SALT LAKE CITY — A group of women working to rebuild their lives is getting their hands in soil at the Wasatch Community Garden's City Farm in the Glendale neighborhood of Salt Lake City.
“You learn something different every day,” said Patsy Martinez, a member of their Job Training Program's Green Team.
Starting over isn’t easy, but at the farm on 1300 South, Martinez and Green Team member Donna Reynolds are taking things one day at a time.
“It’s like watching yourself grow,” Reynolds said. “We grow with the plants.”
Both women are members of the Job Training Program's Green Team, a transitional employment program through Wasatch Community Gardens. The program helps women navigating homelessness build and strengthen life skills, including resume writing, interviewing, practicing mindfulness, and securing housing and permanent employment.
The rows of seedlings surrounding them are doing more than just sprouting. They’re a part of something bigger.
“I was homeless and not doing very well,” Reynolds said. “When I came into the program, I was able to make some money and started paying rent. Now I got a room, it’s better than a tent.”
Martinez said facing homelessness changed her outlook.
“It was the first time I was ever homeless. It’ll be the last,” she said. “The one thing I’m not going to do is stay stuck.”
Program leaders say the lessons learned at the city farm go far beyond gardening.
“Taking a lot of those skills like patience, attention to detail, and just learning about how things grow — taking all expectations out, team members can take those skills to other parts of their lives,” said Jackie Rodabaugh, job training program director at Wasatch Community Gardens.
The program also connects participants to longer-term support.
“We support them in finding the next job, career path, or support them if they want to go back to school. We also have a case manager on staff who provides advocacy and supports folks in finding housing, navigating SNAP benefits, and health care,” Rodabaugh explained.
As the women help nurture nearly 48,000 seedlings for the garden’s Spring Plant Sale on May 9, they’re also planting the seeds for more stable futures.
“It has helped me a lot,” Reynolds said. “It’s helped me grow, it’s helped me learn a lot, it’s helped me with being on time for work — and it’s reprogrammed me.”
“They do so much for us,” Martinez added. “It’s amazing. It’s just amazing.”
