Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The Indiana Thriving Schools Challenge program is a targeted initiative designed for K-12 schools in the state of Indiana, aiming to facilitate and support garden projects through the acquisition of grant funding. The program places a strong emphasis on promoting equitable distribution of resources, ensuring that schools with specific needs and characteristics are prioritized in the grant allocation process. Importantly, the selection criteria are not intended to deny any school's application outright but rather to establish priority measures that take into account various equity considerations. Equity considerations play a pivotal role in determining the priority measures for grant funding. To ensure a comprehensive and objective evaluation, the program utilizes several key data sources, including the Indiana Department of Education's (IDOE) INView tool, statistics from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service related to Free and Reduced Lunch, and data from the Indiana University School of Informatics Polis Center SAVI databases. These sources collectively contribute to a nuanced understanding of the unique challenges and needs of different schools. The specific goals outlined for equity considerations encompass various aspects of student demographics. These goals include a focus on schools with 60% or higher student populations receiving Free & Reduced meals, 50% or higher student populations identifying as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), and 12% or higher student populations identified as having a disability. By addressing these demographic factors, the program aims to ensure that schools facing greater socio-economic challenges or representing historically marginalized communities receive the support they need for successful garden projects. To further tailor the support provided, the program incorporates asset mapping as a crucial step in the evaluation process. Asset mapping involves a careful examination of food-related resources within specific geographic proximity to schools. For urban schools, this assessment covers a one-mile radius, while for rural schools, a five-mile radius is considered. The identified food assets include grocery stores, meal sites, emergency meal sites, farmers markets, food pantries, and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) centers. This approach enables a more nuanced understanding of the local food landscape, helping the program cater its support to the unique needs and challenges faced by each school. In terms of outreach and recruitment, the School Garden Liaison (SGL) Initiative takes a strategic approach. The initiative focuses on engaging with youth through two designated youth-serving organizations. These organizations specifically target youth residing in historically under-resourced communities, with a particular emphasis on neighborhoods predominantly inhabited by Black and Latine populations. By leveraging existing connections and networks within these communities, the initiative seeks to identify and empower individuals who can serve as liaisons between the program and the schools, ensuring effective communication and support. In summary, the ITSC program is not merely a grant-funding initiative; it is a comprehensive and thoughtful approach to supporting K-12 schools in Indiana in their efforts to establish and maintain garden projects. Through a careful consideration of equity factors, asset mapping, and strategic recruitment, the program aims to foster sustainable and impactful initiatives that contribute to the well-being and education of students across diverse communities in the state. Changes/Problems:The Indiana Thriving Schools Challenge program is a targeted initiative designed for K-12 schools in the state of Indiana, aiming to facilitate and support garden projects through the acquisition of grant funding. The program places a strong emphasis on promoting equitable distribution of resources, ensuring that schools with specific needs and characteristics are prioritized in the grant allocation process. Importantly, the selection criteria are not intended to deny any school's application outright but rather to establish priority measures that take into account various equity considerations. Equity considerations play a pivotal role in determining the priority measures for grant funding. To ensure a comprehensive and objective evaluation, the program utilizes several key data sources, including the Indiana Department of Education's (IDOE) INView tool, statistics from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service related to Free and Reduced Lunch, and data from the Indiana University School of Informatics Polis Center SAVI databases. These sources collectively contribute to a nuanced understanding of the unique challenges and needs of different schools. The specific goals outlined for equity considerations encompass various aspects of student demographics. These goals include a focus on schools with 60% or higher student populations receiving Free & Reduced meals, 50% or higher student populations identifying as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color), and 12% or higher student populations identified as having a disability. By addressing these demographic factors, the program aims to ensure that schools facing greater socio-economic challenges or representing historically marginalized communities receive the support they need for successful garden projects. To further tailor the support provided, the program incorporates asset mapping as a crucial step in the evaluation process. Asset mapping involves a careful examination of food-related resources within specific geographic proximity to schools. For urban schools, this assessment covers a one-mile radius, while for rural schools, a five-mile radius is considered. The identified food assets include grocery stores, meal sites, emergency meal sites, farmers markets, food pantries, and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) centers. This approach enables a more nuanced understanding of the local food landscape, helping the program cater its support to the unique needs and challenges faced by each school. In terms of outreach and recruitment, the School Garden Liaison (SGL) Initiative takes a strategic approach. The initiative focuses on engaging with youth through two designated youth-serving organizations. These organizations specifically target youth residing in historically under-resourced communities, with a particular emphasis on neighborhoods predominantly inhabited by Black and Latine populations. By leveraging existing connections and networks within these communities, the initiative seeks to identify and empower individuals who can serve as liaisons between the program and the schools, ensuring effective communication and support. In summary, the ITSC program is not merely a grant-funding initiative; it is a comprehensive and thoughtful approach to supporting K-12 schools in Indiana in their efforts to establish and maintain garden projects. Through a careful consideration of equity factors, asset mapping, and strategic recruitment, the program aims to foster sustainable and impactful initiatives that contribute to the well-being and education of students across diverse communities in the state. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Program Director attended the following: 2023 Indiana Stem Conference put on by Purdue University. The theme was Advancing STEM with Students. Offered over 60 presentations on STEM curriculum, instruction, careers, and research. Selected presentations include: Empowering Your Students Through Design Thinking, Mapping Your STEM Journey - Open Resources for Schools, Robotics as a Catalyst in the Computer Science Classroom, and Using Children's Literature to Teach Integrated STEM. The National Green Schools Conference in New Orleans. Both of these conferences provided the opportunity for our Program Director to gather tools and resources to share from other people in their field. As well as share that information with school champions. The Indiana Sustainability and Resilience Conference (ISRC) connects Hoosier climate leaders to the knowledge, tools, and resources that can accelerate climate action and resilience efforts in Indiana.The conference brings together sustainability professionals, scholars, and climate advocates from across the state to enhance cross-sector collaboration, share best practices, and strengthen Indiana's climate and resilience network. 18th Annual Food Justice Summit presented by The Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC). The Annual Summit has been shared ground for attendees to exchange meaningful knowledge, build deep relationships, and make powerful conversations on how to envision our food future together. Our Summits have highlighted ways to ground policy in community action and engage participants in reimagining Chicago's foodscape. Past sessions have included themes crucial to food policy: climate change, labor equity, food access and urban farming. Through partnership with local leaders and beyond, attendees have engaged with passionate speakers and a marketplace of resources from all over Chicago, Cook County, and across the state of Illinois.The Chicago Food Policy Action Council (CFPAC), in partnership with the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH), and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (DCASE), will be hosting the 18th Annual Chicago Food Justice Summit. Indiana Youth Institute's 2023 Advancing Equity Summit explores what persisting inequities look and feel like for Indiana's kids - so we can go beyond the data to actionable strategies that address the barriers and challenges our youth face based on race, place, household income, differing abilities, sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, systemic and historical marginalization, and traumatic experiences. Diversity, equity, and inclusion require continuous momentum and conversation to ensure equity for all Indiana kids. Join us for the third annual Advancing Equity Summit to turn knowledge and conversation into impactful, actionable strategies to bring back to your community. In addition, our IUPUI School of Social Work intern: Interrupting Racism for Children (IRFC) educates and moves individuals to action to stop racism in its tracks, creating a future where children thrive and race does not predict their life outcomes. IRFC is a transformational and award-winning two-day, interactive workshop. Community members and leaders engage, grow, and gain understanding as they address racism and its impact on our children.Participants leave the workshop with a greater sense of their own power and tools on how to interrupt the key elements designed to keep racism in place. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The Program Director has created a report for all aspects of the Indiana Thriving Schools Challenge and the School Garden Liaison program that can be found on the Indiana Thriving Schools Challenge website. The Program Director and External Evaluator will be presenting findings of the project specific to the NIFA FALSP grant at a conference in 2024. The Program Director and External Evaluator will be submitting a paper for peer review to be published in 2024. The Program Director will continue to present about the ITSC program at conferences throughout the state of Indiana within the climate and education fields. As well as meet with schools to share information and actively recruit throughout the state of Indiana. The TEACH Climate website reboot will take place in 2024. There will be an active social media and marketing campaign to promote the website as a resource for educators. The Food and Climate Unit will be released in 2024 and available for use for anyone with a garden that would like to expand on their youth work, including camps and school programs. There will be a marketing campaign and in-person pitches. Our organization will be partnering with Indy Parks to do sessions focused on youth engagement, climate and food equity. Those sessions will also be offered in Spanish. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Impact statement: The Thriving Schools Challenge (ITSC) program has yielded substantial positive impacts on both primary stakeholders and society at large. By addressing food access through school gardens, the ITSC program has provided transformative experiences for 31,000 students across 49 schools, with a significant impact on those with socio-economic challenges (60-81.61% on Free and Reduced Lunch programs). Here are the key impacts: Educational Empowerment, Carbon Emission Reduction; Waste Reduction and Composting; Food Insecurity Alleviation; Biodiversity Promotion and Mental Health Support; Community Collaboration; Curriculum Integration; Advocacy and Curriculum Development; Youth Leadership Development; with Program Evaluation and Improvement. 1) In 2023, the ITSC funded 25 schools, impacting 14,486 students with 81.61% on the Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) program. However, metric measurements varied among schools, prompting the need for streamlined metrics to ensure consistent reporting and evaluation, while maintaining the program's flexibility for schools and students in determining their approach to food cultivation. All 25 schools in the ITSC program successfully produced diverse amounts of produce, implementing various distribution methods like car pickup lines, food share tables, and donations to local food pantries. However, the inconsistent metric measurements across schools rendered data collection invalid, prompting the need for streamlined, mandatory metrics aligned with NGSS and Indiana Academic standards to ensure simplicity and uniformity in program evaluation. Out of the 25 schools in the ITSC program, 20% (5 schools) implemented or maintained composting, with vermicomposting proving most popular in classrooms, while only one school established a comprehensive school-wide composting program. Varied composting methods among schools resulted in inconsistent metrics, rendering data collection unreliable. Equity considerations guided the ITSC program to prioritize gardens in communities lacking access to fresh produce, supported by asset maps assessing resources like grocery stores, farmers markets, and WIC clinics within one to five miles. Funding was directed to schools with limited fresh produce access, often accompanied by WIC clinics and emergency sites, acknowledging variations in grocery store quality. Asset mapping remains integral for funding distribution prioritization, with plans to share the equitable approach for other organizations seeking a fair distribution model. Over half of ITSC school gardens served as tools for self-regulation and restorative practices, primarily utilized by school counselors, social workers, and teachers. School connections developed organically, with those inclined to donate beyond their community naturally engaging with pantries. Although an intern was assigned to this task and couldn't complete it, lacking statistics, our organization plans to create a streamlined volunteer protocol for school gardens, acknowledging challenges in connecting schools with farmers due to time constraints, and seeking alternative support avenues. In 2023, schools were given the option of participating in information sharing through either the traditional Fall Festival or a 3-5 minute video submission, with 44% of schools actively engaged in the program as of May 2024. While 12% participated in person at the Eco Science Challenge, a virtual option proved more accessible, boosting participation and utilizing videos as effective tools for information sharing and recruitment expansion. 2) Schools funded by the program must engage students in designing, implementing, and maintaining gardens, showcasing success in elementary and middle schools that foster leadership opportunities. Despite only 42% reporting active participation, actual figures revealed 2661 students utilizing gardens, exceeding expectations and emphasizing the growing significance of school gardens within the educational landscape. The Program Developer and Curriculum Developer played key roles in revising Indiana Science Standards, aligning them with Next Generation Science Standards and emphasizing climate education. The Teach Climate website, undergoing a revamp, will be released in April 2024, addressing broken links and incorporating educator input for improved user-friendliness, additional videos, and "grab-and-go" units. 3) The Green Team initiative has seen significant success, with 903 students participating, surpassing the goal by 451%. This surge in interest is reflected in funding over twice the number of schools (49 instead of the proposed 20), allowing support for student and educator-led garden programs. Grant requests for construction and maintenance, averaging around $3400 and $900, respectively, enable increased participation, while leadership programs in elementary and middle schools foster sustainable engagement. The requirement for green teams in all schools demonstrates a commitment to student involvement, and despite the cancellation of Let's Talk due to low attendance, the program's transformative impact is evident in reapplications and final reports detailing operations. 4) In 2023, the School Garden Liaison Initiative (SGL), formerly YMG, exceeded expectations with 10 youth completing the program, totaling 20 students. Daily attendance and active participation in the Presentation of Learning were recorded, emphasizing the need to recruit participants from the program's community to address transportation challenges. Implemented at Octavia's Visionary Campus, an urban farm, the SGL program aimed to explore the impact of youth learning directly from a farmer; however, challenges arose as the farmer lacked youth education training, leading to their departure after the second week. Despite setbacks, most ITSC schools now utilize gardens for summer programming, signaling success. The SGL program is transitioning to focus on youth leadership around food equity, utilizing the developed Food & Climate curriculum, addressing challenges in building a grower network and offering a valuable resource for youth education beyond physical labor in garden spaces. Following difficulties with a farmer's departure hindering hands-on experiences in harvesting, the SGL program will now emphasize the successful Youth Leadership curriculum, evolving into the Youth Food Equity Ambassador (YFEA) program. This shift responds to challenges, offering a supplementary option for gardening initiatives and a standalone choice for youth interested in advocating for change in localized food systems. 5) The initial proposal's unrealistic target of 20,000 people was dropped due to the organization's limited capacity. Despite this, the ITSC program, evaluated by Dr. Plankis, received praise for its effectiveness, flexibility, and excellent support. Encouraged by this positive evaluation, the Program Manager and External Evaluator are awaiting acceptance for a conference presentation and developing a peer-reviewed article for submission in 2024, committed to refining the program based on recommendations. 6)Shifting focus from existing toolkits, the organization is finalizing the Food and Climate Unit, aligned with the Youth Food Equity Ambassador curriculum, for release in April 2024. This "grab and go" tool covers climate change basics, carbon footprint, food system analysis, sustainable alternatives, and food and human health, fostering critical thinking and empowering students to create a just and sustainable food system. Resiliency Coordinators have played a crucial role in promoting the ITSC program, and the Program Director's presentation at the Climate Leadership Summit in Richmond, Indiana, resulted in three schools participating in the next grant round. The Resiliency Coordinators' support has enabled statewide outreach, demonstrating the program's impact beyond Marion County.
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Schools: It is important that the schools we selected to be a part of the program fit within one or more of the following categories. This ensureswe have equitable standards and give funding to schools that historically are underserved. Proximity to healthy food was our top priority to ensure we are creating an opportunity for healthy food options in areas in need. Student population receiving free and reduced lunch (Goal 60%): Achieved 67.13% BIPOC student populations (Goal 50%): Achieved 63.5% School within an area identified as low income: Achieved 57.9%% Proximity to food access: utilized asset mapping to determine Established green teams: 100% School Champions: Every school must have at least one faculty person to lead the projects and ensure they are accomplished. These leads were teachers, school social workers and principals. Having an educator involved ensures we are able to provide an educational component that can be tied into nutrition, climate and environmental justice. Lead school faculty person(s) that are point person for project 8total ?4 (2 Science) Teachers 1 Principal 1 School Counselor 1 Coordinator of Outdoor Education Youth Leadership: Every school must have a group of youth involved in implementation, referred to as the Green team. These youth must be involved in data collection, planting, near peer education and more. Green teams: 100% of schools for a total of 284youth actively involved in school garden implementation Youth Master Gardener program rebranded as School Garden Liaison Initiative.The SGL program is a summer initiative that teaches youth within the community to become school garden managers in the summer. This ensures there are active young community members that learn how to maintain the gardens in the summer to ensure consistent food production. Selection of the host school was based on proximity to food access and poverty rate, to ensure the program occurs in a neighborhood with little access to fresh produce. Youth from the community to learn the business of farming. Ages Proposed: 17-24 Achieved: 12-18 Demographics Proposed: 50% BIPOC Achieved: 100% BIPOC Host school Free and Reduced lunch recipients: 82.8% BIPOC students: 98% Farmers: Selection of farmers/ growers with close proximity to host school and deep community ties enables us to foster even stronger connections for our schools, youth and community. Focusing on growers with experience with working directly with youth that are a part of the demographics of the neighborhood was also important. Piloted program with one grower from the community that managed several community gardens throughout the city Proposed: 5 growers Achieved: 2 total Both Black Females Community Partners: Finding community partners within the ITSC schools ensures our schools are supported as community hubs. It is important that community work actually involves the community in all aspects. Utilize organizations near host school 95% of SGL participants came from community organizations near school 80% (4 out of 5) organizations partnered with were Black-led Non-profits Changes/Problems:Almost all of the obstacles we have faced have been with the development and implementation of the Youth Master Gardener (YMG) program (goal 4) now named the "School Garden Liaison" Initiative. The name change is due to wanting to differentiate from the international youth gardening program, Junior Master Gardener. The biggest challenge has been with the farmer and grower connections with schools. The ITSC program is application based, so we do not know what schools would be receiving grant money until the applications are submitted. We are actively working on building a more robust network of growers. It has become apparent that most of the larger scale growers within the Indianapolis area region have their own summer youth program and at capacity with their own farms/gardens. We are looking to adjust the criteria for involvement if needed. The following is a more in depth look at issues that arose with the School Garden Liaison Initiative, how we tackled them and how we are going to attempt to negate them for next summer. Phase 1 was the development portion of the program with an array of youth leadership partners. This took longer than anticipated due to our community partners not being able to meet within the proposed time frame. That delay affected the timeframe for all the other phases. Time constraints, consideration of transportation concerns and more brought to light that it would make most sense to pilot the program at one school. Having the location in one school as opposed to multiple allowed us to not rush in program development, allowing all developers to be present in program implementation as well. Our pilot school host school provided us with real world application of the program and its own set of challenges. School turnover: Less than a week prior to the start of the program, the principal our Program Director had been working with for two years, unexpectedly left the Host School. With his departure we had to work with new school administrators that also had the task of getting prepared for the upcoming school year. Coupled with the reduction of educators, our Host School became severely understaffed. Water access: Much consideration was taken in selection of where the garden would be located and it was all contingent on an outdoor water source. The only outdoor water spigot was in fact irreparable. We were unable to come up with a watering solution due to communication issues caused by school turnover. Loss of work: Our host school provided us with a classroom during the implementation of the program. This classroom allowed us space to facilitate our Youth Leadership curriculum, store our tools and ensured our projects would not have to be moved. However, due to communication issues caused by turnover during the last week of our program the custodial staff emptied out our classroom in preparation for the upcoming school year. We were not able to recover our materials that included watering solutions, the toolkit the cohorts were creating for turning over the garden to the school and more. As stated prior, our biggest challenge has been with recruitment of farmers/ growers into the program. Our Program Developer was connected with a grower from the community organization the Liaisons were being recruited from. The grower fit the criteria: BIPOC, female, from the host school community, had four gardens throughout the city totaling well over 12 beds and experience with youth programming. It was agreed upon that the grower would utilize the Junior Master Gardener Curriculum and be in charge of facilitating the hands-on gardening education of the program. While the Youth Leadership Developers would take on the curriculum we developed. Unfortunately the lead grower backed out of their duties in the midst of the program after an extremely problematic start. We were able to find a grower to step in but that was not until halfway through the six week program. This left our cohorts unable to complete the JMG curriculum. As well as the garden was still in early phases and not ready for harvest by completion of the program. Solutions: While these obstacles felt insurmountable at the time, we were in fact able to use them as learning lessons. We are now working with trusted food producers to create the hands-on gardening education of the program, utilizing the Junior Master Garden curriculum. That will allow our cohorts to receive two certifications upon completion of the program. We are also working out a two tiered approach with a more robust vetting process and eligibility requirements for our farmer/grower selection. One specific to the School Garden Liaison Initiative and the other as grower mentor for schools. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?ITSC Half day training for program cohorts The Program Developer, Curriculum Advisor and Program Evaluator were all able to facilitate a half day training for the Round 1 ITSC cohorts. This training allowed for cohorts to participate in the systems thinking exercise that they will facilitate to their respective green teams. Conferences Program Developer attended 2021 Kids Count Conference Sessions attended Authentic Youth Engagement:"Nothing About Us, Without Us!" Using Outcome Data to Guide Programming: Challenges Strategies and Lessons Learned Equipping Volunteers to Empower Youth Opportunity Youth: An Individual, Ecosystem and Policymaking Discussion Indiana STEM Education Conference PD completed 6 hours of Professional Development Advancing Equity Summit presented by the Indiana Youth Institute Knowing the Data and Disparities to Create a Collaborative Response Decentering Whiteness Sustainable Food and Farming Forum presented by the Hoosier Environmental Council Diversified Farming in the Inner City: The Urban Food Revolution boosted by American's Conservation Ag movement School Garden Liaison Initiative 6 week (60 hour training) The School Garden Liaison Initiative is the youth gardener training program that was developed to assist ITSC schools with garden maintenance for the summers. Partnering organizations were Community Alliance of the Far Eastside (CAFE); Circular Indiana; Kheprw Institute; Solful Gardens. The SGL program is the foundation of Earth Charter's Youth Leadership Program. The Leadership curriculum focused on the following: Civic Engagement & Community Institutional Barriers around Soil Health Indigenous Knowledge & Food Sovereignty Wealth Outside of Capitalism Self Awareness & Reflection How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Prior to the beginning of the School Garden Liaison Initiative our Program Developer attended a community outreach event at CAFE Indy. This event was an in-person recruitment event for their summer internship program. There have been online informational events about the grants program to assist with answering questions and recruitment. Our statewide Resilience Coordinators have been assisting with sharing the information about both programs utilizing the connections each has within their own regions. Getting support from folks that are active in their own communities helps us with forging relationships faster. The Indianapolis Food Access Advisory Commission has become a partner in fostering relationships with community growers. We have been advertising in their local newsletter and have successfully been able to meet with more growers interested in participating in the program next year. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1) Address food access by starting or supporting already established While we are well on our way to exceeding the amount of schools in our program and meeting our equity goals, we did not account for the size of the schools in our programs. We are going to work on recruiting more high schools into the program in an effort to potentially impact our goal of 20,000 students. We are formulating ways to ensure our schools have the tools they need to record how much food they are growing, food they are composting and donations. 2) Nutrition and climate focused curriculum The first pass at our Climate and Food Guide linked to Indiana and National Standards is complete. We will share the guide with educators for editing and suggestions prior to release. We are seeking an intern to assist with our Teach Climate website. They will also work with our ITSC champions to provide insight on the website revamp. 3) Youth Leadership Development We are going to be finalizing the Youth Leadership program after implementation during the School Garden Liaison Initiative. Attendance for the Let's Talk: ITSC monthly webinars have been extremely low during this reporting period. We are currently working on a survey to be distributed to educators including but not limited to ITSC cohorts, to formulate the best time to increase attendance. 4) Youth Gardener Program (proposal name: Youth Master Gardeners) We are well on our way to exceeding the amount of youth in the School Garden Liaison Initiative. We need to develop a more robust recruitment and vetting process for our farmer/grower connections. We will recruit one or two growers to assist with the SGL program and others to be paired with schools in their community. We will be recruiting from the first round Liaisons to return for year to as youth leaders. They will be in charge of creating the School Garden toolkit that will be available to all Indiana schools to create their own youth garden program for the summer. 5) Data collection and replication While we are well on our way to exceeding the amount of schools in our program and meeting our equity goals, we did not account for the size of the schools in our programs. We are going to work on recruiting more high schools into the program in an effort to potentially impact our goal of 20,000 students. Our past SGL cohorts will be paid to create the school garden toolkit. Unfortunately all the materials and work we had created last year was lost due to miscommunication with the host school. ?
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Thriving Schools Challenge (TSC) attempts to tackle food access within communities historically under-resourced by building or expanding student-led gardens to increase communities' capacity for food, garden and nutrition education by integrating fresh food production into curricula, and by developing a proven, replicable model for this work. The first year of this project we have been able to show students across the state that having access to fresh produce is not only an attainable action but a right bestowed upon every community. By focusing our attention in communities that have historically been underserved and youth specifically, we are able to expand education beyond the classroom into the garden. The gardens have become access points for community partners to engage as well, ensuring that each garden is sustainable. The TSC program is developed to have youth involved in the implementation and education process. This allows for the development of youth leaders. As well as, assists with reducing the capacity constraints on our educators. Intentionally pairing each school with a grower and/or community organizations allows for support and projects to be crafted as the community sees fit. 1) Address food access by starting or supporting already established gardens 5031 students/ 8schools have had access to a garden due to grant funding from Round 1 2022 ITSC cohorts Average demographics breakdown: FRML= 67.13%; BIPOC student population= 63.5%; Township Poverty Rate Below 185% (ages 18 & under)= 57.9% More schools were able to be included in the program due to schools not needing $4000 proposed The increase in the number of schools in our program will substantially assist in reaching more students and communities Twoschools started or maintained composting programs; three schools donated food to a neighborhood food pantry. Three of our ITSC cohorts participated in either the Eco-Science Challenge or the rest are to participate in the Virtual Showcase that was after the reporting period. Each garden will be utilized as a hands-on classroom that will give real world applications to climate- and nutrition-focused curriculum that will be developed as part of the program. 2) Nutrition and climate focused curriculum Curriculum Developer, Kristina Hulvershorn, has been working with schools seeking assistance with lesson plans. Kristina Hulvershorn is also our partner in the development of the TeachClimate website Having Hulvershorn work directly with the schools will ensure that we are updating the TEACHClimate website with information that is actually useful to educators Program Director and Curriculum Developer were both a part of the Indiana Department of Education Science and Computer Science Standards Review Committee. The new standards were approved in June of 2022 and are more compatible with the Next Generation Science Standards. TEACH Heart has fully agreed to partner with us to create a website update projected to be ready by the end of 2023. Community partners, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful and Circular Indiana have agreed to assist in resource sharing. We had not planned on including community partners in the website but this will assist with not having to recreate materials that already exist. It will allow all partners to assist with cross promotion and expand what is available on the website. We are not only working to feed youth but foster the next generation of leaders by ensuring they are involved in every aspect of the process, making youth involvement mandatory for schools involved from the onset of each garden. Our program provides opportunities for youth to expand their leadership abilities inside and outside of their school. 3) Youth Leadership Development 294 students were directly involved in garden implementation We are well on our way to exceedingour proposed number of students in the green teams Green teams have begun to meet to plan implementation of gardens and how to facilitate neer peer education ITSC Champions were trained to facilitate a systems thinking exercise that will be given to green teams at the beginning and close to the end of the program to see shift in thinking There are two obstacles we face with ensuring school gardens are sustainable and extend beyond one school year; the reliance on the champion to have gardening experience and maintenance during the summer months when school is out. Training youth to become the school garden managers will tackle those issues, as well as provide an opportunity for on-the-job training for youth seeking a career path in gardening/farming. 4) School Garden Liaison Initiative (formerly proposed as the Youth Master Gardener program) 10 youth received stipends and completed 6 weeks of training at our SGL Host school Phase 1:This training was created with the assistance of several BIPOC led youth serving organizations: VOICES Corp, Cafe Indy and Kheprw Institute. Phase 2: The lead Grower was unable to fulfill their training portion, so the garden itself was not ready to harvest by the end of the program. Another community grower was able to step in and complete the training, offering the youth to witness two different approaches to growing. The Host School was a former ITSC school that was unable to build its garden due to capacity issues. Our host school is within an area that is historically underserved and has the least access to fresh produce within the metropolitan area The garden was turned over prior to the first harvest but the Liaisons were able to get a foundation to growing and systems thinking. We will be recruiting from the first round of Liaisons to become youth leaders for next summer's program. Evaluation and disseminating project results will solidify the foundation allowing for the program to be replicable for school districts across the state and possibly nation. 5) Data Collection We have received two of the four proposed evaluation reports from the external Program Evaluator, Brian Plankis. Findings are as follows: Based on data from my school observations, champion interviews and the Youth Garden Liaison report the overall project goals are on track to be successfully met by the end of year two. All locations appeared to cover the educational topics of goal 1 (in differing degrees based on location), all students who worked on a school garden gained experience with goal 2 and planning of school gardens as stated in goal 3. Threeof the school locations indicated they successfully grew produce that was donated to local food pantries. Goal 4 was achieved with 10 students receiving training on the Youth Garden Liaison program. Goal 5 appears on track with the Program Manager completing several reports and events that disseminated project results. Our statewide network of Resiliency Coordinators have assisted with connecting and educating schools within their districts about the ITSC program. We have been able to recruit one school outside of Marion County directly from these efforts.
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