See Beautiful Grant Applicant: Horticulture for Healing

The feature below is brought to you by Horticulture for Healing, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about Horticulture for Healing, please visit their website page: here.

Empowering women to own their lives, claim their value, and recognize their beauty.

Horticulture For Healing (HFH) is a new project and organization based in Orlando, Florida. It was founded by me, Joanna (she,her,hers). During 8 years of continuous sobriety, I’ve personally witnessed women overcome the many barriers resulting from the societal stigma of substance use. This is my first project. After receiving my BA in gender studies and environmental studies in December 2019, I founded Horticuture For Healing with a strong desire and dedication to pass on feminist power and self healing practices of sustainable horticulture/gardening, which helped me grow mentally and emotionally in early recovery, and continues to do so today. Currently, HFH consists of three board members, and two volunteers who provide a diverse array of perspectives and experiences. Horticulture For Healing is an organization that celebrates diversity and promotes inclusivity in all of our actions. We encourage *any and all women* from any background, in treatment, in recovery, and/or has a history of substance use, to participate in our self healing horticultural program.

Horticulture is the art and practice of garden cultivation and management. It can be a form of healing for the mind and body. We will design and build custom urban raised garden beds for women’s treatment centers and transitional housing residences at no cost to the facility. The gardens will feature indigenous plants, creating a sense of place and understanding of the importance of native plants in the environment in which we will collaborate. Alongside the garden installation, we provide empowering feminism workshop sessions, while teaching women horticultural skills for indoor and outdoor gardening.

Women who participate while in treatment or in a transitional/sober home will be able to take these horticulture and feminist resources out into life and the society in which we live. Her knowledge gained in early recovery can be used as a tool in times of stress, overcoming adversity, strong emotional ups and downs, and as an overall coping skill for life.

Many of the women Horticulture For Healing will work with come from an array of intersectional identities - not only from a life of substance use, but including lives with a high prevalence of violence, sexual, and emotional abuse. We will provide a sacred space for experiencing a connection to the natural world and self discovery. Horticulture For Healing meets women where they are, moving past shame, guilt, and hopelessness, into a place of self love and acceptance.

Our goal is to provide an equal opportunity for all marginalized women in early addiction treatment programs to experience the lasting benefits of horticulture as a form of emotional healing and self acceptance. While Horticulture For Healing is designed specifically to reach recovering women with challenges to full societal participation and advancement, we understand and advocate for fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people. Since many women who are recovering from addiction lack emotional and self-care resources, adversity can become defeating. As a recovering woman myself, I have a personal responsibility to try to help others break the cycle of addiction, especially the stigma that plagues it.

Horticulture For Healing’s woman-centered approach includes feminist workshops in which women can begin to overcome shame, seeing that she too can become a leader within her community. We have the unique opportunity to reach women who are in a safe place where they can be who they are in this moment.

Horticulture For Healing promotes social justice for those who are often neglected by the general public and are belittled by societal norms and stereotypes. Having overcome my societal ostracization due to legal, financial and emotional challenges, this organization will stand as a reliable reference for participating women. Women will be able to document Horticulture For Healing on their for employment and educational application purpose, alleviating worry they are without references.

Horticulture For Healing is seeking support to build our first two gardens on an area of land at STEPS, a non profit addiction service treatment center for women in Apopka, Florida. STEPS prioritizes women who are indigent, pregnant, postpartum, have children, and/or using IV drugs. Each program lasts for 6 months for 60 women at a time. We have the approval to construct 2 brand new 8’ by 12’ garden beds at this site. With the support of the See Beautiful Grant, the first two garden beds will reach 120 recovering women over the next year. The experiences gained by the women who are touched by this program will also extend to their families and communities.

My intention is to cultivate the inherent connection all human beings have to Nature. This organization will reach individuals that otherwise may have never had the opportunity to experience that they too possess this deep-rooted earth connection. Nurturing plants the way Horticulture For Healing demonstrates creates both an interior and exterior beauty everyday, helping women recognize their own beauty and value, owning her past and present, while at the same time connecting women in strength and solidarity.

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Submitted by: Joanna Brown
Founder and Executive Director of Horticulture For Healing