Garden Evaluation
MEASURE: JOBS & JOB SKILLS
Method 1: Wages of your garden workers
-
If you're considering job creation as a metric for success of your garden, calculate how much money each individual will be paid. This is how much money is (theoretically) spent within the local economy
-
Note that we typically do not recommend this metric unless the employment is gainful and on-going
Method 2: Measuring Job Skills
-
Job skills and knowledge are transferable to other employment opportunities.
-
Providing jobs skills is especially important for youth workers who can include this experience on their resumes!
On my way to my NEW job
Transferable skills are any skills you possess that are useful to various employers. Consider measuring things like:
-
Hours of entrepreneurship training
-
Communication skills
-
Marketing and customer service skills
-
Amount of produce sales managed over the course of a summer
-
Leadership experiences
Developing job skills might not seem to have direct economic impact like developing a job. However, for community gardens, tracking job skills is often more practical to measure. Job skills can also lead to other job opportunities. We highly recommend working with your garden workers, especially youth, to translate their garden experiences to a resume. See the example below:
SAMPLE JOB DESCRIPTION
SAMPLE RESUME
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
-
Maintain and grow the garden to ensure it meets market and donation goals
-
Monitor and ensure plant health
-
Sell produce at weekly farmers market
-
Advise management on the costs of plants and garden
REQUIREMENTS
-
Experience with gardening, or strong willingness to learn
-
Good communication skills
-
Desire and ability to work well with others
-
Great customer service skills
Community Garden Assistant April-October 2020
-
Monitored and ensured plant health through spring and fall growing season
-
Maintained positive customer relations with over 100 consumers
-
Managed produce sales of over $4,000
-
Developed yearly garden budget
-
Frequently researched and handled garden production issues as they occurred