'Oasis of peace': Battered Women's Shelter to create Healing Garden to help abuse victims

In garden boxes and random spots around the Battered Women’s Shelter’s playground last summer, women and children living at the shelter planted tomatoes, onions and herbs.

The women and children nurtured and watered the plants and, when they were ready, harvested them and made salsa for the residents at the Akron shelter to enjoy.

Shelter leaders hope to grow this excitement for gardening with a new Healing Garden that will soon be started on the shelter’s grounds.

“I think it’s an opportunity for the Battered Women’s Shelter to expand our current programming and how we approach survivors,” said Teresa Stafford, the new executive director of the shelter that houses about 150 people, half of them children.

The Battered Women’s Shelter of Summit and Medina Counties (BWS) recently received a $2,000 grant from the Millennium Fund for Children to help with the garden project.

The shelter was among 33 organizations awarded $55,000 in grants through the Millennium Fund, a partnership of the Akron Beacon Journal and the Akron Community Foundation. Since the fund launched in 1999, it has provided nearly $950,000 in grants to local groups that benefit children in the region.

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Studies point to the benefits of gardening

Stafford said studies have shown that gardening decreases stress and anxiety, both problems that often plague victims of domestic abuse.

“When you experience trauma, you lose something,” Stafford said. “Being able to grow something can help with that trauma.”

Stafford points as an example to a 2020 study published by the National Library of Medicine that showed residents in Singapore who participated in community gardening had a higher level of resilience and optimism. The study found a “potential for mental health benefits in urban environments” with community gardening.

BWS plans to continue the smaller garden started last summer around its playground and add a new, larger garden to a green space that’s located to the right of the shelter. This area, which is currently home to two trees and some ground cover, has largely been unused.

“It’s such a great space,” Stafford said on a recent afternoon as she surveyed the area where the garden will be located.

The space will include raised beds with vegetables and flowers, as well as benches and tables. She wants residents to have a say in what’s planted.

Stafford said they’ll need to buy container gardens, benches, seeds, dirt, garden tools and rain buckets. She’d also like to include a water feature that will provide a more calming sound than the passing traffic on Market Street.

Garden will benefit residents and employees, director says

Stafford thinks the garden will be beneficial not only for residents but also for the shelter’s employees, who often experience vicarious trauma through their clients. She’s hoping employees will meet with clients in the garden or go there when they need a break.

She'd like this to be “an oasis of peace” for employees and residents.

“Having space that’s outside that allows them to take in nature is an opportunity for them to just be able to breathe and to relax and to take in the beauty they may not have had the opportunity to take in in the midst of their trauma,” Stafford said.

Stafford said any produce grown in the garden will be used in the shelter’s kitchen. Residents will continue making salsa and may expand to other dishes, such as homemade pasta.

Garden planning to start after the holidays

After the holidays, shelter leaders will start planning the garden. They will begin growing seeds in the spring and hope the garden will be in full bloom by the summer.

Stafford would like to find community partners who can help with both planning and creating the garden, as well as teaching residents about gardening.

Marya Simmons, the shelter’s director of service, said shelter staff will be brainstorming how the garden can be used for educational purposes with residents and their children, such as teaching them about the science behind gardening and the importance of healthy eating. She said these lessons will be helpful when they leave the shelter and get into new housing.

Simmons, who, along with many other shelter employees, enjoys gardening, is excited about the project.

“We are looking forward to bringing in more color and a more Zen atmosphere around the shelter,” she said.

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com, 330-996-3705 and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj.

About the Battered Women’s Shelter

Location: 974 E. Market St. in Akron

24-hour hotline: 330-374-1111

Website: https://hopeandhealingresources.org

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Battered Women's Shelter starting Healing Garden to help abuse victims