Hands-on practice at a Community Engagement Tea event. Photo courtesy Tea Arts & Culture

2025 GreenThumb Trainings

NYC Parks GreenThumb trainings are reserved for members of GreenThumb community gardens. All trainings are free of cost.

2025 Tea Arts & Culture Training

Learn how to host public programming at your community garden using tea as a centerpiece. Workshops with the organization Tea Arts & Culture use the experience of making and drinking tea together to slow down, use our senses, and connect with one another. Learn the basic vocabulary for tea tasting, tea brewing techniques, and the histories and cultures around tea. Participants will receive mentorship, training and support to plan and lead their own workshop in their community garden at the end of the program. 

This program has three parts:

• Part 1 (Dec. 2024, Virtual & Jan.-March 2025, Midtown, Manhattan, exact location TBD): 
  A series of seven interactive sessions that build a basic, but enriching understanding of tea and its intersections. Participants will be introduced to the cultures of tea and various perspectives including art, mindfulness, and history. 
• Part 2 (Sep.-Nov. 2025, exact dates TBD): 
  Participants will be exposed to more materials to learn and further cultivate their skills and understanding of tea engagement. 
• Part 3 (Dates TBD 2026): 
  Participants will be matched with a mentor to hone their skills further while leading or supporting organizing a local community engagement through tea. 

Learn more and apply by Monday, October 14, 2024, at 11:59 p.m.

Space is limited. Like all GreenThumb programs, this training is free of charge. If you have any questions about the Tea Arts & Culture training, please contact Education and Events Coordinator, Adder Chu at adder.chu@parks.nyc.gov.

2023 GreenThumb Leadership Academy graduation. Photo by Adder Chu, GreenThumb

2025 GreenThumb Leadership Academy

The GreenThumb Leadership Academy (GLA) is a leadership development program designed for NYC community gardeners from registered GreenThumb gardens. The program is offered by GreenThumb in collaboration with the Cooperative Economics Alliance of New York City.

GLA is designed to strengthen the leadership skills gardeners need for the long haul to build collective groups and democratic spaces that facilitate healing for communities and the environment. We will do this work in stages by developing individual, collective, and systemic analysis of leadership. At the end of the program, we will put our learning into practice. Eligible gardeners may be at different stages in leadership and experience from someone newly elected to a leadership role to a seasoned garden coordinator looking to pass the torch. 

Schedule:

• GLA will be seven hybrid (in-person and virtual) sessions. 
• Group sessions will start in January 2025 and continue until April 2025. 
• In-person sessions will be at the GreenThumb Office, 100 Gold St. in Manhattan. 

Learn more and apply by Sunday, November 3, 2024, at 11:59 p.m.  

Space is limited. Like all GreenThumb programs, this training is free of charge. If you have any questions about the GLA, please contact Education and Events Coordinator, Adder Chu at adder.chu@parks.nyc.gov.