Accessible Garden @ Gateway to Astoria (Access Oasis)

In which borough should your idea take place? Queens

Do you have a specific neighborhood(s) in mind?

Astoria - NW corner of 21st St Hoyt Ave North (formerly known as The Sitting Area)

Which audience(s) does your idea help? Select as many as apply.

Youth

Parents

Justice impacted individuals

Limited English proficient individuals

Veterans

Low income individuals

Black, Indigenous, and POC

Older adults

Unemployed individuals

LGBTQ+ community

Immigrants and/or migrants

Public housing residents

People with disabilities

Describe the challenge you want to address:

There are currently no accessible community gardens in NW Queens, and disabled people are an extremely underserved population in NYC. Disabled people have also struggled especially since the start of the pandemic, and there are no open-air, safe, outdoor, designated spaces where they can find community with other disabled people and non-disabled allies.

Describe your idea and approach to address the challenge:

As the registered community stewards with NYC Parks, the Access Oasis group aims to center people with disabilities at this future accessible garden space. This is a perfect space to activate for disabled people and their neighbors + allies, because it is paved and wheelchair accessible, and near one of the few accessible train stations in Astoria. It also has 2 accessible bus stops.

We have been cleaning up the space this fall as a "Friends of" group, with about 20 hours of teamwork, to prepare the garden this spring with raised beds, in conjunction with NYC Parks.

This funding would help us purchase accessible tools to make our gardening more inclusive. The funding would also help us hold educational events for the community around disability rights, and allyship. We would hold book clubs and more inclusive community programming, so that we can all learn to be more inclusive neighbors.

Write the zipcode that best represents your New York City community:

11102