Hoophouse of Hope
“The garden is a place where I stop thinking about my own problems and just concentrate on what’s growing.”
ioby New York City
March 8, 2012
Excerpt:
For many city dwellers, the concept of urban farming seems contradictory. For others, it provides a way to grow fresh food in their corner lots, backyards, and windowsills. But for the people living at four supportive housing residences in Brooklyn, NY, urban farming has come to represent a new lease on life.
The four residences in question are operated by Services for the UnderServed (SUS), a non-profit founded in 1978. The ultimate aim of their efforts is to help New Yorkers achieve independence by providing supportive services and housing to the city’s most underserved populations: people with developmental disabilities, people suffering from HIV or AIDS, and people who have histories of mental illness and homelessness. Following examples set by other city non-profits, including Added Value, a farm in Red Hook, Brooklyn, that offers long-term skill building to teenagers, SUS opened up its first urban garden in June of 2010.
Dan Lohaus, 41, Director of Green Initiatives at SUS, helped breathe life into the urban gardens with his previous experience working with a similar program. “I did this project in Berkeley, CA, before, in the ‘90s, called ‘Fresh Start Farms.’ It worked to create jobs on urban farms for homeless individuals,” said Lohaus. “I was trained for a year on how to set up an urban agriculture model, and luckily enough, the guy who trained me was kind of a guru.”
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THE SERVANT’S OF HOPE SOCIETY
The Servants of Hope Society is a faith based men’s recovery house located on the east side of Vancouver. Founded by Sean in 2004 with a vision of men helping men through servitude and the overcoming of addiction. As unconventional as it sounds there has been a very good success rate for the house.
After spending 30 years struggling with addiction, never finding the answers to recovery, living in depravation, hitting bottom after bottom, hopeless and never thinking my life would change, I found faith through the help that I received from strangers and the kind acts that they showed. After 2 years of sobriety I felt that the only way to continue in my sobriety was to give back to others in need. The house has now been open and active for the last 8 years. On April 4 th 2012 I will be clean and sober for ten years
Bringing the message of hope and recovery to the Downtown Eastside. The success of the last 6 years of outreach involved HUNDREDREDS of people getting together with minimal financial and material support. We were still able to feed and meet the needs of over ONE THOUSAND people THIS year. The majority of the people involved with helping this cause had a history of substance abuse and a high percentage of those people came from the Downtown East side
The Servants of Hope is a non profit charity that has been helping the people of Vancouver’s downtown east side for the past 6 years. Alongside hot meals and warm coats they serve up a sense of hope and a chance at a new life. Below is a video link from Christmas 2012 over one hundred people came together to feed the homeless and do outreach we served over one thousand people that night
http://vimeo.com/38616528
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