Help Promote Self-Efficacy

I have to write a concept paper that describes my ideas that I can put to action. I am taking a course that will help me manage health promotion programs and find funding for a collaborative research interest. It is a good thing I met some other two girls in class that have about the same ideas that I do. Not exactly, but I am confident that we can find common ground easily. If you have read some of my previous posts, my interest lies in what food, health, and gardening does for self-efficacy. What is self-efficacy? It is the belief in yourself that you are capable of attaining goals. It encompasses good self-esteem and inner locus of control, meaning you control your situation. With self-efficacy, you exhibit a positive outlook in life and have successful social interactions. I have to admit that this has been something I have wanted to improve in myself for my entire life, so it is a challenge for me to do this because part of me says, "I can't manage something this big."

I am really interested in expanding community involvement in urban gardening and these urban gardens can be in any setting. The two gals I am working with are very interested in promoting health in mid and high schools through healthy cooking programs. What is healthier than fruits and vegetables? Moreover, what is healthier than feeling the success of completing a task that is so good for you. I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, healthy food was so uncool. I remember many cafeteria quarrels about how gross someone was if they ate the fish or brought wheat bread instead of white bread. If a kid drank the white milk instead of the chocolate, that kid was weird. Conformity to food ways as children was very common, but when we give them control of what they cook and eat, it becomes cool. The organization Kids Cook does this while using locally grown food, but their funding is limited. I want to see an organization called From Playground to Table. This would involve edible playgrounds rich with pomegranate and apple trees and perhaps a corn maze.

Eventually, I am going to focus my interest on a low income community in Albuquerque that will enable them to start and maintain a community garden and provide workshops and education to those who are willing and able to plant a garden at their homes. Additionally, I also want these folks to have the ability to not only use the produce, but to sell it at a local growers market. Eventually, I would like to find funding for a truck similar to those that people use to sell fast food and have a traveling growers market. For now, we are going to concentrate expanding funding for middle school and high school students to participate in Kids Cook.

So I need to provide a mission statement with goals and objectives. I also need to find funding for this project. I have browsed Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Daniels Fund. I would also like to see what the USDA has to offer as well as some local foundations. This is so important because with our new governor in office, the schools are looking at more financial cuts. The outlook is grim indeed. I am using this blog as my own journal and an interactive way for my friends and peers to share ideas with me since I am new to this topic. I am going to leave you all with a quote that I really believe defines self-efficacy for me. Thanks for checking out my post.

"To do anything but your best is to sacrifice the gift."—Steve Prefontaine.