Springfield, Ohio, August 2019 – Oesterlen Services for Youth, Inc., is the proud recipient of a $2,500 Community Grant from Walmart in Springfield, Ohio on Tuttle Avenue. This funding will be used to develop raised bed gardens at our Life Skills Center. The goal of the Life Skills Center is to create a place for at-risk youth to learn hand based skills and creativity, such as wood craft and horticultural therapy, while creating opportunities for community integration and whole family well-being.
With this funding the Oesterlen will offer the opportunity for youth in our community programs to expand their knowledge of urban farming. These gardens will be tended to, by at-risk adolescents and their families that participate in group therapy at Oesterlen. Youth between the ages of 11-23, will be taught their own self-importance by building raised beds in the Oesterlen Life Skills Center Woodshop and then planting and caring for these gardens from seedlings to mature plants. The Life Skills Center has developed a non-threatening process of communication, allowing youth to move through emotional healing by participating in hand-based skills. Not only do youth begin to communicate and process emotion, they also develop a sense of self-worth after nurturing a project from beginning to end, understanding their true capabilities.
Thank you to the Walmart family of stores and the Walmart Community Grant Program. This grant provides the Life Skills Program critical funding needed to grow and expand the Life Skills Community Garden.
Are you interested in learning more about programs at Oesterlen? Please call 937-399-6101 for more information!