Engaging Youth in Urban Agriculture: The Power of Growing Out of the Margins

In this event we will be exploring using growing spaces as inspirational and radical spaces for cultivating connections for youth!

Urban agriculture presents a unique pathway to engage and nurture young people from diverse communities, offering dynamic spaces and opportunities for enhanced wellbeing, learning, skills development and community involvement whilst re-framing relationships and inspiring connections to food and nature.

By implementing creative, bold and radical approaches of youth engagement within these spaces, urban agriculture can become both a vibrant field that feeds communities and a powerful tool for holistic education, empowerment, agency and positive food futures. Diversifying and enhancing pathways and models can increase inclusion and deepen lasting positive impacts.

During this "Engaging Youth in Urban Agriculture" interactive session, examples of progressive models will be explored and discussed. This session will highlight some valuable case studies and varied approaches learned during Toni's fellowship from cities across Canada, US and Brazil, focused on youth engagement, land use across the city and communities facing socio-economic challenges.

The aim is to collectively look at alternative models that can harness the transformative potential of interconnected work engaging youth from diverse communities. Encouraging insightful exchange, questions, examining how it fits with current work and local context and concluding with discussion of proposed actionable recommendations.

About the host: Toni is a co-founder of Lauriston Farm in north west Edinburgh and last year undertook the travel part of her Churchill Fellowship focused on routes for widening inclusion and impact in urban agriculture