In 2016, Rachel Schneider of Hawthorne Valley Farm launched a collaborative Community Garden Internship Project to connect formerly incarcerated people with community gardening opportunities in New York City. In this program, HVF is working with Insight Garden Program, well-known community facilitators in the New York Area—including Karen Washington—and the Bard Prison Initiative to deliver IGP's curriculum to people in reentry, along with opportunities for hands-on community gardening. With IGP's long history of working with people living in California prisons, HVF's approach to community building and social change, and Karen's community activism and urban gardening experience, the panelists will share their goals, stories, and impacts of this innovative initiative that helps reconnect formerly incarcerated people to nature and society.
