We are very proud of our co-leader, Jenny Applegate, who has recently won the School of Social Work’s Innovation in Social Work Practice Student Award for an awesome research proposal she wrote on the social benefits of community gardens. In Jenny’s paper, she examined how community gardens have been shown to lessen violent crime, improve health outcomes, and facilitate social participation in neighborhoods. She proposed a five-year, longitudinal study comparing neighborhoods with and without community gardens in the city of Newark, New Jersey.
Jenny’s research would not only be an incredible resource for the urban agriculture, food security, and environmental justice movements, it would also highlight important and potentially powerful but as yet unexplored area of focus for the social work profession. We are so happy that NYU’s School of Social Work is recognizing the important connection between the environment and social welfare by giving Jenny this award!
