A Grassroots Grant helped an Ottoway group empower the local community to grow native plants and green their neighborhood. Here’s their story.
The Seeds for Change project began in 2020 by community group of the same name located in Ottoway (northwest of the Adelaide CBD) and was seeded by a Green Adelaide Grassroots Grant in 2021.
The project provided opportunities for local residents, schools, faith communities and businesses to participate in free planting events and created resources and activities to help green the Ottoway area.
Read on for their story.
Why is this grant project important?
This project focused on providing opportunities for nature and human connection in a way that would also benefit the local environment. The strong connections that participants made are still clear today at the ongoing workshops under the gumtrees outside the Junction Community Centre.
The suburb of Ottoway has a lot of hard surfaces such as concrete, bitumen and bare earth, with little vegetation, creating an urban heat island effect.
This project enabled Ottoway residents to affordably cool their neighbourhoods by increasing greenery, creating habitat for local wildlife and fostering community connections.
How did the Grassroots Grant help?
Green Adelaide’s Grassroots Grant helped the project cover the costs of materials and seeds to run the workshops and the creation of interpretive signage and factsheets. It also helped to fund resources to research the needs and preferences of locals targeted to get involved in the project.
During the pandemic alone, more than 2,500 plants were propagated and shared by the Seeds for Change project, with the plants now featured in verge gardens, resident gardens and parklands, helping to create more habitat for wildlife in the area. Many of these plants are accompanied by signage to help people learn more about them.
The Seeds for Change project has also developed more than 100 factsheets on natives, to help educate the community and equip them with the information they need to plant locally appropriate species in their own patch.
Do you have any words of advice for future grant applicants?
The Seeds for Change community group said that a crucial part of the project was the ability to reach out to their multicultural and intergenerational community as well as to council and businesses.
This ensure their grant application was realistic and wouldn’t stretch themselves too thin and factored in having someone funded to do the foundational work.
They also said it was important to:
- make the project manageable
- consult Green Adelaide if you run into any issues
- maintain a close connection to those delivering the program to make sure it stays on course
- be as inclusive as possible
- have contingency plans in place for inclement weather, varying attendance and individual abilities
- most importantly, have fun and enjoy the learning experience.
The Seeds for Change community group is happy to share their journey with residents in other suburbs in the hope that the city’s biodiversity hotspots continue to grow with every new planting.
Everyone is welcome to join the regular workshops outside the Junction Community Centre, often accompanied by family activities and even a pop-up coffee shop hosted by Random Acts of Coffee. The workshops cover planting and propagation, but also topics like citizen science. Follow their Facebook page to stay updated on upcoming events.
Find out more on our grants webpage - including when the next round of Grassroots Grants will open.
