Events

Horticultural Therapy Exhibit at Philadelphia Flower Show: “Liberte, Egalite, Accessibilite”

Philadelphia Flower Show AHTA Booth. Photo by Task Force Chair Sarah Hutchin

AHTA Exhibit at the Philadelphia Flower Show. Photo by Task Force Chair Sarah Hutchin

Happening now! I wish I could go to the Philadelphia Flower Show (March 5-13) this year. But since I can’t, I can at least publish a post about it, right? Here’s a blurb from the AHTA website:

The American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA) is delighted to sponsor the Horticultural Therapy Exhibit for the 2011 Philadelphia International Flower Show. This will be the second consecutive year for a horticultural therapy exhibit in the Show. Last year, the local network group, Mid Atlantic Horticultural Therapy Network, sponsored the first exhibit, drawing in many people and winning two prestigious awards.

The exhibit, in keeping with this year’s theme “Springtime in Paris” is titled “Liberte, Egalite, Accessibilite” (Freedom, Equality, Accessibility). Featured will be a Parisian Potager showcasing ideas for recycling, sustainability, plants, and ways to garden in small spaces . The goals of the exhibit will be to educate the public about how horticultural therapy (HT) can enhance one’s well- being, teach new skills, distract from pain, reduce stress and isolation, to provide fun and meaningful work in a way that is life-affirming.

Gabriela Harvey posted this update on the TLN Facebook page:

“AHTA Exhibit at the 2011 Philadelphia Flower Show won “Best in Show” in the Non-Academic Educational Category. A special thank you to the committee and to each MAHTN and AHTA member who will man the exhibit as a volunteer. Special kudos to …Sarah Hutchins, Pam Young, Peg Schofield, Jack Carman and Martha Heinze and Carol Lukens!!! Hope I did not miss anyone?”

And Carol Hutchin, Task Force Chair, updated us on Sunday with this:

“I just heard from co-chair we have also received an additional award, a special achievement award from The Garden Club Federation of PA (education exhibit under 1,000 ft.). People have been pouring through our exhibit all yesterday and today (Sunday)! The response from attendees and several judges, who spoke to us yesterday, was very supportive and congratulatory! A very special thank you to all the committee members ( MAHTN and AHTA) who worked so diligently and well together to create the exhibit, as well as all the volunteers who are manning and maintaining it, the donors who gave us so much to make it come to life, AHTA who sponsored it this year and MAHTN who started it all by sponsoring the HT exhibit in the Flower Show last year.

Congratulations, and thank you!

Next week! Michigan Horticultural Therapy Association Conference

Fiddlehead fern. Photo by Henry Domke, http://www.henrydomke.com

Photo by Henry Domke, HenryDomke.com

National Horticultural Therapy Week is just around the corner (March 20-26), and the Michigan Horticultural Therapy Association‘s Annual Conference, “Horticultural Therapy: Connecting People & Plants” couldn’t be better timed.

Friday’s keynote address, “Nurturing the Therapeutic Relationship” will be presented by Lisa Schactman, MS, HTM, CPRP. Lisa is the Life Skills Director at CooperRiis, a healing farm community for individuals with mental illness in western North Carolina. The MHTA conference also features informative breakout sessions, book and product sales, hands-on workshops, displays, refreshments, door prizes and optional visit to the MSU Indoor/Outdoor Children’s Garden. This event is useful to anyone interested in learning how the people-plant interaction brings therapeutic change and improves well-being. Aspects of horticultural therapy can enhance occupational and recreational therapy programs, adult day services, children’s programs, school gardens and programs, community and healing gardens, corrections, hospice, medical care/mental health and rehabilitation settings.

Then on Saturday, MHTA is offering a workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. entitled “Horticultural Therapy: Practical Applications.” Lisa Schactman, MS, HTM will present practical applications of nurturing therapeutic relationships. Participants will also have hands on experience in a session on adaptive tools & techniques.

Visit the Michigan HTA website, www.michiganhta.org, for more information and to register.

Stay tuned for more posts this month about horticultural therapy. Have something specific you’d like to share as a guest blogger? Let us know by leaving a comment on this post.

Upcoming Talk, Connecting Nature and Health: A Primer on Therapeutic Gardens

A children's garden in Guatemala. Photo by Daniel Winterbottom.

A children's garden in Guatemala. Photo by Daniel Winterbottom.

Thank goodness for a decent internet connection! Still in Peru – in Lima, to be exact. But I got a Google alert about this upcoming talk by colleague Daniel Winterbottom that looks interesting. Forgive the copying and pasting. To see the full post about this event, visit http://www.nwcphp.org/news-events/news-archives/therapeutic-gardens.

Connecting Nature and Health: A Primer on Therapeutic Gardens

Daniel Winterbottom, ASLA will present at the University of Washington in the Health Sciences Center, I-wing, Room 132 (Rotunda), from 3:30–5:00 p.m. on March 3, 2011. The presentation will be followed by open discussion.

This presentation is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Healthy Places Research Group. The Healthy Places Research Group is a joint effort of NWCPHP and the University of Washington’s Department of Urban Design and Planning. This group welcomes public health and planning researchers, students, practitioners, faculty and others interested in exploring the relationship between the built environment and the health of communities.

Daniel Winterbottom, ASLA, is a landscape architect and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington. His firm, Winterbottom Design Inc., focuses on healing/restorative gardens. In 1995, he developed a design/build program, through which he and his students work with communities to design and build projects that provide amenities and address social and ecological concerns. Projects include a public wash facility in rural Mexico, a garden for children with HIV/AIDS in New York City, healing gardens at Cancer Lifeline in Seattle, and a mother/child garden in a maximum security women’s correctional facility near New York City. Click here to read a recent blog post by Winterbottom, “Using Service Learning to Explore Culture and Place in Croatia.”

Educational Opportunity: Healthcare Garden Design Certificate Program at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Chicago Botanic Garden birches. Photo by Naomi Sachs

See that brick building in the background? That's your classroom (thus this is your view).

Every spring, the Chicago Botanic Garden holds an intensive 8-day Healthcare Garden Design Certificate of Merit Program, right on its beautiful campus. It is one of the few healthcare garden design certificate programs in the world and is an excellent way for students and professionals interested in this area of the field to really dive in. Instructors include experts such as Roger Ulrich, Clare Cooper Marcus, Teresia Hazen and many more (see the website for a full list of faculty. This will be my first year teaching there, about research – how to find the information you’re looking for when designing therapeutic gardens).

The first day of the program, on May 4th, is also available as a one-day seminar: Gardens That Heal: A Prescription for Wellness.

Registration is still open, but slots fill up quickly (they had a waiting list last year), so hurry!

Note: For information on other educational opportunities, see the Education page on the Therapeutic Landscapes Network website. And if you know of a program that isn’t on that page, please let us know.

Healthcare Garden Design Certificate of Merit Program

When: May 4-11, 2011
Where: Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe (near Chicago), IL

Healthcare garden design is an emerging area of specialization in which several professions converge to create environments of care. In this professional development program, attendees will discover the many ways gardens provide verifiable health benefits for their patients, staff, and visitors. The multidisciplinary program introduces the latest research in healthcare garden design, demonstrating the benefits of healthcare gardens while providing participants with the expertise, knowledge, and tools to effectively design, manage, and evaluate such gardens. These garden environments of care maximize the effectiveness of clinical treatments for illness and disabilities, and create passive garden experiences that significantly reduce staff stress and absenteeism, improve patient health, increase client satisfaction, and strengthen the bottom line.

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Upcoming Event – Play for Life: Exploring the Lifelong Benefits of Inclusive Play

Play for Life: Exploring the Lifelong Benefits of Inclusive Play

Here’s one more entry (and our last for a little while – lots of other stuff to be blogging about!) in our series on upcoming events:

Play for Life: Exploring the Lifelong Benefits of Inclusive Play

Play brings families, friends and communities together; it keep us fit and makes us smile. Research shows that play is a key element of development and health for individuals of all ages and abilities. Unfortunately, play is being threatened on every front in the U.S. It’s seen as a “children-only” activity, if it’s thought about at all. Furthermore, concerns around inclusive play are primarily discussed among disability experts and are not part of most community agendas. Please join our nation’s leading inclusive play experts for a thought-provoking, two-day symposium that examines the importance of play for all ages and abilities. Play for Life: Exploring the Lifelong Benefits of Inclusive Play will reignite your passion for play and inspire new ways to bring that passion to everyone in the community.

I would especially like to see Pamela Wolfberg’s presentation, “The Importance of Play to Children with Autism.”  Wolfberg is an Associate Professor, San Francisco State University and Autism Institute on Peer Socialization and Play. As you may remember, Tara Vincenta and I collaborated on a webinar this spring, “Nature-Based Learning and Play for Children with Autism and Special Needs.” You can read about it, and link to the webinar, from this TLN Blog post.

And to see a bunch more resources, in print and online, about play, children’s gardens, and the importance of nature for young people, visit the TLN’s Get Out and Play! page on our website.

Sponsored by Landscape Structures, the Play for Life symposium will take place on October 23-24 in Minneapolis, MN. There’s a discount if you register before September 20th. Visit their website for registration and more information.

And just after the symposium, the NRPA (National Recreation and Park Association) will be holding their annual congress (this year’s theme is “Connecting Communities”) in the same city, so if you can do both, go for it!

Upcoming Events with the Horticultural Therapy Institute

Continuing in our series on upcoming events, we have two with the Horticultural Therapy Institute:

On 9/1, a free webinar, “Programming that Enhances Growth.” See the HTI website for more details.

Leaders in Horticultural Therapy Education. In September and November, Leaders in Horticultural Therapy classes will be held in California, Colorado and Michigan.

Learn how to combine a passion for gardening and helping people through the innovative field of horticultural therapy. Join students from across the country to learn more by enrolling in Introduction to Horticultural Therapy this fall in one of three locations.

At the non-profit, Horticultural Therapy Institute (HTI), our mission is to provide education and training in HT to those new to, or experienced with, the practice of using gardening and plants to improve the lives of others. Our faculty is dedicated to teaching best practices with passion, and our past students form a community of learners that become horticultural therapy practitioners in a variety of settings. Take one class or the full certificate program and see how our curriculum can meet your needs. Students from a variety of disciplines find this program enriches their current vocation and can initiate a new career direction.
Horticultural Therapy Institute

Elkus Ranch: Half Moon Bay, CA
Sept. 23-26, 2010

Anchor Center for Blind Children: Denver, CO
Nov. 4-7, 2010

University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens: Ann Arbor, MI
Nov. 11-14, 2010

Class cost is $750 or $600 for full-time college students. Remaining certificate classes will be held in Colorado and California. Students can earn college credit from Colorado State University in order to meet the AHTA professional standards. For full class descriptions, schedules and enrollment forms go to our web site at www.htinstitute.org or call 303-388-0500.

Upcoming Event: ASLA Conference in Washington, D.C.

Maximilian Sunflower photo by Henry Domke

Maximilian Sunflower photo by Henry Domke, www.HenryDomke.com

American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Annual Meeting
September 10–13, 2010 (with a before-the-meeting tour on 9/9 – see below)
Washington, D.C., Walter E. Washington Convention Center

I can’t believe it’s only about a month away! Here are some events during (and even before) the 2010 ASLA conference that may be of interest to members of the TLN. I must say, I’m encouraged by the number and breadth of the events germane to our interests. Encouraging, indeed. Hope to see you there!

Thursday, 9/9
Informal Walking Tour of Restorative Landscapes
An informal walking tour, organized by members of the Healthcare and Therapeutic Design and Children’s Outdoor Environments PPNs, including the Vietnam Memorial, the USDA People’s Garden, the rooftop garden and labyrinth at the American Psychological Association, the Butterfly Garden, and the garden at the Native American Museum. See this TLN Blog post for more details, and/or visit the HTD PPN’s social networking page.

Friday, 9/10

Public Parks: The Key to Livable Communities (Education Session, 8:30-10:00)
Over the last 150 years, public parks have become an important part of the complex, modern metropolitan infrastructure on which entire regions depend for their physical, social, and mental health. They accommodate habitats and ecosystems, help to improve air and water quality and maintain habitable temperatures, and provide a framework around which metropolitan development takes place. They are not preserved natural environments. They are human artifacts explicitly created for recreational purposes and have become integral components of metropolitan living.

Edible Landscapes: Growing Roots in the Urban Realm (Education Session, 10:30-12:00)
Edible landscapes are sprouting up in response to slow food movement and a greener lifestyle, fast becoming communal spaces and eco-destinations. These organic demonstration models also provide educational opportunities, such as to combat child obesity. This session will present case studies of the edible landscape movement, providing specific tools on planning, designing, funding, and constructing traditional and nontraditional approaches, including victory gardens, green roofs, and vertical farming.

A Higher Level of Inclusive Play: Trends in Playground Design (Education Session, 10:30-12:00)
This session will provide resources for designing parks and playgrounds that facilitate a higher level of inclusive play for physical accessibility, developmental appropriateness, and sensory-stimulating activity. The benefits of a variety of sensory activities for all children will be presented along with examples, including tips and strategies on how small to major changes make playgrounds welcoming, engaging, challenging, and therapeutic.  The session will include ideas on how to plan inclusive playgrounds that communities embrace with pride.

Partners in Health: USGBC, GGHC, SITES, and Healing Hospital Settings (Education Session, 3:30-5:00)
Hospital expansion often comes at the expense of green space, and there is a need to maximize the respite provided by the remaining outdoor areas. Currently, LEED accommodates density through green roofs and other strategies that may not improve outdoor respite. USGBC, the Green Guide for health care, and SITES are working to assure areas of respite are incorporated into healthcare facility design. Case studies for two LEED hospital projects will relate the effectiveness of existing respite functions to the proposed criteria, potential branding, and revenue benefits.

Connecting Children With Nature (Education Session, 3:30-5:00)
Children’s contact with nature is critical for their healthy development. Research shows that green environments support attentive functions, cooperative behavior, and physical health. But the lack of quality outdoor environments prevents children and families from receiving those health benefits. This session will discuss the latest research on the effects of contact with nature and the critical role landscape architects play in counteracting ADD and sedentary habits. Participants will understand how to create natural environments as a daily experience for children and families.

Saturday, 9/11

General Session speaker Majora Carter (8-9:30 a.m.)
This is exciting because it’s a general session, meaning that many many people will be attending, and it speaks to the growing interest in and acknowledgement of the connectedness between the built environment,, programming, and health:
“Environmental and urban planning advocate Majora Carter advises cities, foundations, universities, businesses, and communities around the world on unlocking their green-collar economic potential to benefit everyone. In 2001, she founded Sustainable South Bronx to achieve environmental justice through economically sustainable projects formed by community needs. Today, through the Majora Carter Group, LLC, her work simultaneously addresses public health, poverty alleviation, and climate change. She is currently working in the city of Detroit on a project to train residents to become “urban agriculture technicians” and to organize a market for selling the products throughout the greater Detroit area. Carter’s work has earned numerous awards including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. She was named one of Essence magazine’s 25 Most Influential African-Americans and one of The New York Post’s Most Influential New York City Women. Newsweek named her one of “25 To Watch” in 2007 and one of the “century’s most important environmentalists” in 2008. She is a board member of the Wilderness Society and hosts a special National Public Radio series called “The Promised Land” and the Sundance Channel’s ‘Eco-Heroes.'”

Children’s Outdoor Environments Professional Practice Network meeting, 5:00-6:30 pm

Sunday, 9/12

General Session speaker Dr. Richard J. Jackson (8-9:30 a.m.)
And another great speaker! Yet more evidence of the turning tides:
“How does the physical environment in which we live affect our health? For years, evidence has linked adverse health outcomes with sprawling development. Dr. Richard J. Jackson is Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. A pediatrician and public health leader, he recently served as a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at the University of California, Berkeley. He served in many leadership positions with the California Health Department, including the highest, State Health Officer. For nine years he was Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta. In 2005, he was recognized with the highest civilian award for U.S. government service, the Presidential Distinguished Executive Award. While in California, his work led to the establishment of the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program and state and national laws that reduced risks, especially to farm workers and to children, from dangerous pesticides. While at CDC, he established the national asthma epidemiology and control program and advanced the childhood lead poisoning prevention program. He instituted the current federal effort to “biomonitor” chemical levels in the U.S. population. He was the U.S. lead under several U.S. government efforts around health and environment in Russia, including radiation threats. In the late 1990s, he was the award-winning CDC leader in establishing the U.S. National Pharmaceutical Stockpile to prepare for terrorism and other disasters—which was activated on September 11, 2001. In 2006, he received the Breast Cancer Fund’s Hero Award and at the UC Berkeley 2007 Commencement, the School of Public Health graduate students recognized him as the Distinguished Teacher and Mentor of the Year. Dr. Jackson co-authored Urban Sprawl and Public Health, a 2004 book from Island Press. He has served on many environmental and health boars, as well as the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Architects.”

Inside the LA Studio With Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Inc. (Education Session, 10:30-12:00)
Ten Eyck Landscape Architects is a member of the TLN’s Designers and Consultants Directory

Green Walls Research 2010: Growing Promise for the Vertical Landscape (Education Session, 10:30-12:00)
Vertical surfaces are providing new opportunities to meld science and landscape in the built environment. Findings from three North American studies describe opportunities to enhance designs with interior air bio-filtration using “living walls,” increase building energy efficiencies using green façades, and improve health and welfare through landscape applications.

Healthcare and Therapeutic Design Professional Practice Network meeting, 5:00-6:30 pm

Upcoming Event: Movie Night at the Portland Memory Garden

Senior Movie Night Portland Memory GardenSenior Movie Night, a benefit for the Portland Memory Garden

Join us for a night out in the park!
Bring your friends, family, blanket and a picnic basket to enjoy live entertainment, free popcorn, and an outdoor movie.

Featuring “That’s Entertainment”  with Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly and directed by Jack Haley Jr. as well as a resource fair, music, and raffle.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Resource Fair 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Opening Act: The Sounds of Rayvis (Elvis) 7:00 p.m.
Raffle drawings 7:45 p.m.
Movie starts at dusk (approximately 8:00 p.m.)

Where: Portland Memory Garden
SE 104th Ave & Powell Blvd
Portland, OR

This event is Disability Friendly. Bring dinner and drinks, blankets and/or chairs for seating and make this an “oldfashioned outdoor movie” event.

For more information, visit seniormovienight.com

To view Portland Parks & Recreation’s complete FREE FOR ALL Summer 2010 schedule, visit www.portlandonline.com/parks and click on the summer free for all icon! We hope to see you there!

Portland Memory Garden Plan

Portland Memory Garden Landscape Plan

The Portland Memory Garden is located in Portland, Oregon off SE Powell at 104th Avenue in the southeast corner of Ed Benedict Park. This very special garden is open to the entire community, but was designed to meet the special needs of those with memory disorders (such as Alzheimer’s disease) and to provide respite for their caregivers. The garden was dedicated in May 2002 and is one of eight memory gardens in the U.S., and one of only two built on public land.

Upcoming Event: Senior Neighborhood Nature Walk in Portland, OR

Innisfree, Millbrook, NY photo by Naomi Sachs

Innisfree Garden in Millbrook, NY - photo by Naomi Sachs

I’m still figuring out all the bells and whistles on WordPress, and for some reason, the “events” bell is eluding me. Therefore, the next few posts will be listings and details about several interesting upcoming events. Once I get things straightened out (suggestions from WP folks are more than welcome!), events will then be added to a list in the blog’s sidebar.

Senior Neighborhood Nature Walks at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center’s award-winning Stenzel Healing Garden in Portland, OR
Thursdays, Aug 19,  Sept 16,  Oct 21,  Nov 18, 2010, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
FREE.  No sign-up required.
Meet at the walking map sign.  We begin with a 20-minute garden tour followed by
a 60-minute escorted walk in the neighborhood to observe interesting plants,
heritage trees, architecture and more.
Why We Need to Walk More:
1. Walking helps you stay strong and fit. It helps increase bone
density, improves joint health, and increases muscle strength so you can continue
to do your daily activities.
2.Walking can lower health care costs. A daily walk could save you
more than $300 a year in doctor visits, hospitalization, and prescription drugs.
3. Walking can help decrease weight, body and belly fat. Women
who increased activity by an additional 3,500 steps a day lost 5 lbs in a year; men
8.5 lbs.

You can see some images of the Stenzel Healing Garden in this article from the Portland Longevity Examiner, “Legacy’s Healing Gardens,” by Micheline Ronningen

Questions? Contact Teresia Hazen at 503-413-6507 or thazen@lhs.org.

ASLA Healthcare and Therapeutic Design PPN Event: Informal Walking Tour in Washington, D.C.

Photo of the American Psychological Association's Rooftop Labyrinth by Lea Goode-Harris

Registration for the annual ASLA meeting (American Society of Landscape Architects) has begun, and it’ll be in Washington, D.C. this year, from September 10-13. But before you book your ticket, think about joining the Healthcare and Therapeutic Design (HTD) and Children’s Outdoor Environments Professional Practice Networks for a “meeting before the meeting” walking tour of some D.C. sites that relate to human health and well-being, on September 9th.

Here’s the write-up from the HTD PPN Therapeutic Landscapes Design social networking site (which is open to all):

“We plan to spend the day visiting sites on and along the Mall to generate discussions on how they relate to our common interest in Therapeutic Gardens.  We are considering several sites, including  the Vietnam Memorial, the Butterfly Garden, the Garden at the Native American Museum and the rooftop garden and labyrinth at the American Psychological Association.  After the site visits, we hope to gather and ‘debrief’ to share our thoughts.  The date is Sept. 9th, the day before the actual meeting. We will meet in the morning around 8:30 AM and continue through the day (you can join us in the afternoon, depending upon your travel plans.)  We will be sending out further information as we get closer to the date.  There is no cost and we will stop for lunch along the Mall. We will hope to continue the conversation at the PPN meeting on Saturday or Sunday.  We will be sending out further information in the coming weeks and asking you to RSVP for the event.”

If you’re interested in attending and don’t want to join the above-mentioned site, just leave a comment here and I’ll hook you up.

While researching for this blog post, I found a great post by Lea Goode-Harris about the APA’s rooftop garden and labyrinth on her blog Tales from the Labyrinth. Lots of good pictures! This is one of the many projects funded by the TKF Foundation; we’ve written about them in the past, and I’m sure we’ll be doing so again. They do great work. The APA labyrinth will be the first stop on our walking tour that day, and they are excited to show us around. In case you can’t make our “meeting before the meeting” but want to visit the green roof with labyrinth, it’s at 10 G Street, N.E., and is open to the public Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. You can get access by asking the guard at the front desk (this from the APA website).

And if you want more on labyrinths, check out the Therapeutic Landscapes Network’s Labyrinths page.