Home Farm Alumni News

Christine Pollard, Home Farm

*Photo contributed by Denise Sarauer

On August 14th we had our first Alumni BBQ at Home Farm!  And what a great time it was!  We had students and their partners from Ontario, Saskatchewan and BC, from earlier HT courses held at Providence Farm, the recent Live On-line program and HT Diploma students from Vancouver Island University.  We also had the pleasure of meeting the interns currently participating at Providence Farm from Chicago and BC.    We found out more about “Garden Pals”, an HT program facilitated by Carol Sim here in Duncan, a proposed program for people with Acquired Brain Injury in Peterborough, Ontario and potential HT programming for youth at risk in Saskatchewan.  New connections were made and information shared.  Thank you all for making the evening so pleasant.

Home Farm Alumni News included by Physical Therapy Assistant Schools as part of Top 50 Therapy Blogs.

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Emma Rooney, Home Farm Associate

March marked the official launch of the Home Farm Horticultural Therapy Certificate Live On Line. We successfully offered the first module, “What is Horticultural Therapy” over three days with students from across Canada and even a southern neighbor participating. The program takes place in a virtual classroom through Elluminate where the instructors speak to the class and present on a whiteboard. Each day begins with students describing what they see outside their windows and current temperatures in their area, connecting our weather patterns cross country. Students are also able to interact by raising their hands and adding their perspectives to the discussion. There is also the opportunity for student led presentations, video showings, web tours, file sharing and a message board.

At first everyone is a bit tentative about the technology but due to the ease of the set-up, quickly students are sold and we see true personalities being expressed online. A true on-line learning community is established with a group of people who are interested in engaging on the same topic. Thank you to all the first timers who took the risk to join us with this new venture. We hope to see you in Module 2 (coming in April). Thank you to Christine Pollard for providing another accessible horticultural therapy education platform and for allowing me to take part in the instruction and development of this exciting advancement for horticultural therapy in Canada and beyond.

By Christine Pollard in Duncan, BC.

Hi Everyone On Oct 30th I am on my way again to Santiago Chile to participate in a 2 week HT seminar with Marie Arana of Herbarium. This year is very special because Nancy Lee Colibaba is coming with me and participating also in the seminar! This is a great link between the Royal Botanical Gardens Canada and Herbarium Chile! Having Nancy adds a great deal of value to Marie’s course and highlights the HT in Canada internationally! Nancy, Marie and I will also have students arriving from Argentina and Costa Rica. A truly international affair! After Chile, my husband and I will be traveling onto Peru to tour a couple of ANIA (Association for Children & their Environment) projects. Check out the ANIA website.

Hello Alumni!

We have been putting together a Home Farm Horticultural Therapy Certificate Alumni News now for a couple of years that have included some very inspiring stories of students and life after the certificate.  Meg Hansen started us off on this newsletter enterprise and now Emma Rooney is taking the newsletter another step, into the edu.blogs world!  More networking plus more interaction equals more support!

My time as Education Director with the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association (CHTA) is now over after 2 years.  Together with the Education Team of Nancy Lee Colibaba, Emma Rooney, Tami Proctor, Don Weber, Alex Scott, Niamh Connery, and Stacey Wilson, we defined the CHTA expectation of a Horticultural Therapist by listing the HT competencies on the CHTA website; updated and put on the CHTA website internship guidelines hopefully encouraging all professionally registered HT’s to take mentor interns; with the legwork of Margaret Nevett, established the first HT group insurance; submitted to the CHTA Board educational guidelines for workshops, certificates, diplomas and degrees which will hopefully be approved this fall for membership guidance.   Emma Rooney has kindly taken over the Education Director position.  I will continue to support Emma and the rest of the Education Team as a member of the CHTA.

The CHTA conference in Calgary was very good!  We had a great assortment of speakers including Gwenn Fried of the Rusk Institute in New York.  I was thrilled that the rest of Canada had an opportunity to attend a CHTA conference and am hoping that hosts across Canada will take the opportunity as the Calgary Zoo did to partner with the CHTA and produce a wonderful conference.  The Calgary Zoo, Jane Reksten,  Gillian Cardwell and Rebecca Feasby worked hard at supporting Karen Ince of the CHTA to make the conference a success.  Thank you!!

The other great news is that Home Farm is going on line in 2009!  With the expense and impact of air travel on the environment and those that do not live close to a centre offering HT education plus the added expense of work leave, travel and accommodation, Home Farm on line will provide  a live on line virtual classroom experience with follow up HT activities and field trips at sites near the students.

Please continue to support this newsletter!  Write your stories however big or small, and continue to inspire future HT’s.  We must continue to support each other as much as we can because the support really does make a difference!!

Thanks,

Christine Pollard, Home Farm

Just in case you missed the last newsletter:

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