, checking for pests and disease, and undertaking remedial actions. Other activities may include garden planning, harvesting, pruning, planting, seed saving, fixing and sharpening tools, propagation and potting up, and soil rejuvenation.
– Native food cooking sessions: Working with our partners in the hospitality industry we can also facilitate cooking sessions, including native foods.
– Youth education: Sessions for kids are tailored for them to understand concepts of cultivated ecology, ecosystems and local fauna and flora. This includes topics such as butterflies, birds, and Australian native plants.
– Tailored workshops: We bring specialized horticulture training to your site, based on your individual needs and goals.
Participatory Design
We assist groups to create designs for their community garden by guiding your group throughout the entire permaculture process from site survey and analysis to design exploration to final detailed concepts.
Our Team
Our team is highly experienced and knowledgeable in community planning, community garden design and horticulture practicies and can facilitate a diverse range of people, including youths. Collectively, we have decades of experience ‘walking the talk’ of community food growing and can also draw on an extensive network of experts in organic gardening, agroforestry, tree care, cooking at home, permaculture design, dynamic groups and effective decision making.
Gavin Hardy – Program Founder & Lead Facilitator
The heart of the CCQ program started with a journey.
In 2020, Northey Street co-founder Gavin Hardy was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to investigate some of the world’s best community-based food forests and orchards. He visited 51 projects across the USA, Canada, UK, the Netherlands, France and Italy to learn how we can grow “Community Food Futures” right here in Australia.
This program is the result of that global wisdom, bringing international best practices that support community food initiatives right here in Queensland!
Contact & Enquiry Form
(07) 3857 8775
info@nscf.org.au
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