Engaging Residents in Planning a Community Garden: A Strategy for Enhancing Participation Through Relevant Messaging

Understanding residents’ perceptions and preferences regarding health promotion and community development strategies is vital. Community gardens, often collaborative community-engaged projects, are designed to be healthy places where neighbors gather; however, they have the potential to be much more. The purpose of the study was to gauge public support for a community garden in South Omaha and prioritize messaging strategies regarding the potential benefits of a garden. To that end, a bilingual online survey that assessed interest in, perceived benefits of, purposes for, and functional attributes to co-locate in a community garden was conducted. Through this process, we learned about the value of developing local data, importance of using an asset-based framework, understanding community perceptions about potential benefits, balancing community research endeavors, and developing partnerships to expand the reach of a project. Developing community research strategies and appropriate messaging in collaboration with community members and partners is critical to the success of community health promotion initiatives.