A complete treat to catch up and speak with Naomi and Gavin from Community Gardens Australia. Both Churchill Fellows, Naomi and Gavin, are about to head off on their incredible, change-inspiring and enabling study tours.

Naomi's research aims to help strengthen and grow the organisation and the movement by learning about and sharing new social and other food 'enterprise' forms that can help achieve that. Gavin's study tour will see him dig in to research and learn more about urban (and other) models for food forests and orchards. Two amazing projects - fit for people, food security and community in times like these (COVID, high food prices, climate change & more!).

Naomi Lacey is President of Community Gardens Australia and a permaculturalist who is passionate about promoting healthy food systems, sustainable lifestyles, and cultivating community. She helped to establish the first community garden in the satellite city of Palmerston near Darwin and from there became involved with Community Gardens Australia (CGA) in 2015 then taking on the role of President in 2019.

Awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 to learn from community garden networks around the world, Naomi’s vision for CGA is to build the organisation into one that supports the growth and needs of community gardens around Australia, providing them with education, support, resources, and sustenance to continue their work and therefore their positive impact on the communities they reside in.

Gavin Hardy is the Queensland Coordinator of the national community gardening network, Community Gardens Australia. He is a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship recipient with a focus on community based agroforestry models.

Gav is also a multi-award winning landscape architect and engineer with over 25 years experience planning, designing and building numerous sustainable landscapes and food systems in Australia.

He has a passion for gardening, permaculture, sustainability education and mentoring and strongly encourages you consider, apply for a Churchill Fellowship - that's how he got involved with Community Gardens Australia! 

And great news. Gavin and Naomi will share stories and more from their travels and the people and projects they visit across Europe and America via a blog they'll set up on the Community Gardens Australia website once they get underway in a few weeks.

To follow them and to check out CGA's excellent new website and resources visit www.communitygarden.org.au  

You can contact Naomi at: president@communitygarden.org.au

and Gavin at: qld@communitygarden.org.au

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