We are very fortunate to be working with a variety of highly skilled and trained experts in the Fayetteville and broader North Carolina area. Over the past three weeks, our planning committee has grown to include community volunteers from Cape Fear Botanical Gardens, Fayetteville Technical Community College, veterans organizations, research faculty from Duke University, and software program developers from Kryssalis Software, LLC.

Here is our progress report from May 19, 2019.

  1. Trauma Focused Therapeutic Community Gardens – (TFTC) Gardens is now registered as a non-profit organization in the state of North Carolina so fundraising can officially begin (Our Go Fund Me fundraiser page has gone live!).
  2. We now have military, veteran and police volunteers who will be joining the team to assist when we have a timeline firmed up.
  3. Master Gardener’s in Fayetteville, Cape Fear Botanical Gardens and Fayetteville technical college will be supporting the garden planting, etc. A landscape architect is creating a CAD drawing with all the measurements for accuracy moving forward. Soil sampling will take place in the coming weeks. Cape Fear Therapeutic Gardening program will guide us with therapeutic plants for the gardens and help guide us on sustainability and safety issues etc. Fayetteville Technical College has offered to provide some of the plants and assist with discounts on topsoils etc.
  4. Concrete contractors will be visiting the Cumberland Juvenile Detention Center next week.
  5. Plans will start taking place for a fund-raising event in Fayetteville and an online campaign (Tena Sonko with Cumberland Juvenile Detention Center is coordinating with us for a Plate Sale on June 28, 2019).
  6. Natasha is having talks at Duke University who will be assisting with the evaluation of this initiative.
  7. Natasha is also working on an iPad evaluation system and will be reaching out to tech folks (We have been in contact with Jayanthi Raghu with Kryssalis Software, LLC.).
  8. A new committee has been established for the artists involved in the project and a timeline is being established.
  9. The Cumberland Wellness Team are excited and involved as we progress.

We are thrilled about the amount of progress that has been made and we look forward to additional updates with volunteer dates and sponsorship opportunities soon! For more information about how you can be involved, visit our Volunteer/Donor interest page!

 

Cumberland Juvenile Detention Center, Garden News