Presented during the 2017 Presidential Peace Conference in Atlanta. Track B, Session 4: Wicked Green Solutions

1. Growing Peace in CommunitiesGrowing Peace in Communities
Community Agriculture:
Tool for Connectivity & Conflict Prevention & Resolution
Michele Mician
Atlanta 2017

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GOALS FOR URBAN FOOD PRODUCTIONGOALS FOR URBAN FOOD PRODUCTION
• Community Gardens: gathering places &
celebrations
• Safe places: to ensure ‘food security’ & crime
prevention
• Access to food before/after trauma, conflict or
natural disaster
• Bring people together around food: food
sharing, recipe exchanges & education

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• Community based urban agriculture
reduces crime, bring people together after
trauma & provide food security
• Orchards & gardens create areas of
shelter & safety & instill a feeling of
confidence when it was previously lost.
URBAN GARDENS FOR CRIME PREVENTIONURBAN GARDENS FOR CRIME PREVENTION

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Wolf, K.L. 2010. Crime & Fear - A Literature Review. In: Green
Cities: Good Health (www.greenhealth.washington.edu). College
of the Environment, University of Washington.

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Gastrodiplomacy, Breaking Bread & Healing Wounds
Chapple-Sokol suggests that culinary
diplomacy is “the use of food & cuisine as
an instrument to create cross-cultural
understanding in the hopes of improving
interactions & cooperation.”
-Sam Chapple-Sokol
“Breaking Bread to Win Hearts & Minds.” The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. Issue 8,
2013. 161-183.

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Clinton
Day of
Action
Clinton Foundation @
ClintonFdn Jan 25
#DayofAction in
#PalmSprings
volunteers of all ages
helped plant an orchard
& paint benches

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Volunteers planted an orchard & beautified surrounding park
with Chelsea Clinton in Palm Springs,
Desert Regional Medical Center & Healthcare District,

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Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED)
• Neighborhood development
• Create beauty in a
previously negative or
underutilized space
• Strategy: place a safe
activity in an unsafe or
vulnerable area.

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CPTED CASE STUDY
Neighborhood with large,
vacant lot full of garbage
& a site for illegal activity.
In 1994, Regional Police Officer Rob Davis
spearheaded transformation by applying strategy of
placing a safe activity in an unsafe or vulnerable area:
Crime Prevention through Environmental Design
FLINT

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FLINT CASE STUDY
Officer Davis introduced a community garden.
Year 1- reported police incidents
dropped 30% for surrounding 3 apartment
complexes.
1995 & 1996- reported police incidents
dropped by over 50%

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FLINT CASE STUDY
Gardens play a role in restoration &
revitalization of Flint by transforming
uncared-for spaces into attractive …places
where neighbors & kids can meet, socialize &
work together. A gardener states “In our ..
garden, we don’t only grow vegetables, we
grow values”.
Research project in Flint, Michigan, titled the Community Garden Storytelling Project of Flint.
Source:msue.anr.msu.edu/news/community_gardens_cultivate_healthier_neighbors_in_flint

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Demuth Park Community GardenDemuth Park Community Garden

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Previously: drug dealing & trash & loitering

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17. 17
CALL TO ACTION
Boys & Girls Club Planted 15 Fruit Trees

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BE A TREE HUGGER…
Host a tree planting
& Arbor Day event!
Michele C. Mician, MS, LEED GA
941-448-4295
www.succeedingsustainably@gmail.com