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You are here: Home / Our Projects / Global to Local / Planet Local / Local Food, Farming & Fisheries, Place-based Education / Planet Local Initiatives

Homeless Garden Project

USA

Garden project

Photo by the Homeless Garden Project

The high price of housing, combined with exceptionally high unemployment rates, contribute to homelessness in Santa Cruz, California. But the isolation and instability homeless people everywhere face are factors that in turn contribute to chronic homelessness. What’s more, many homeless people must struggle harder to keep minimum wage jobs which they don’t find personally meaningful. This presents an additional challenge – and only contributes to feelings of isolation and alienation.

For nearly thirty years, The Homeless Garden Project has been working to address these challenges by providing the homeless of Santa Cruz with job-training, community, and meaningful work, in a safe and therapeutic environment. They do so via two main programs: Natural Bridges Farm Program, and the Women’s Organic Flower Enterprise (WOFE).

Trainees in the Farm Program learn to sow, cultivate, and harvest organic produce and fresh cut flowers. The harvest is sold through the project’s CSA, which also works to connect participants with the surrounding community – providing them with more potential job and housing opportunities. Donated CSA “scholarships” help low-income community members afford CSA shares.

WOFE trainees learn to dry herbs and flowers, and to make dried arrangements, wreaths, natural candles and soaps, jams, teas and more. The products are sold in the Garden Project’s shop in downtown Santa Cruz, with all revenue returning to the program. Though the project was originally set up with the intention of creating a safe space for women, WOFE now employs men as well, while still working hard to maintain the atmosphere of safety.

In addition to these programs, trainees can pair with Social Work Interns, who will help them set specific goals, and find more job, housing, and health care opportunities. The garden also hosts shorter classes and certificate programs, along with a cafe that provides free hot meals made with fresh garden produce.

Perhaps most importantly, the garden looks like a beautiful and welcoming place to spend time. By providing trainees with this safe space, with consistent community and support, and with the skills to do enjoyable, meaningful work, The Homeless Garden Project has helped many over the years in their struggles with chronic homelessness.

To learn more, visit: http://www.homelessgardenproject.org/index.php.

Related


Homeless Garden Project

Category: Local Food, Farming & Fisheries, Place-based Education

Related

  • Global to Local
    • International Alliance for Localization (IAL)
      • Join the IAL
      • IAL Members
        • IAL Member Organizations
        • IAL Listserv
      • Video Project: Voices from the IAL
    • Webinar Recordings
      • Sacred Activism in a Post-Trump World Webinar
      • Talking Climate Webinar
      • People Power: Democracy and the Economy Webinar
      • Beyond Trump: The Path to Real Change Webinar
      • Bringing the Food Economy Home Webinar
      • A World Without ‘Free’ Trade: What it would look like and how to get there
      • Beyond ‘Free Trade’ – Alternatives to Corporate Rule
      • Education: Promises, Myths & Realities Webinar
      • Debt and Speculation in the Global Economy Webinar
      • A New Activism Webinar
      • Climate Change or System Change Webinar
      • Going Local Webinar
    • Animation: Going Local: the solution-multiplier
    • Insane Trade Short Film and Factsheet
      • Insane Trade! & Factsheet Translated
    • Planet Local
      • Culture
      • Eco Communities
      • Ecology
      • Health
      • Local Business & Finance
      • Local Energy
      • Local Food, Farming & Fisheries
      • Local Policy & Community Rights
      • Place-based Education
      • Sharing & Repairing
      • Planet Local Short Film Series
        • 1 – Introduction: The New Local Food Movement
        • 2 – Diverse Farming Systems
        • 3 – Local Food Webs: Exploring Systems of Distribution
        • 4 – Local Food Processors: AKA Making Delicious Food
        • 5 – Challenges & Solutions
        • 6 – Ecovillages & Networks for New Farmers
        • 7 – And Finally… Here’s a Little More Inspiration
    • Local Bites Podcast
      • Unpacking Global Empire from an Indigenous Perspective with Tyson Yunkaporta & Helena Norberg-Hodge
      • More than Just the Vegetables
      • Food Sovereignty in the Global Economy
      • Transition, Tradition, and Trade
      • Not-for-Profit Businesses
      • Love, Values, and Wellbeing Economies
      • Growing a Farmers Market from the Ground Up
      • Beautiful Places: A Conversation with Wendell Berry
      • Creating the Framework for a New Economy
      • From GDP to GNH
      • Rebuilding Healthy Communities: The Growing Ecovillage Movement
      • Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty
      • Why Local Ownership Matters
      • Local Alternatives to Globalized Development: A View from India
      • How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach
      • Helena Norberg-Hodge on how corporate ‘free trade’ deals threaten local communities and economies worldwide
  • Our Work in Ladakh
    • Past Work in Ladakh
      • Experiences in Ladakh 2018
      • Experiences in Ladakh 2017
    • Ancient Futures (book & film)
    • Local Futures’ History in Ladakh
      • Women’s Alliance of Ladakh
  • The Economics of Happiness
    • Economics of Happiness Conferences
    • The Film
    • DIY Economics of Happiness Workshop

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