“Guerilla garden” shortlisted for state health award

A YOUTH-driven gardening project supported by Bellarine Community Health (BCH) has been named as a finalist in this year’s Victorian Health Promotion Awards.

There are nine award categories, and the BCH Youth Guerrilla Garden in Ocean Grove is a finalist in the Future Healthy Award, which recognises a health promotion organisation or program working with young people facing greater barriers to improve their health and wellbeing.

During regular workshops and working bees, the young people taking part in the project learnt to build wicking garden beds, create worm farms, and seasonal planting and growing organic vegetables.

They have also held cooking workshops where the youth participants created delicious meals with produce they had grown.

The inspiration for the Guerrilla Garden came from the work of Californian resident and “original Gangsta Gardner” Ron Finley.

Mr Finley’s TED Talk on Guerrilla Gardening sparked a gardening revolution, and he is famous for planting fruit and vegetable gardens in various public locations such as nature strips and old car lots across the South Central area of Los Angeles.

BCH says it is thrilled to be a finalist.

“This is wonderful recognition for this pilot project,” BCH health planner Laura Boehm said.

“We established the Youth Guerrilla Garden in June 2021, when a group of dynamic young Bellarine residents attended the first Youth Guerrilla Garden working bee and created a beautiful youth community garden at the back of headspace Ocean Grove.”

Climate change and the impact on the mental health and wellbeing of young people was another motivator to start the project.

“We are seeing an increase of young people feeling distressed about the state of the planet,” Ms Boehm said.

“Youth voice on climate change has never been more important and the creation of initiatives that empower young people to develop their leadership skills and become change agents in their communities are vital,” Ms Boehm says.

BCH is one of 36 finalists being recognised for their commitment to the health and wellbeing of communities across Victoria.

The award winners will be announced at a ceremony in February.