London, United Kingdom
What if we tried to quantify the social value of a community garden? What if we tried to describe in numbers the beneficial effects of a community that comes alive, organizes itself, collaborates and shares in the green of an urban garden?
It sounds like a mission impossible! There are things that can be quantified, everything else - the British would say - is uncountable.
Yet, to my surprise, in this week-long training course in London, I discovered that it can be done! There are several indices, some developed by the Rural Service Network (a British government research body), that allow one to quantify the social impact of a project, in agriculture.
Of course, one number can never fully encapsulate the excitement that an urban garden and the community life of that garden, wrested from the asphalt of big cities, can provide.
However, these indexes can help Gardenisers find a ground for dialogue with institutions, speak the language of even the most skeptical citizens, convince potential funding and put in value their project when participating in a call for proposals.
There are things in life that can be quantified, for everything else there are urban gardens.
- Agnese Sciotti, Gardeniser trainer on internship in London -
London, United Kingdom