Our Current ProjectPark Slope Armory Women’s Shelter
The Park Slope Armory Women’s Shelter is located on a residential avenue in the heart of Park Slope, surrounded by brownstones and small apartment buildings. The administrators of the shelter make every effort to be sensitive to the needs of the community neighbors, sometimes a difficult task due to the behavior and appearance of some of the shelter’s residents.
The Armory building itself is a beautiful 2 story red brick structure, built in 1893, stretching for a city block, with crenellated towers, and a large garden in front. It was designated a NYC landmark in 1994. Part of the building has been used as a shelter since the 1980’s. The women’s shelter is managed by a non-profit organization that runs many other treatment and housing programs for the mentally and developmentally disabled in Brooklyn. In May of 2017 and again in the spring and summer of 2018 the GreenWorks Team has conducted a volunteer horticulture therapy project at the Armory, working with the residents to teach them to garden and to beautify part of the front area of the Armory garden. Each season approximately 15 residents have participated one or more times in the garden project, many of whom had never gardened before. Others had memories of gardening with grandparents and parents when they were children, and enjoyed re-living the experience. Many of the residents, even those who did not participate actively, expressed pleasure at looking at the flowers growing and blooming. Littering in the garden area decreased markedly. Community members also have commented on the improved environment, and a number have volunteered to help in future projects. 
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Recent Projects
McLaughlin Park
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Left: Our team members working in McLaughlin Park.
Right: A lovely colorful garden in front of McLaughlin Park, along Jay Street.
Right: A lovely colorful garden in front of McLaughlin Park, along Jay Street.
While McLaughlin Park is generally attractive and well-maintained, the section we worked on was recommended to be one of our garden projects because it looked unattractive and neglected. The site was very visible to pedestrians, and across the street from the park are buildings of New York City Technical College, the Concord Village cooperative apartment complex, and CUNY buildings.
The Brooklyn Community Services rehabilitation and treatment agency conducted a psychosocial clubhouse program, Metro Club PROS, about two blocks away from this area. Clients from this agency had participated in previous projects of The GreenWorks team and worked on this project as well, from 2014–2016. The visibility of this project increased its therapeutic potential for team members: when they receive positive feedback and compliments from the community for the work that they are doing it greatly enhances their sense of pride, self-esteem and self-confidence. Community members passing this area saw a garden filled with shade-loving plants chosen for their sustainability and beauty.
In 2015 a group of client volunteers were trained to be “mini-team leaders”, which enabled them to supervise other volunteers in planting and maintaining the garden. In 2016 we focused on creating a “Friends of McLaughlin Park” group by reaching out to people who work, live, attend church or school in the area, appreciated the value of the garden for the community, and wished to help keep it going in future years.
The Brooklyn Community Services rehabilitation and treatment agency conducted a psychosocial clubhouse program, Metro Club PROS, about two blocks away from this area. Clients from this agency had participated in previous projects of The GreenWorks team and worked on this project as well, from 2014–2016. The visibility of this project increased its therapeutic potential for team members: when they receive positive feedback and compliments from the community for the work that they are doing it greatly enhances their sense of pride, self-esteem and self-confidence. Community members passing this area saw a garden filled with shade-loving plants chosen for their sustainability and beauty.
In 2015 a group of client volunteers were trained to be “mini-team leaders”, which enabled them to supervise other volunteers in planting and maintaining the garden. In 2016 we focused on creating a “Friends of McLaughlin Park” group by reaching out to people who work, live, attend church or school in the area, appreciated the value of the garden for the community, and wished to help keep it going in future years.
Windsor Terrace Library
160 E. 5 Street (corner of E. 5 Street and Ft. Hamilton Pkwy) (F train)
160 E. 5 Street (corner of E. 5 Street and Ft. Hamilton Pkwy) (F train)
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Top: Team members at work. Left: The Windsor Terrace project garden in bloom. |
In the spring of 2011 The GreenWorks Team began a pilot project in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, to beautify the grounds surrounding the Windsor Terrace Library with a group of teenage students with autism who attended a local public school. The team worked once a week, learning skills and techniques for planting a garden, simultaneously improving the library environment, which had been neglected, and their own functioning over the course of the next several months. The community was extremely pleased as well.
In 2012 we began to expand the Windsor Terrace Library greening project with a small grant for supplies from the Citizens Committee for New York City. The project included a more extensive decorative butterfly and perennial garden in front of the library, and seven raised community garden beds, placed in a formerly unused, desolate area behind the library. The greening team were clients from several community outpatient mental health agencies who benefited greatly from participation. One raised bed was placed in the front of the library as a “demonstration mini-farm” with informational signs about the vegetables and herbs growing there, to educate children from a nearby school and customers from a Saturday Youth Farmer’s Market held in front of the library.
Walt Whitman Library
93 St. Edwards Street (between Myrtle and Park Avenues)
(A, C, F to Jay St. or R to DeKalb Ave.)
