Hello there beautiful human! Thank you for visiting our crowdfunding page!
We are Jay, Rose, Laura, Lilly & Enoch, and we are working hard to establish a transformative approach to therapeutic horticulture and regenerative models of care in the Adelaide Hills.
Our focus is on creating best-practice in human-centred mental health support, moving the dial for members of our community who experience marginalisation and developing a thriving community where we can all feel valued and supported. In order to do so, we require your help to get Topsoil off the ground.
THE JOURNEY THAT BROUGHT US HERE:
Throughout our careers in mental health, community development and hospitality, we have all witnessed how isolating modern life can be, especially for those that experience marginalisation. The launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) promised a new client-centred response to healthcare, which has produced varying levels of success. While the availability of individualised support has increased drastically, formerly block funded group-based programs have all but ceased to exist. This reduction in social participation for our most vulnerable has resulted in heavily siloed and disjointed communities.
Our modern allied-health services are often prescriptive and delivered in clinical ways without addressing the bottom-up model of needs - fundamentals of mental wellbeing and human connection. By contrast, we started to believe that healthcare is the work of the village, and is best delivered in nature-based locations whereby humans are recognised as part of the planet, and each other, not divorced from.
ARRIVING:
As many of us experienced in 2020, our worlds turned upside down. We have all collectively witnessed our communities growing sicker and less connected. This was the spark we needed to develop the Topsoil Garden Project. It is with great optimism that we prepare ourselves to undertake this mission.
Afterwork, over weekends, at dining tables and through countless hours of hard work we have created an initiative and business concept that we are genuinely proud of.
We have engaged a core group of community partners who will bring their collective knowledge, experience and skill to this project ranging from regenerative farming to healthcare and community development. We have established a talented group of professionals who will form our participant support team and business operations crew. We have secured a magical plot of land in Norton Summit to break ground on, with incidentally one of the awe-inspiring views of greater Adelaide.
We have people, place and purpose and we are ready to get the Topsoil Garden Project off the ground.
TOPSOIL GARDEN PROJECT:
Topsoil Garden Project will deliver community-based, nature-centric wellness services, supporting the needs of people experiencing mental ill-health and psychosocial disability. We seek to establish the Adelaide Hills as a thriving wellbeing ecosystem where people can access clinical care, support work and wellbeing services with a community that supports, enables and inspires them. We hope that through a dramatic reconceptualisation of function, communities can be skilled and empowered to provide kind, ethical and regenerative care.
This campaign is to raise funds for three critical aspects of the project:
- Building the Topsoil greenhouse and participant space
- Terracing & Earth Moving
- Employing a Garden Manager
The first critical component of this project will enable us to build our garden greenhouse that will house our seedlings and tools and be a space for participants to gather and welcome the community in. We believe that by encouraging participants to engage in the whole growth process of a plant from raising seedlings in our greenhouse to harvest stages and seed saving. We can provide participants with feelings of accomplishment, connection and purpose. Our greenhouse will also serve as a sheltered space for meetings and workshops. We also hope to enable participants to take home produce, ferments, compost and seeds for their own patch and broader community, thereby developing more resilient food systems throughout Adelaide. Through the generous support of our community partner, Spacecraft Design Build, we have envisioned the low-impact, sustainable design you see below.
The second critical component, the terracing and earthmoving of the Norton Summit site will enable us to make the land safe for our participants and start planting our first cover crop. We will focus initially on improving the soil to ultimately grow healthy, nutrient-dense harvests and plants that encourage beneficial insects and biodiversity. We also plan to sell the produce to the Scenic hotel. At the end of each season we will bring our participants, friends and community partners together for a harvest lunch, where we can create connections and friendships and ensure our participants feel supported and appreciated. Our sincere hope is that our participants can experience the pride of watching the Adelaide Hills community enjoy the fruits of their labour.
The third critical component is employing a Garden Manager. Our dear friend Lilly is both an experienced gardener and a long time volunteer of this project. Lilly has a strong vision for a multi-sensory garden landscape and will continue to work tirelessly to develop the garden space so that participants can get in and get gardening as soon as possible.
We have developed a detailed project brief, including a multi-year strategic development plan and budget. Once established we are confident that through connection to NDIS funding we can run a self-sustaining business model. The primary challenge is access to start-up capital. We have been self-funding this soon to be not-for-profit but we need a little more help to get us across the finish line. Our crowd-funding target will allow us to get-growing immediately, with the hopes that we can have participants onsite in the second half of 2022!
WHY HORTICULTURE THERAPY?:
Allow us to nerd out a little here:
People’s interactions with plants and soil, through goal-orientated horticultural activities in the form of active gardening, as well as the passive appreciation of nature could be therapeutic to people with mental disorders in many ways. Activities can be modified and adapted to suit the needs and individualised goals of those participating, as well as a collectivist approach to unify the group. It has been well documented that horticulture-based therapy programs meet the required balance of physical, mental, spiritual and social needs of a human (Wilcock, 2006; Parkinson et. al., 2011). As well as more granular benefits such as increased gross and fine motor skills (Parkinson et. al., 2011), faster recovery times from acute mental illness (Söderback, 2009), and indirect, non-threatening relationship building (Sempik & Aldridge, 2006). Horticulture therapy can also apply to vocational skill-building, as well as the solidifying of food security. Two especially important topics in marginalised communities.
OUR ULTIMATE GOAL:
Our big goal after the establishment of the Topsoil Garden Project is to:
- Expand to several sites across the Adelaide Hills that cater to participants' varying sensory, accessibility, and programmatic requirements.
- Invest in a diverse, evidence-based, holistic range of offerings through an allied health hub model.
- Provide clients with the assistance to broker, develop and refine relationships with support workers of their choosing.
- Enable community members to become support workers through experience-based and formalised training.
- Provide nature-based learning and skill development alongside potential employment opportunities to clients via a horticulture therapy garden and an integrated hotel business.
Thus creating a replicable community of care model that other communities can utilise to create welcoming, well and connected spaces for people experiencing mental ill-health and psychosocial disability.
WHO WE ARE:
Rose Lacoon Williamson, Founder & Business Development Lead
Rose works with young people at Youth Inc. Enterprise Academy a fully registered independent senior secondary school in the heart of the Adelaide CBD. Driven by a deep awareness of social justice and equity Rose has led programs to develop the South Australian Purpose Economy and Social Sector. Rose holds a Bachelor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and serves as a volunteer on the Board of the Social Impact Investment Network South Australia.
Laura Grace Miller, Founder, Lead Clinician & Registered Mental Health Nurse
Laura combines two major passions, mental health and gardening, within the Topsoil and Demeter Allied Health Garden Project. She aims to utilise her therapeutic skill set as a mental health nurse within the Topsoil garden and empower individuals to connect with the earth and with each other in a holistic and therapeutic manner. Her hope for this project is to create a true community of care and that individuals who enter this garden space leave feeling nourished, connected and inspired.
Jay Marinis, Founder & Provisional Psychologist
Jonathon completed the Bachelor of Psychological Science at Adelaide University, and then the four-year sequence through Monash University. His studies focused primarily on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), resilience and building a psychometric to promote protective factors. In practicing as a Provisional Psychologist, Jonathon currently uses a range of therapies such as traditional CBT, and strengths-based approaches such as ACT/DBT as well as systems theories such as Structural Family Therapy to assist people from all walks of life and all age groups. Jonathon is also undergoing a PhD project through Edith Cowan University, investigating the potential therapeutic use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy on young adults with ASD and related anxiety disorders. Jonathon hopes that Norton Summit will become a hub of community care, tru-hospitality, and a blueprint for how western healthcare can integrate with eastern philosophies of the gift.
Lilly Stephens, Founder & Head Gardener
Lilly has been working in the restaurant and food industry for over ten years. Specialising as a chef and dabbling in regenerative agriculture has led Lilly to The Topsoil Garden Project. Lilly has a deep passion for building and nurturing sustainable biological farming systems. “I would love for the garden to provide a physical and mental space that allows people to exist within the larger community and within their own being. My hope is to allow all people to experience the healing aspects of gardening, to gain a sense of food autonomy and to build their own communities”.
Enoch Yates, Project Manager
Enoch is a veteran of the South Australian hospitality industry. With a highly refined skill set in operations, management and macro thinking. Enoch has noticed the declining mental health of qhis field, as well as the wider community. With a passion for regenerative agriculture, farm-table restaurants and community spirit, Enoch is the bridge between The Scenic Hotel and The Topsoil Garden Project. Enoch hopes to bring the public back into our Public House, as well as revivify the industry he so loves.
WHY ARE WE CROWDFUNDING?:
As the saying goes, ‘the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.’
We have chosen to fundraise in this way because of this concept's integral connection to community. We want to be able to proudly say that we collectively raised this project from seed for the benefit of some of our society's most vulnerable people. Through funding our effort you are communicating to our future participants that they are vital and valued members of the collective. Demonstrating the spirit, character, image and pride of a healthy community. A feeling that people matter to one another with a shared faith that their needs will be met through commitment and togetherness. Being a part of a community can make us feel as though we are a part of something greater than ourselves. It is our sincere wish that we can convey this feeling to our participants.
We are applying for several philanthropic and government grants to complement contributions raised through the crowdfunding campaign and are set to host our annual Topsoil event in late April, proceeds of which will be directly reinvested into the garden project.
We will be absolutely blown away if we reach our goal and can commence operations at the Norton Summit site in the winter of 2022. This project has been a labour of love for many years and our ability to break ground will kickstart us on our journey to establishing a healthier South Australia.
If we meet or exceed our goal, we will be able to extend the scope and expand our operations. Additional funding would allow us to: engage in lived-experience consultation to strengthen our human-centred therapeutic approach, acquire additional farming equipment, further landscape the site, engage support workers and health practitioners and maybe even invest in further development of our long term goals of establishing an allied health-hub.
WHY SUPPORT US?:
For those that know us, we are incredibly passionate and hardworking individuals driven by the collective mission to improve the lives not only in our local community but on an open-source, macro scale. By no means do we seek to underestimate or diminish the tireless work of those within the mental health care system. However, through our own experience of the corporatisation and commodification of mental ill-health,we understand that the only foreseeable solution to meeting the catastrophic mental health crisis is through the availability of connected, multidisciplinary and meaningful services. We hope to be one such solution. We are an LGBTQIA+/women owned initiative and sincerely believe it is time that the future of health needs to be founded on diverse perspectives and distributed ownership.
Reference List:
Parkinson, S., Lowe, C., Vecsey, T. (2011). The therapeutic benefits of horticulture in mental health services. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 74(11), 525-534. https://doi.org/10.4276/030802211X13204135680901
Sempik, J., Aldridge, J. (2006). Care farms and care garden: Horticulture as therapy in the UK. Farming for Health, 17(10), 147-161. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4541-7_12
Söderback, I., Söderström, M., Schälander, E. (2004). Horticultural therapy; The ‘healing garden’ and gardening in rehabilitation measures at Danderyd hospital rehabilitation clinic, Sweden. Pediatric Rehabilitation, 7(4), 245-260. https://doi.org/10.1080/13638490410001611416
Wilcock, A. A. (2006) An Occupational Perspective of Health. 2nd ed. Thorofare, NJ: Slack.
(yeah, There's a reference list on our crowdfunding page, deal with it.)
