Who We Are
From our roots in the Victory Garden movement of World War II to the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, we’ve seen first hand the kind of impact that bringing people together and empowering them to act can make. Alongside our volunteers, we’ve planted trees and made compost, tended gardens and taught kids. We even converted an old gas station into a hands-on community resource for sustainability practices.
Throughout our history, the CGC has been a grassroots organization, taking cues from those in the community who desire to create positive local change. As the world faces the growing biodiversity and climate crisis, we’re more committed than ever to serving as a cornerstone of Cincinnati, encouraging equity and connectedness, and fostering a resilient and thriving community.
What We Stand For
OUR VISION: A sustainable future for all where environmental and social responsibility drive individual and institutional actions.
OUR MISSION: Building community through gardening, education and environmental stewardship.
OUR VALUES:
Inclusive: We believe it is essential that all people participate in solving the environmental challenges we face.
Passionate: We are passionate about making a meaningful impact on people and the planet.
Empowering: We seek to inspire people, businesses and communities with experiences, knowledge and tools that enable them to take action.
Responsible: We act in a manner that respects and protects the well-being of people and the environment, including our staff, our volunteers and the places we work.
Innovative: Through the application of our experience and knowledge, we embrace and drive change.
It’s a Crisis, Not a Change
As we emerge into a post-pandemic world, we face another looming emergency: the biodiversity and climate crisis.
If we’re going to solve a problem, we have to be clear about what the problem is. Climate change has been a normal process throughout our planet’s history. The rapid shifts we’re witnessing now are something else: a true climate crisis caused by human activity. Right here, right now, we are poised at a point of no return. If we cannot reduce our greenhouse gas emissions drastically within the next years, the changes will be irreversible, and there won’t be much we can do to mitigate runaway climate change.
But what if we’ve reached a tipping point for climate action?
The majority of us are unequivocally ready for action. In late 2020, the largest ever global opinion survey on climate change, the People’s Climate Vote, found that 64% of us consider the current crisis to be a “global emergency.” Here in Cincinnati, we’re even more convinced: a 2018 survey found that 88% of us think climate change is currently affecting our city.
So let’s get moving.
The scale and pace of social and environmental change demands that centers of environmental education like the CGC provide citizens young and old with the information, skills, and tools they need to navigate a startlingly uncertain future.
We Are Not Powerless
Research has shown that climate change and ambiguity make people feel helpless. But we have tools that give us the agency to take action. We can meaningfully reduce emissions, improve our shared environment, manage our natural resources responsibly, and protect precious human health.
We—every single one of us—must understand and experience that we are part of the solution. And a critical step in making this vision of sustainability and hope a reality is the kind of education for people of all ages the Civic Garden Center continues to offer.
Here’s Where the CGC Comes In
Our goal is to stretch ourselves, drawing on our resilience as an organization and our strong community partnerships to bring people together to learn about environmental and ecological sustainability. We emphasize the need to understand how humans and their environment are linked and how working with nature and its ecosystems can reduce the impacts of climate change and increase resilience. When we act from this understanding, we can lower the pressures on biodiversity, improve human health and wellbeing, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and build a sustainable economy and food system.
There’s Room Here for Everyone
History has shown time and again that choices made during times of crisis shape the world for decades to come. We must take collective action now to build strong, connected communities that provide environmental equity and sustainability for all by:
Nurturing the next generation
Restoring our tree canopy and native environment
Discovering the pleasure and power of gardening
Strengthening our connections to the natural world and to our fellow humans
Adopting sustainable practices in our lives and workplaces
The Civic Garden Center is here to help with all of that.