More About Our Vision
Farm to Table Nourishment
At Green Arrow CoLab we believe that healthy nutrition is essential in supporting healing and stability. Our focus on organic, sustainable farming will not only offer the youth a place to get quiet in the garden but provide ample healthy and organic produce for a farm-to-table experience direct from their backyard to their plate!
Gardening opens a space for healing. We use the time to be quiet with our thoughts, journal, meditate, and care for something that gives us so much in return. Coming back to the earth and putting our feet and hands in the soil helps (aka earthing/grounding) with sleep, stress, trauma healing, and gratitude for our earth. The garden is also a perfect place to understand lessons that we can apply to success our life - like planting a seed (coming up with an idea), harvesting our crops (putting action to the idea), weeding (getting rid of habits that do not support us being our best), etc.
We will use the garden and our harvest to:
- teach culinary skills for cooking healthy meals (and as training that could be used for job placement in a restaurant!)
- educate our youth about soil health and the health of our planet - offering small steps we can take to create a large impact
- learn how food and nutrition is the foundation for our body to become stronger and bounce back from illness
- invite family and community to eat with us, learn about our growth and discuss our dreams
- understand how herbs can support the strength of our immune system and integrate into our daily lives to help with headaches, sleepyness, stress, and other daily roadblocks we may face in life.
Educational Programs
Our Citizen Farmers and Healers program engages youth in understanding what it takes to grow and harvest healthy food, collaborate with others, learn about our planet, and connect to our inner self.
Join us as we cultivate a community of youth advocates and activists, reduce recidivism, and inspire younger generations to find their passion.
Our flexible programming will be offered to schools, afterschool programs, re-entry housing, juvenile halls and camps, and organizations that serve high-risk youth and teens. It can be adapted to fit as a series in science, biology, ecology, home economics, or health classes, or as an after-school program. It includes Common Core and NGSS principles lessons through hands-on and lecture-style classes and exercises.
The curriculum addresses the following problems:
- minimal connection to nature that kids in the city face
- few to no opportunities for young people to explore their passion, discover new hobbies
- mental and emotional suppression leading to depression, anxiety, poor performance at school, low self-esteem, stress, and more.
Holistic Healing & Coaching
Daily practices for positive emotional wellness are an important piece to the health and wellness of our mind, body, and soul. Many studies explain the lasting impacts of consistent meditation, breathing exercises, gratitude journaling, and positive thoughts.
We will integrate journaling exercises, mindfulness techniques, recommendations for daily grounding practices, movement classes, and breathing techniques to help slow the mind, calm anger, bring in more energy, and more.
Our discussions will also focus on decolonization practices, racial theory, indigenous connection and lessons, various healing modalities, criminal justice reform, transformational justice, what is council and council practices.
Green Arrow CoLab is a restorative and holistic-healing solution based on bringing the body and soul back to nature and self. By allowing participants to heal traumas and develop a strong sense of self and wholeness they are better positioned to succeed in today’s world.