Interview. John Byrnes (Norris Square Neighborhood Project)

Byrnes, John

Pennsylvania State University. Cooperative Extension

Norris Square Neighborhood Project (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Community gardens -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Urban gardening -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

4-H clubs -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia -- History

Norris Square (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Las Parcelas Community Garden (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Well Connected Communities (Program)

Health Rocks! (Program)

Interview with John Byrnes, Extension Educator and former Penn State Center Director at Penn State Philadelphia Extension, who works with the Norris Square neighborhood.

2022

Philadelphia (Pa.)

00:00:00. Introduction -- 00:00:45. Growing up in Yonkers, New York and gardens there -- 00:01:21. First memory of gardening in sister's community garden -- 00:01:54. Coming to Penn State Extension in 1994 as nutrition educator and first visiting Las Parcelas -- 00:04:37. Visiting gardens of different ethnic traditions, shifting from urban gardens to urban farms, and installing high tunnels -- 00:06:16. Becoming extension director in 2005 -- 00:07:42. '90s Norris Square visits, 2005-2015 work with other gardens, and returning to Norris Square around 2016 -- 00:11:46. 4-H in Philadelphia, including Health Rocks! for teachers, traditional clubs, and youth programs. -- 00:15:44. Bringing the 4-H Well-Connected Communities Project (funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) to Norris Square from 2018 onward -- 00:19:28. Well-Connected Communities' benefits for the educators in maintaining continuity with Norris Square -- 00:22:24. Well-Connected Communities' benefits for the educators in maintaining continuity with Norris Square -- 00:24:21. Talking with staff from NSNP and Norris Square Community Alliance and producing surveys, including focuses on neighborhood workers and Spanish speakers, and talking with community members to develop a data summary and find where the community would like to go next in terms of describing the neighborhood. 00:29:32. Work managing Well-Connected Communities and workshops at Las Parcelas -- 00:32:46. Working with NSNP director Teresa Elliot and summer interns, and neighborhood encounters with a park cleaner and a restaurant worker -- 00:36:50. Plans for Extension to coordinate more city-wide work on urban agriculture and food systems across Philadelphia, particularly regarding soil -- 00:40:57. Philadelphia Food Policy Advisory Committee (FPAC) and its work on urban agriculture around the city

Makuc, Joseph

Byrnes, John