2008 Events --> May 22, 2008

Gardens Without Fences Meet Many Different Needs

Detroit – Imagine non-violent offenders focused on organic gardening in an area bigger than a city block. Imagine the offenders producing four tons of food for the hungry. And, imagine that garden being a source of rehabilitation and community pride.

That’s what happened last year when Wayne County’s Department of Children and Family Services (CAFS) and the national Urban Farming project recruited and supervised approximately 100 volunteers to plant, weed, water and maintain a garden on Linwood and Gladstone in Detroit. The volunteers were on probation for non-violent offenses.

The program is being expanded this year to include volunteers from three divisions of the county’s CAFS – Community Corrections, Juvenile Services and Michigan State University Extention – along with the Urban Farming organization.

The Extension on May 13 sponsored a half-day training session for those willing to volunteer at the Linwood & Gladstone garden site. Last year, the results of the volunteers’ labor –cucumbers, tomatoes, beans, carrots and other vegetables –were available for neighbors and also donated to food banks and homeless shelters.

“Rehabilitation can be accomplished in various ways,” Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano said. “These probationers are getting their lives back in order while making a difference in the lives of others.”

Many of the probationers who gardened at the site last year had recently come from jail for non-violent offenses and were attending residential programs for substance abuse, said Deborah Hendrix, director of Community Corrections. All of the participants were male, ranging in age from teenagers to senior citizens.

“When we first began, we were not sure how the guys would react,’’ Hendrix said. “But they wanted to go back and work.”

This garden without a fence was open to the neighboring community, many of whom assisted in maintaining the garden. The garden also provided a source of great pride for citizens returning to community from incarceration. Nobody walked away or created a negative behavior issue, Hendrix said.

One of those gardeners, Juan Cvazos, participated during the growing season last year and was very pleased with the way the program benefited him personally.

“The planting and nurturing of the garden felt as though I was planting and recreating my own life,” said Cvazos, who lives in Garden City.

This summer, six residential treatment facilities, monitored by Wayne County CAFS, will produce their own gardens on site. Additionally, several Juvenile Services programs will be partnering with Urban Farming. Volunteers will work weekdays with supervisors on site. The Wayne County Jail Commissary Board and the county Sheriff’s Office also are partners in the project.

Hendrix said the volunteers enjoyed watching things grow and knowing they were helping others. “And with the price of food going up, everybody has an interest in gardening,” Hendrix said.

Urban Farming, a non-profit agency, was founded in 2005 by Taja Sevelle. The purpose of the program is to eradicate hunger by planting gardens on unused land while promoting diversity, motivating youth and seniors and optimizing the use of land for the production of food. The gardens beautify the area by reducing unsightly weeds and eliminating dumping sites.

Event Photos (Click to enlarge)