Community Partnerships Open a Door to Opportunity

In a forest, every tree is part of a community. It feeds and houses animals, shares the soil with wildflowers, and depends on the fungi that work with its roots.

The Morton Arboretum is also part of a community, not just of the members and guests who visit and take classes, but of the millions of people in neighborhoods and suburbs throughout the Chicago region whose lives are–or could be—enriched by trees.

Engaging an increasingly diverse range of people with nature and trees in a way that makes the Arboretum theirs to enjoy is an important priority for the institution.

“Everyone is welcome to visit the Arboretum, but it’s equally important that everyone feels like it’s a place they belong,” said Brooke Pudar, head of community engagement. Can people of all ages and abilities get around and enjoy a full experience? Do people see their own stories and experiences reflected in Arboretum programs, events, and exhibitions? How can the Arboretum extend an unmistakable welcome that encourages everyone to come as they are?

Collaborations with organizations and individuals from diverse communities can help the Arboretum achieve these goals. “We have chosen the path of partnership,” said Jill Koski, president and CEO.

“We want to build relationships with communities that are often left out of the nature story,” Pudar said. By listening to what partners have to say about their communities’ assets, interests, and issues, the Arboretum can offer a more welcoming experience to all. The key, according to Mariam Murphy, manager of community engagement, is listening. “This work is responsive,” she said.

One model is the Chicago Region Trees Initiative, the Arboretum’s urban and community forestry program, which has stood on a foundation of partnership throughout its 10 years of existence. CRTI listens to the expertise of local communities to learn what kind of help they need to improve their tree canopies. These partnerships have led CRTI to provide localized data about tree distribution, organize tree plantings, provide nuts-and-bolts tree care training, and empower organizations in Chicago to train local residents to advocate for trees.

Community partners work with the Arboretum on shared goals. For example, they help the Arboretum connect with people who often live far beyond DuPage County. They can educate the Arboretum’s staff about their own communities’ needs, as well as how they view the Arboretum. They suggest new ideas. Some co-create programs with the Arboretum or teach classes.

Often, community partners bring groups to explore the Arboretum for the first time. “It helps to be with people who have similar lived experiences,” Murphy said. “It helps to overcome the hesitancy.”

For example, in April, BPO Hikes and Peace Runners 773, two local nonprofits that get Black and African American people outdoors, held a spring run, hike, and celebration at the Arboretum. “For many participants it was their first visit, and it introduced the Arboretum to them as a safe and welcoming place,” Pudar said.

The Arboretum’s community partnerships are manifested in a range of ways.

• At Celebración de los Árboles, the September festival that celebrates the diverse cultures of Latin America, Latino Outdoors led guided hikes and Chicago BIPOC Birders led bilingual bird walks.
• This summer, young adults with special needs from a College of DuPage program spent six weeks in internships at the Arboretum, exposing them to a variety of jobs working with plants and the environment..
• CRTI’s Tree Ambassador program trains residents of disadvantaged Chicago neighborhoods to identify sites where trees could be planted in parkways.
• In November, the Arboretum and Trickster Cultural Center, a Native American and community arts center with a mission to increase the visibility of Native American traditions, will collaborate on a panel, Climate Conversations: Native Perspectives on Climate Resilience.
• In June, the community engagement staff worked with the Spectrios Institute for Low Vision in Wheaton to develop a visit for day campers with low vision in grades 6 through 12. “The Arboretum staff took the time to understand the different needs of our campers and provided a hands-on tactile and scent tour so the campers could be part of nature,” said Jennifer Thompson, children’s programs coordinator at Spectrios.

When Murphy worked in the Children’s Garden years ago, she and the garden staff worked informally with partners to improve access. “Someone would call and ask if the Arboretum was accessible for people with some special needs, and we would figure out how to make it work,” she said. Now, with support at an institutional level, the community engagement staff operates more intentionally, seeking out partners and asking for input about how the Arboretum can be more inclusive and offer a sense of belonging.

Another part of the work of community engagement is communicating about the Arboretum. For example, although accessibility has improved greatly in recent years with such projects as the Grand Garden and the rerouted Conifer Path, “it doesn’t help us to be more accessible if we aren’t known to be accessible,” Murphy said. Community partners who have good experiences at the Arboretum can help spread the word.

The work also includes reaching out to support partners in their own places. One way is through Nature Story Times, which brings Arboretum staff to neighborhood classrooms and libraries to read nature books aloud. In one instance, Arboretum staff volunteered to build raised beds in the community garden of We Sow We Grow, a longtime partner, in Chicago’s West Pullman neighborhood.

That’s an example of one thing Pudar finds especially rewarding: seeing staff from all over the Arboretum excited to get involved. Horticultural staff in the Children’s Garden are developing a sensory garden for people with low vision, full of plants with interesting textures and fragrances. Natural areas staff have helped Indigenous people collect seeds of native plants from the Arboretum’s prairies.

“My goal is that this kind of community-centered thinking is woven into the fabric of the Arboretum,” she said.

There is still a long way to go before the Arboretum becomes a place that reflects the diverse ways people from communities across the Chicago region experience nature. Responding to the opportunities that its community partnerships offer will require the support of the Arboretum’s generous donors and members, and it also will require patience.

“This path—being guided by the voice of the community—may mean that things take a little longer and they might be a little messier,” Koski said.

But when the commitment is made, successes are certain. Thompson of Spectrios said: “Partnering with The Morton Arboretum showed me how committed they are to making sure everyone feels welcome and that nature truly is for everyone.”