It is between the tomato plants and cucumber plants of an agricultural greenhouse located in the heart of downtown Montreal that a handful of young adults with physical disabilities meet every week to learn about the job market together and at their own pace.
It’s harvest day this Tuesday morning in the heart of the Voyageur block. An oasis of greenery, located in the middle of the gray concrete behemoths, welcomes these young people and their rehabilitation workers from the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal for the last time this year, to pick the vegetables they’ve been growing all summer.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
The gardening greenhouse is located at the back of the Voyageur island.
Since last May, this group of six young adults already receiving rehabilitation support has been participating in a CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal labour market integration project in partnership with the social greening organization Sentier Urbain. During 14 workshops, they were trained in managing a greenhouse and its vegetables under the supervision of a horticulturist.
“Before I started, I didn’t know the world of work and over time I learned a lot of things like growing vegetables and gardening techniques,” explains Giada Christophe.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Giada Christophe
It gave me confidence in myself and in others, but also to be attentive to instructions, to safety and to be sociable.
Giada Christophe
For this 23-year-old woman, who has hearing, language and motor disabilities, horticulture has also been a way to develop skills, while learning about this profession.
“I learned about the qualities needed to be in horticulture and to better understand my strengths and limitations,” adds Giada Christophe.
New skills
Each week, these budding young horticulturists have the opportunity to take home the fruit of their harvest. The rest goes to the stalls of a local market and to neighborhood organizations.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
A table lists the tasks to be completed each week or daily.
Happy with her participation in the project, Lucia Carias Barahona has already planned to re-register next year.
This 20-year-old woman, who suffers from hemiparesis and visual impairment, says she is proud of what she has been able to accomplish within the four walls of this greenhouse.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Lucia Carias Barahona
It was really stimulating, it gave me a certain sense of pride to see what I can create with my own hands. It also gave me a sense of sociability, because I didn’t feel alone anymore.
Lucia Carias Barahona
In addition to adding a line to his resume, the experience in the greenhouse allowed him to work on his motor skills.
“It helped me become a little more flexible and adopt good positions when bending over,” explains Lucia Carias Barahona. “It allowed me to develop skills, such as how to hold the fruit properly when picking it, but also [savoir] ask for help.
At the end of the project, each of the young adults leaves with a letter of recommendation written by the horticulturist who supervised them.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Giada Christophe drops off freshly harvested vegetables before they are weighed and distributed.
Filling a “service gap”
For social worker at the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal Eve Dutil-Paquette, this partnership between the clinical approach and horticulture allows these young people, above all, to gain work experience at a pace that is suited to them.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Eve Dutil-Paquette, social worker, and Geneviève Lamy, occupational therapist
“Access to the workplace is complex for them, because it is a fast pace that is stressful and they have to be good at it quickly,” explains Eve Dutil-Paquette.
Horticulture was an interesting avenue because it is a profession that offers employment opportunities, and in which the stress level is much lower for these young adults who need a lot of repetition, calm and serenity.
Eve Dutil-Paquette, social worker
According to her, the project, which is part of the Transition from School to Working Life in Physical Disabilities Program (TEVA-DP), responds to a lack of services for young adults with physical disabilities.
“There’s really a gap in service between pediatrics and young adults, where they’re falling through the cracks,” she said. “They’re finding themselves not having the services they need to take flight and thrive.”
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
The horticulture project provides support to young people outside the institutional framework.
For occupational therapist Geneviève Lamy, this project also makes it possible to support this clientele far from the institutional framework imposed by the rehabilitation environment.
“It’s something so tangible because they’re in it and they see it for real,” she says. “It’s not like when we talk about it theoretically in our offices. Here, we’re really in reality and we’re trying it out to see how it goes.”
Obvious benefits
Sentier Urbain horticulturist Michael Pereira is proud to have taught these young people the “basic experience for working in a greenhouse.”
“Social horticulture is not found much elsewhere,” he says. “I find it very rewarding to be able to support marginalized young people in a type of learning, it’s something they wouldn’t have been able to have elsewhere.”
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Urban Trail horticulturist Michael Pereira distributes the day’s tasks to the youth.
Over the months, the clinical team of the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal was able to observe the benefits of this experience on their young adults, whether on their communication skills, taking initiatives or having the appropriate behavior when dealing with an employer.
“We realized here the full extent of what Sentier Urbain could bring to our youth,” explains TEVA-DP program manager Anthony Ayotte. “This summer, I really noticed that our youth literally grew up at the same time as their plants.”