Community Peer Leadership Program
The goal of our past Community Peer Leadership Program was to help our youth interns further develop work and life skills so that they can become well-spoken and self-sufficient leaders within their community.
Most of our Garden and Conservation Corps interns are immigrant, refugee, minority, or otherwise disadvantaged youth. Interns in the Community Peer Leadership program had the opportunity to improve their leadership, communication, and public presentation skills, as well as learning research techniques and scientific methods of problem solving. Throughout the program interns also continued to explore careers in the environment, food, and other related fields.
High school aged interns from our Garden Corps and Conservation Corps were eligible to participate the Community Peer Leadership Program. In the program, interns reflected on what they had learned about environmental restoration, conservation, and sustainable gardening through their participation in our summer internship programs. They shared their insights with other interns and discussed how their work was important for themselves and the community.
In addition, Community Peer Leadership interns also prepared and led environmental presentations based on their experiences with the Community Design Center and research they had done with professionals from related fields. Presentations were given in the community to peers at local schools and to other community audiences.
The Community Peer Leadership Program also allowed interns to continue to develop their leadership and communication skills by acting as teaching assistants. Throughout the year, interns in the program assisted with our after school & summer cooking, family cooking, and environmental art & science classes.
View our Community Peer Leadership Program Slide Show!