Urban farming internship program offers long-term benefits for youth.A longitudinal study was conducted to evaluate the long-term impacts of an urban farming youth internship program in Brooklyn, New York. The internship program engaged youth ages 13 to 18 in environmental education and stewardship activities through urban community gardening.
Each year, interns in the East New York Farms! Project (ENYF) engage in 320 to 450 hours of training and hands-on activity in community gardens over a 9-month period. Interns meet two to three times per week during the school year for 2.5 to 4 hour sessions and work 20 to 25 hours per week during the summer. The program is designed to encourage multi-year involvement by offering second, third, and fourth year internships and by making paid positions available to returning interns.
While previous studies have documented positive short-term benefits of youth involvement in community gardening and other urban environmental education programs, the published literature lacked data on the long-term impacts of such programs on career trajectories or attitudes and behaviors associated with self, community, and environment. This study was designed to fill this gap.
Data was collected through an online and mailed questionnaire to ENYF alumni who had been out of the program from 1 to 10 years. The survey included questions about respondents’ current and previous education and employment experience, their involvement in civic and leisure activities, and their experiences and perceived benefits of going through the ENYF program. The survey also asked participants to respond to four sections of Likert-type scale questions about (a) Food, Health, and Environment; (b) Self; (c) Communication and Decision-Making; and (d) Community.
Fifty alumni completed all sections of the survey. The respondents ranged in age from 18 to 25 and were reflective of the general population of ENYF internship participants. Findings indicated that ENYF alumni were enrolled in college or graduate school at higher rates than their peers who had not participated in the program. Respondents also reported strong connections to the environment and the community, healthy eating habits, and high levels of self-confidence. They indicated that the internship had helped them develop such job skills as farming practices, time and money management, teamwork, and public speaking. Additionally, they credited their internship experience for positively influencing their attitudes and behaviors regarding communication and decision-making.
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