نظرة عامة على البرنامج

Program Overview

The Horticulture Skills Training Program is designed to empower incarcerated women with vocational and life skills through hands-on horticulture education and therapeutic activities.

Program Objective

The primary objective of the program is to help incarcerated women gain recognizable vocational skills for high-demand employment areas of the horticulture industry. This is accomplished through a combination of lecture and skills training delivered to the women four mornings a week. Skills knowledge and acquisition are assessed regularly by the course instructor.

Secondary Goals

A secondary goal in programming is to increase the life skills of women offenders. The horticulture facilitators aim to help participants feel a sense of accomplishment and pride in their work, which can help build self-confidence and encourage perseverance. Horticultural activities promote a calm, relaxed environment and the participants benefit from therapeutic aspects of the program.

Program Structure

The Horticulture Skills Training Program runs year-round and is made up of eight courses, each containing several modules. Courses run as a combination of lecture and skills training activities. On average, each course consists of 100 hours of instruction, which is split into lecture and hands-on applied skills.

Certificates

The women receive certificates for completing an orientation to the program and for completing modules in each of the following topic areas:

• Organic Vegetable Grower
• Garden Fundamentals
• Landscape Maintenance Worker
• Landscape Installation Techniques
• Plant Propagation
• Garden Centre Worker
• Horticultural Business Exploration
• Horticultural Business Operation

Benefits

The horticulture program offers the following features and benefits:

• Vocational skills training in a high employment sector
• Continual intake and evaluation
• Daily learning through both theoretical instruction and practical skills training
• Therapeutic and social benefits from working with plants, instructors, and other inmates in a group situation
• A program designed for input from the women, allowing for creative thought, shared responsibility, and decision-making
• Interaction with a skilled horticultural facilitator and horticultural instructors
• An opportunity to gain experience by improving the landscaped environment at the institution
• An opportunity to apply knowledge and acquire skills through planting, maintaining, and harvesting

Skills Training Activities

The program includes the following skills training activities:

• Design and preparation of a vegetable garden
• Planting, maintaining, and harvesting an organic vegetable garden
• Maintaining existing garden areas at the institution
• Preparing and planting new gardens at the institution
• Marketing, preparing, and execution of a plant sale at the institution, including entrepreneurial skills
• Maintaining and propagating plants in the greenhouse