Citizens for a Better South Florida

Flashback Friday to our Family Day event celebrating Earth Day! We had a variety of native plants provided by nursery for participants to take home. From elderberry. Havana skullcap, lignum vitae, pepperomia, simpson stopper, coral honeysuckle vine, yellowtop, porterweed, corkystem passion vine, and firebush. Everyone that visited our table had a chance to learn about the variety of plants that we were giving away and which one best suited their living space. We enjoyed this opportunity to help others make our community a little GREENER.

Throwback Thursday with a look at our amazing group from when they visited .haven.project. These students from North Carolina came to Miami to provide volunteer services during their spring break week and work with several local nonprofits. We were so lucky to coordinate this visit and meet a group of passionate, kind, and hard working students that were able to help install Green Haven's new chicken coop. We hope that they come visit again soon.

Day 4 of Spring Break was a double outing! Here is the second of the two field trips. Some of our students from went to They had a tour of their beautiful gardens and encoutered butterflies in their pavilion. They learned about the importance of pollinators to the garden and how essential they our to our lives and the production of our food.

Day 4 of Spring Break was a double outing! Here is one of the two field trips. Some of our students from had a chance to experience a wet walk They walked through a Cypress forest and spent some time learning about the importance of this ecosystem and the flora and fauna that coexist in this habitat.

Last month some of our students created fairy gardens to submit to and we were so excited to hear that they all placed 1st and 2nd. We joined forces with the art teacher who did a fantastic job helping the students create unique decorative pieces. We provided all the plants including the moss and repurposed baskets for bases. We are so proud of the students for doing such a fantastic job and having fun in the creative process. We look forward to next year's projects!

Happy Motivational Monday! Here is the first of a series that recap that past couple of months at Citizens. We had two workshops to finalize our HR Wellness program for faculty and staff for both The March workshop covered propagation and the different types of forms to propagate plants to add to your garden from seed saving to cuttings. The April Workshop was about pest control and how to help your garden naturally deter pest without using hazardous chemicals.

Training Tuesday! We had our first HR Wellness Garden workshop today at Miami Dade College Kendall Campus. Faculty and staff they will be educated on the basics of growing their own food and create a meal from everything they've grown to help build community at Miami Dade College Kendall Campus and so they have skills that they can apply in their lives. This first workshop they were taught how to create soil for their plants, how to make seed starters, and how to plant in raised garden beds. They did an amazing job planting a variety of seedlings from lettuce to fennel and some seeds such as carrots,radishes, and sunflowers.

Citizens for a Better South Florida’s 35th Anniversary Annual Fundraiser is taking place at Shake-a-leg Miami in Coconut Grove. This year we will celebrate 35 years of providing environmental education and stewardship efforts that our organization continues to provide and accomplish in our local communities. These initiatives include urban canopy enhancement through neighborhood tree plantings, habitat restorations, community gardens and hands-on environmental youth education as part of our Community Science Workshops.

Every year we honor an individual that exemplifies the meaning of an environmental leader in our community. This year we will be honoring Ron Magill, Communications Director of the Miami-Dade Zoological Park and Gardens for his outstanding environmental leadership in our community.

We hope you can join us on Super Bowl Sunday for brunch and help support our environmental programming!

Purchase tickets through the link in our bio.

🌱🐛🦋🌲🌳🏡🌳🌲🌿💚🤗🥬🍋🌶🫑🍊🥭🍌🍍🥦♻️🔬🧫🔎👩🏾‍🔬👩‍🔬👩🏼‍🔬👩🏻‍🔬👩🏿‍🔬👩🏽‍🔬👨‍🔬👨🏻‍🔬👨🏼‍🔬👨🏽‍🔬👨🏾‍🔬👨🏿‍🔬🔭🌜💫🌎🌍🌏

Happy Motivational Monday as we reflect on this MLK day! We had a wonderful and hardworking group of FIU students come out to help us with tree maintenance at the fruit forest in our Citizens Haven urban community garden in partnership with .haven.project

“Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. ... You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” Martin Luther King Jr.

We appreciate all the help to continue our efforts to get this space mobilized to become a food hub for the community.

Also a big thank you to for his amazing mother that made a beautiful meal for us and our volunteers.

As this year comes to a close, we reflect on all the people we've met and all the partnerships we've created We want to thank all of our supporters. We have sowed many friendships that have blossomed into family. Building relationships with our community continues to be our priority as we grow together into the New Year. May next year be as Fruitful as this year!

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Give Miami Day is Tomorrow, Thursday, NOVEMBER 16th, all day. And we need YOUR support to keep doing what we love for the community - environmental education, outreach, tree plantings, habitat restorations, urban food gardens, and community science workshops! We hope you will add to your donation list along with all the other phenomenal organizations that exist in Miami-Dade County. Your donations will help fund our environmental education programs that inspire and empower our students to grow into the eco-stewards of our communities and our precious planet Earth. 🌳🏡🌳🌿🍃🌍🌎🌎💫🌱♻️

Donation link is: https://www.givemiamiday.org/CITIZENS and also available in our bio on IG

We appreciate the love and support 💚🙏😊

Early Giving for Give Miami Day 2023 begins TODAY until November 16th (this Thursday) at midnight! Please donate what you can to support our organization so we can continue to provide environmental educational programming throughout Miami-Dade County to our diverse communities of need as well as inspire active stewardship and preservation of our South Florida environment. 🌱🌳🌳🌳🌳🌱🌴🌄🌲💚🍃♻️🌍🌎🌏🌻🌼🌸🐝🐞🐛🦋🐜🦎🐌🦗🐊🐍🐢🐀🐦🐠🐬🌊🌅

Link in bio to donate today through Thursday!

Happy Wednesday to you all! Here is a look at the amazing garden warriors last Friday . The students and faculty helped get their vegetable garden beds ready for the fall season planting.

We will be planting for the new season tomorrow and Friday from 10am-1pm.

Please let us know if you are interested to join us at either one of the locations.

Come out on October 14th and check out all the amazing local organizations. There will be several activities to participate in including a food distribution, gardening, and planting fruit trees with us!

Thank you .haven.project for providing us with this opportunity. We're excited to see everyone out there supporting World Food Day!

Join us Saturday, May 27, 2023! Has we prepare Smile Haven for the summer heat. Come out and learn to plant heat tolerant crops that prepare the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus for the next planting season.

We have enjoyed helping this space to become the community gathering that we continue to help build. A space to learn skills, build community, and have access to organic fruits and vegetables.

Thank you to our partners .haven.project and for allowing us to support their space with resources to help this space continue bloom.



Flyer created by .haven.project

The City Nature Challenge Wrap Party and ID Party will be tomorrow, May 7, at Simpson Memorial Garden Center (55 SW 17th Ave.) from 12:00 to 3:30. Lunch will be provided. So, please come help the City Nature Challenge team wrap up by identifying anything that still needs IDing from the City Nature Challenge weekend.

Please bring your own laptop. ID guides will be provided.

Take a look at our photos from the last and final spring break field trip of the week!

Students from enjoyed an eco-immersion experience last Friday, where they went kayaking, enjoyed the water and took a ride in a pontoon.

For our next fieldtrip during springbreak the students visited the Everglades National Park. This visit included a trip to the Nike Missile site. Ranger Aimee and Ranger Patty educated the students about the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis. As most visits to the Everglades the students had a chance to encounter the wildlife with alligator, anhinga, and great blue heron sightings to name a few. It is always great to get the chance to bring the students out to natural wonders of our backyard.

Triple Teaching Tuesday! Last week was springbreak and our students from had an adventure packed week. We will start with our field trip to Arch Creek Hammock Preserve. K-6th graders visited the beautiful home to the Tequesta tribe and how they utilized the land to protect, feed, and heal their community. During the visit they helped the park naturalist remove invasives in various parts of the preserve to allow the native flora and fauna to thrive and survive. Our friends and plant specialists James and Brian educated the students on the kinds of trees and plants that are native to our South Florida ecosystems. They also learned about the importance of pollinators and had a chance to see a Zebra Longwing caterpillar and various other butterflies.
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Training Tuesday! We had our first HR Wellness Garden workshop today at Miami Dade College North Campus. Faculty and staff will learn how to grow their own food and create a meal from everything they've grown to help build community at Miami Dade College North Campus and so they have skills that they can apply in their lives. This first workshop they were taught how to build raised garden beds with cement blocks. They did an amazing job constructing the raised beds, laying out cardboard to help with grass and weeds, and they added a mixture of peatmoss and composte for the planting mix.

Citizens for a Better South Florida’s 34th Anniversary Annual Fundraiser taking place at Shake-a-leg Miami in Coconut Grove. This year we will celebrate 34 years of providing environmental education and stewardship efforts that our organization continues to provide and accomplish in our local communities. These initiatives include urban canopy enhancement through neighborhood tree plantings, habitat restorations, community gardens and hands-on environmental youth education as part of our Community Science Workshops.

Purchase tickets here: https://www.abettersouthflorida.org/citizens-34th-anniversary-annual-fundraiser-tickets/

🌱🐛🦋🌲🌳🏡🌳🌲🌿💚🤗🥬🍋🌶🫑🍊🥭🍌🍍🥦♻️🔬🧫🔎👩🏾‍🔬👩‍🔬👩🏼‍🔬👩🏻‍🔬👩🏿‍🔬👩🏽‍🔬👨‍🔬👨🏻‍🔬👨🏼‍🔬👨🏽‍🔬👨🏾‍🔬👨🏿‍🔬🔭🌜💫🌎🌍🌏

As this year comes to a close, we want to thank all our supporters. We have sowed many friendships that have blossomed into family. Building relationships with our community continues to be our priority as we grow together into the New Year.

🍋🫑🥦🥕🥭🌱🍌🍍🥬🥒🌶🌳🌿

Motivational Monday! Here's a look back at garden harvest day with the wonderful Miami Dade College students as we gave them guidance on how to maintain their vegetable garden on campus. They harvested okra, swiss chard, and kale to stock up the Miami Dade College food pantry with healthy, organic, fresh foods.

Join us Thursday, December 8th, 2022 from 10am - 3pm as we help our partners .haven.project and bring Citizens Haven into Homestead/Redlands! We will have a group of volunteers come out from TD Bank] and Little Brewing Co] to help us plant fruit trees. Volunteers will receive some tasty brews courtesy of Little Brewing Co] after the event. We need all hands on deck to help us continue to clear up areas for the next phase of veggie garden building.

We want to give a big Thank You to TD Bank] and for providing us with funding to support this project!

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Help us to continue providing enriching experiences to our youth.
Our mission to promote environmental stewardship and impact the lives of students with outdoor engagement and learning about our South Florida ecosystems.

We’d like to thank you all for your participation and continual support of our efforts. These projects and their residual impacts would not be possible without you. 💚

🌿To donate and participate, visit the donation link in our bio https://www.givemiamiday.org/DaleArboles 🌿

Beautiful weather for a beautiful harvest! The students did a magnificent job gathering veggies that will be offered in the Miami Dade College food bank. These are skills that are extremely important in our lives. Having power over your food, knowing how to grow it, what it was made with, and where it came from.

Help support us to be able to expand our efforts and resources to continue our mission of environmental education and building community together in South Florida!

🌿To donate and participate, visit the donation link in our bio https://www.givemiamiday.org/DaleArboles 🌿

It is officially Give Miami Day 2022!Today is all about giving back to those who continue to inspire, educate, and assess the needs of their communities throughout Miami. This has been the foundation of our organization for 33 years now. Our mission to promote environmental stewardship and impact the lives of residents throughout South Florida has been realized through a number of initiatives, from educating children in grades K-12 as part of our Community Science Workshops (CSW) to increasing the urban tree canopy in South FL through numerous tree planting events, establishing over 24k trees in local neighborhoods. Providing fruit trees to supplement urban vegetable gardens and creating food security by allowing communities to have access to fresh healthy foods and increasing their quality of life. We’d like to thank you all for your participation and continual support of our efforts. These projects and their residual impacts would not be possible without you. 💚

🌿To donate and participate, visit the donation link in our bio https://www.givemiamiday.org/DaleArboles 🌿

Give Miami Day is Tomorrow, Thursday, NOVEMBER 17th, all day. And we need YOUR support to keep doing what we love for the community - environmental education, outreach, tree plantings, habitat restorations, urban food gardens, and community science workshops! We hope you will add to your donation list along with all the other phenomenal organizations that exist in Miami-Dade County. Your donations will help fund our environmental education programs that inspire and empower our students to grow into the eco-stewards of our communities and our precious planet Earth. 🌳🏡🌳🌿🍃🌍🌎🌎💫🌱♻️

Donation link is: https://www.givemiamiday.org/DaleArboles and also available in our bio on IG

We appreciate the love and support 💚🙏😊

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Our fundraiser has been postponed for next year January 28, 2023. However, you can still help by supporting us on GIVE MIAMI DAY 2022 and early donating begins TODAY until November 17th (this Thursday) at midnight! Please donate what you can to support our organization so we can continue to provide environmental educational programming throughout Miami-Dade County to our diverse communities of need as well as inspire active stewardship and preservation of our South Florida environment. 🌱🌳🌳🌳🌳🌱🌴🌄🌲💚🍃♻️🌍🌎🌏🌻🌼🌸🐝🐞🐛🦋🐜🦎🐌🦗🐊🐍🐢🐀🐦🐠🐬🌊🌅

Link in bio to donate today through Thursday!

Don't forget to vote today and exercise your right to vote because your vote matters!