In the articles below, I aim to assess the literature regarding the challenges of urban and suburban communities stemming from limited access to nature and from the commodification and destruction of public space, and two approaches to improving social and health-related outcomes. The first is the use of the “community school model” as a method for addressing gaps in experiential learning opportunities, improving access to social services, combating food apartheid, and meeting other challenges prevalent in underserved communities. The second is the repositioning of public gardens as “anchor institutions”—organizations with firm geographic roots that can serve as a hub where “the nation’s ‘weavers’ of social infrastructure…can come together to learn, debate, and plan ways to contribute to community livability” (Rakow, Kindle location 189).

I am exploring this literature to support my claim that community schools and public gardens are natural partners which together can build robust infrastructure to support a diversity of local initiatives. At their best, these initiatives work in service of placemaking, which the Project for Public Spaces defines as "a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximize shared value...facilitat[ing] creative patterns of use, [and] paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution” (2007). The trust, relationships, and integration with their communities shared by many community schools and public gardens makes them ideal sites and catalysts for placemaking efforts.