Community Gardening, Volunteerism and Personal Happiness: “Digging In” to Green Space Environments for Improved Health

Abstract

What exactly is happiness? Efforts to quantitatively identify and measure this elusive psychological construct have remained a very popular topic among social scientists despite the inherent ambiguity

Growing Community: Factors of Inclusion for Refugee and Immigrant Urban Gardeners

“…The broadest scope of community that our participants discussed included relationships with people in the neighborhood and beyond not directly connected to the gardens, including coworkers, neighbors, and passersby. This finding reflects literature about the role of community gardens as "bridges" to extended communities [34,61] and the impacts of community gardening on community building and a sense of belonging through "neighborly engagement" [70]. This is not limited to the refugee and immigrant experience, as research shows community gardens generate social connectedness across groups [14].…”

“…This alignment of priorities increases personal wellbeing while also fostering shared responsibility to grow and care for plants collaboratively, which impacts community wellbeing. The sense of community that is cultivated through collaborative efforts, Hoffman [61] explains, facilitates community "buy in" that ultimately raises participants' sense of social connection and social capital. We observed this in our study, when gardeners voiced appreciation for the opportunity to be a part of something larger than themselves and contribute to a shared effort.…”