Common Ground Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership

For over a decade Common Ground has worked to strengthen the connection between our urban community and the natural environment. We serve a diverse community of children, youth and adults through our environmentally themed Common Ground High School, our after school and camp programs, our Green Job Corps, and our urban farm, all located on our 20 acre site at the base of West Rock Park. Because Common Ground occupies a nexus of agricultural, natural and urban land uses, we are able to embrace a holistic vision of the environment and the role people play in it. Our local environment - a farm, in a city, in a forest - is a starting point from which to address broader environmental issues: population, biodiversity, climate, food systems, resource use, pollution. From this common ground we aim to engage with urban youth and the broader community, to teach and learn the skills necessary to live sustainable, healthy, enriched lives. Common Ground’s mission is to cultivate habits of healthy living and sustainable environmental practice among a diverse community of children, families, and adults. Common Ground is a high school, urban farm, and environmental education center in the city of New Haven.