TKF Announces New Capstone AwardsNational Demonstration Site and Research Challenge Awards Initiative While we know intuitively and anecdotally that nature heals, unifies and uplifts the human spirit, TKF believes there is a growing need to complement these insights with empirical evidence in order to gain wider acceptance, advance understanding, influence policy, and effect systems change. Beginning in 2012, TKF will begin awarding challenge grants of up to $1 million to applicants who seek to create a new Open Space Sacred Place and to study aspects of the impact on the human spirit of the opportunity to be in nature. Open to qualified applicants from across the United States, this program is designed to inspire non-profit organizations, professional associations, educational institutions, municipalities and community-based groups from a range of perspectives to come together in interdisciplinary teams to create new public green spaces and to implement a significant research or evaluation component. Through these awards and the ensuing research and communication of findings, we seek to build a body of useful information and evidence about the impact of Open Spaces Sacred Places on the human spirit that can be shared to create greater public understanding and support of the benefits of nature to individual and community wellbeing. Our goal is to encourage all types of practitioners, policy makers and opinion leaders -- from community activists to environmental advocates to city planners and including doctors, philosophers, journalists, social scientists and theologians among many others — to think broadly about the role and importance of nature in every life and to take concrete steps to make access to nature. As a first step, later this year we will convene a National Advisory Panel, to help us better understand the kinds of questions from the field that need study and the ways that research could be most helpful in advancing a variety of missions that intersect in the realm of nature, spirit and individual and community wellbeing. We anticipate that the output of the panel’s work will provide important context and inspiration for the Demonstration Site and Research projects and for many others already working in related fields. For more information, click here. Advancement Associate needed at Marian HouseThe Advancement Associate to provide administrative support to the Advancement Office and participate in all fundraising, marketing and public relations activities. Please contact the Director of Advancement at Marian House by phone 410-467-4250 or via email sbergmann@marianhouse.org if you’re interested in this opportunity. TKF Garden Dedication and Book Signing with Tom StonerCommunity Members and fellow Firesouls are invited to dedicate our TKF Nurturing Nature Garden and Tile Benches created by Blaise DePaolo. Tom Stoner will be there signing his book, Open Spaces Sacred Places. Journal Story Corps Opportunity at TKFIn every TKF sacred space, there is a journal that reaches out to all the users of that space. We are assembling a Journal Story Corps to digitally preserve these journal stories in a searchable database. Every member of the Corps must be patient, for the handwritten entries that take a few extra minutes to decipher, responsible, because no entries can be lost, and hard-working, as compensation will be based on the output of work. Work at your own pace and in your own home! If interested in being part of this new TKF movement, please email Karly at knash@tkffdn.org or call at 410-268-1376. Walking the LabyrinthThe labyrinths at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and the American Psychological Association are featured in Hors Ligne Magazine's Architecture section: Walking the Labyrinth, by Debra Moffit. American Visionary Art Museum Unveils New Exhibit:Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness Please visit www.avam.org for more information. Donate Garden Books & Camera Equipment for a Good Cause The Maryland Correctional Institute of Jessup (MCIJ) is in need of our help. They are collecting any gardening/plant/tree books for their library as well as video cameras or still cameras to document their gardening process. The warden at the facility has started a very basic gardening program for interested inmates to compost, grow, and plant garden plots within the prison, but their only resource for information is very limited access to the web. TKF recently awarded MCIJ a 2009 grant to create a meditation garden. On a recent TKF staff visit, the inmates expressed their thirst for knowledge of all things garden related. In addition, a small group of inmates expressed interest in learning camera skills to document this whole process. Any books or cameras/equipment you can donate will help feed the inmates desire to learn, improve their gardening and camera skills, and further their interest what is a totally new experience for most of them. If you can help with books or camera equipment, you can drop them off at our TKF Foundation office located at: 410 Severn Avenue, Suite 216, Annapolis, MD 21403. M-F (9am-5pm). If you’d like to send the books or camera equipment directly, please mail to: $25 Off your Next TreePrint out your coupon from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for $25 off your next tree purchase. The coupon is good between April 1 and November 30. To print your coupon, visit: www.trees.maryland.gov/pdfs/coupon.pdf CHANGE Begins with YouHow are you changing your community? The Case Foundation wants to know. They are awarding weekly prizes for 250 word submissions. Tell them how you are creating CHANGE at http://change.casefoundation.org. EPA's New Reduce Runoff VideoThe short 9-minute film showcases green techniques that are being used in urban areas to reduce the effects of stormwater runoff on the quality of downstream receiving waters. How the City Hurts your BrainCheck out the recent article in the Boston Globe that highlights the importance of nature: New! Community Greening Resource Network (CGRN)This new greening network provides a wide range of services to its members: (1) Four annual Give-Away Days (providing seeds, compost, vegetable seedlings, bulbs, perennial flowers); (2) Tool Banks with hand tools to borrow; and (3) Workshops held by gardeners and Baltimore City greening organizations on gardening and greening related topics. CGRN also provides a 20% discount on renting power equipment; the "See Green" Newsletter, networking opportunities, and annual celebrations. CGRN is now accepting applications for 2009! ! Community Garden Membership includes all of the above benefits for $10. Individuals can join to attend workshops and receive the newsletter for $5. You can find an application and more info at www.parksandpeople.org, or contact Sarah Krones at Parks & People Foundation at 410-448-5663 x 114, sarah.krones@parksandpeople.org. What's your Carbon Footprint?
|
|
Tell a Friend!
Sign up for our free Connections newsletter!
