Mission:

Common Earth Gardens collaborates within the diverse and multicultural community of Kentucky to increase land access to grow food, develop new farm businesses, and build healthy community networks.

Vision:

We envision the day when people have equitable access to cultivate, own, and enjoy our common earth and to share fresh, healing, and culturally valued food.

Approach:

• We seek healing in culturally responsive, linguistically appropriate, and trauma-informed relationships and experiences guided by a model called Healing Encounters. 
• We facilitate community ownership and management of agricultural spaces because we believe people know what is best for themselves and their communities.
• We celebrate the different ways that people cultivate the earth. We foster an environment where farmers share knowledge from diverse traditions and connect with resources as they adapt to Kentucky’s ecology and local food economy.
• We advocate for the strengthening of communities through access to greenspaces because we understand their importance for physical, mental, and social wellbeing.

Common Earth Gardens, formerly the Refugee Agriculture Partnership Program (RAPP) was started in 2007 by Lauren Goldberg and Stephen Bartlett within the Kentucky Office for Refugees (KOR). The first sites established for refugee agriculture were the 7th Street Community Garden and the Southside Community Garden.

In 2014, the RAPP program moved to be a program of Catholic Charities of Louisville and supported the establishment of Maplewood Apartments Garden, Francis Center Garden, St. Ignatius Community Garden and Bethany United Garden.

Currently, Common Earth Gardens supports six sites.