Greening the neighborhood and providing edible foods in an urban environment are obvious goals. Skill building, nutritional education, and food preparation classes provide additional community value. However, what makes this program unique is its focus on building community. The GHCG provides an inspirational venue to change community norms and prejudices; to improve community relations-to celebrate and harvest together-this is what makes this project special.
Project Homeless Connect, in collaboration with the Department of Public Health, Department of Public Works, San Francisco Clean City Coalition, Farms to Grow, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, and many others, are working to make Growing Home a functional, sustainable, and educational green space while increasing efficient use of the city’s resources for our homeless population.
The GHCG won the 2010 NEN Best Community Challenge Grant Project.
The Seeding Resilience Project, created by Megan, produced a 69 page report called Best Practices for Gardening and Mental Health that is being used to replicate the project at mental health agencies around San Francisco, increased access to mental health services and employment opportunities for individuals with severe mental health needs in San Francisco. A two year innovation project with major support provided by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), the Seeding Resilience project was 75% focused on the GHCG and 25% on Urban Agricultural leaders in San Francisco to build a citywide network of support for mental health consumers.
Outcomes of the project included:
- 3 weekly skill share opportunities for individuals to learn about: 1) cooking & nutrition; 2) garden skills; and 3) health skills and stress reduction [click on the links for notes and photos from these skill shares]
- educational opportunities for urban agriculture leaders to increase their awareness, create collaboration opportunities and employment opportunities for mental health consumers
- regular support groups, workshops and events on topics recommended by garden members and skill share participants
- information about the learnings of the project that will be made available so that the successful parts of the project can be reproduced in other locations
Mental Health Related-
- The Menal Health Cookbook: Creating Connection Through Food and Herbs, Written and Illustrated by F. Cunningham
