PreventConnect (00:01.194) Resources for survivors of violence are really limited and they are shared among multiple counties. A lot of us have been denied that access to nature. It really is a big picture idea here. What does a garden have to do with sexual violence prevention? Community green spaces like parks, gardens, and labyrinths are directly tied to community health and well -being. They improve our access to healthy foods, activities, and chances to connect with our neighbors and peers. But how can greenery impact how we treat each other? How can the seeds we plant in our community gardens continue to grow in our homes, our families, and our children's lives? In the past few years, a growing number of people in the anti -violence movement have been exploring the connection between green spaces and and rates of sexual violence. They're discovering what indigenous communities and grassroots organizers have known for a long time, that gardens have the power to do more than just feed us. When done right, with intentionality and partnership with communities, a garden can heal, it can teach, and it can transform. But a garden itself is just a garden. It's the people and the care behind it that transforms. For this episode of PreventConnect, I'm sitting down with the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence and their local partners, the Hope Shores Alliance, to talk about their brand new initiative to introduce community gardens to rural northern Michigan. how gardens are bringing people together to prevent violence and Michigan's dreams for where their gardens can grow. Coming up on this episode of PreventConnect. Janae Sargent (she/they) (00:00) right. Hi. Oh my gosh. I am so excited to be joined by Sarah, Andrew, and Paige, my incredible guests all the way from Michigan today. Paige, Aliyah, and Andrew Bach from Hope Shores Alliance and Sarah Carter from the Michigan Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. Welcome Sarah, Andrew, Paige. Hi. How are you? Paige Allia (she/they) (00:25) Thanks so much for having us. Doing well on this end. Sarah (00:29) Yes, thank you so much. Doing well. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (00:33) Glad to be here, thank you. Janae Sargent (she/they) (00:36) Yeah, well, we are excited to have you, especially on the heels of our Greening and Growing web conference. I'm really excited to kind of hear about green spaces and sexual violence prevention and what that actually looks like for local programs. Also a really exciting note for our audio listeners, this is our first episode of season four of Prevent Connect. And we're making some accessibility changes that we're really excited about. So in addition to our audio podcast that we host, we're also gonna start cross-posting to YouTube. And we have done that before, but what's different now is that if you're listening to all of us and you wanna see Sarah, Paige, Andrew and I, you wanna see our faces, reactions, and kind of most importantly, check out the live captioning so you can follow along. You can find that on YouTube. It's also gonna be at preventconnect.org. So this is my first video podcast. So thank you, Andrew, Paige, and Sarah for kind of being my guinea pigs. I appreciate you. Paige Allia (she/they) (01:42) You know, I don't think I realized this was your first video podcast. That's really exciting. Janae Sargent (she/they) (01:48) Thank you. Yeah, and I say that now, we'll see how easy this is when I actually go in to edit it. But right now we're feeling very optimistic about But let's just kind of jump right in. Can you tell me, tell our audience, a little bit about who you are and how you all know each other? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (02:11) Thank you so much, Janay. Well, I am Andrew Balk. I am from Hope Shores Alliance along with Paige Alia, and I am our prevention specialist currently working in rural greening. page. Paige Allia (she/they) (02:30) sure. I wasn't sure if you're gonna add a little, I don't know, fun fact or something to that, but I'm Paige Aulia. You see they pronouns and I'm the Prevention and Community Services Coordinator. I am still getting used to that title. It's a shift for me and it's a mouthful. I've been with Hope Shores since sometime during the pandemic. Time is an absolute illusion. I think, Janay, we were talking about that earlier. So it was just sometime during the pandemic that I started And I absolutely love this work and the connection that it has to the communities that we're in, in terms of growing our communities into safer places. Sarah (03:16) Awesome. Hi, I'm Sarah Carter. I use the Aishihe pronouns. I am currently in my last semester of my master's program at Michigan State. I'm originally from Springfield, Virginia, plan on moving back and doing greening work there. And I've just learned so much from Hope Shores, from the coalition. And I'm just really excited to take this work into my future career and talk a little bit about what we've been doing today. Janae Sargent (she/they) (03:42) Fantastic. Thank you so much for introducing yourselves. And I think, know, there are a lot of things that make this podcast episode really exciting for me. One of those is that we get to have a conversation with both the coalition and the local partner. So for people who are not familiar with how it kind of works in the sexual violence prevention space, you have like federal funders. like the CDC who helps to fund PreventConnect, you're really grateful for them. And then you have state coalitions and health departments that then get that money. And then those state coalitions and health departments then pick local programs to implement the project. So there are like a lot of different levels where projects can kind of break down. But I know for you all in Michigan, you work really closely at the coalition and at the local program to make this stuff So I'm really excited for that. And you also have talked a little bit about greening. We're here to talk about greening today. And for people who don't know what greening is, especially when it comes to sexual violence prevention, it's really just referencing the connection between green spaces and safer communities, which is kind of a novel concept when it comes to sexual violence prevention, because when we think about consent and sexual violence, we think about healthy relationships education. We think about bystander intervention. We think about social norms change campaigns. So when you start talking about trees and gardens, my first thought, I'm a nature person and I still was like, I don't get it. So let's kind of start like high level. Can you tell me a little bit about the connection as you understand it between green spaces and safer communities? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (05:29) Sure, absolutely. green spaces in can be what we know are what we know as third spaces. So this can be represented by our libraries, our parks, and now the addition of green spaces. And green spaces specifically can foster self-empowerment through community involvement. And when you have a green space, you're connecting to nature in a free way. You're not paying to be there. So this can be accessible to all populations of our community, especially if we have it in town for those without cars or those who are not able to really get out into the wilderness out here. Janae Sargent (she/they) (06:32) Thank you for that explanation. That makes a lot of sense. And Paige, I feel especially grateful to have you on the podcast today. From what I understand, you actually have some experience working with green spaces and community gardens prior to your sexual violence work. So how do you see that connection? How did you see that in practice? Can you tell me a little bit about your professional history? Paige Allia (she/they) (06:58) Sure. So honestly, when this proposal was originally written, and I'm hearing about greener spaces in rural communities, I was wildly confused. I didn't understand the connection right off the bat, because I was like, we are surrounded by green. What does this mean? And then when folks started talking about like what that actual connection was, I realized, oh, it's just specific language. So a lot of what Andrews already spoke about, like that positive interaction between community members and nature is exactly what speaks to healthier communities. So we know that there are vast benefits to community gardens from the physical wellbeing to the mental emotional wellbeing. And these impact us on all levels, as well as like on our spirits, spiritual level. So it reconnects us to nature and to the earth. I know you asked about my background with this. So in grad school, I focused in anthropology and sociology on urban community gardens from the Kalamazoo area across the state over to Detroit and was a part of implementing these more than a decade ago at this point. And some of the... the first community gardens that were really cropping up in some of these urban areas and that were being adapted from other spaces across the US to cultivate spaces of connection. And really a big push with those ones at the time was about like the local food movement and really knowing where our foods are coming from. So the thing that I took away from all of that was that there's this innate sense of belonging when we learn how to grow our own food, plants, flowers, and then being able to share this with one another, whether it's exchanging veggies with a neighbor because maybe they're having a more successful pea crop. I can't for the life of me grow peas, so that is always the example I think of there. Or maybe it's talking with local farmers at a farmer's market, or maybe it's being a part of a community-supported agriculture share. And of course, connecting in any of these shared garden spaces, like with your neighbors, that maybe you don't necessarily know. Janae Sargent (she/they) (09:31) really appreciate you sharing that page. And we're gonna come back to that rural piece of it too. We recently hosted a web conference that's available at preventconnect.org and Joseph from the Michigan Coalition was sharing and I thought this was such a poignant and really funny thing. He was sharing. When we talk about green spaces and sexual violence we don't expect, it's not like we're planting trees and then trees are going to swat away a perpetrator. That's not how it works. It's not just green spaces exist, so sexual violence doesn't happen. When we think about why sexual violence exists in the first place, we think about those key factors like, food insecurity, housing insecurity, economic disparities, racism and sexism. We have to think about how we can address those bigger factors. And Green Spaces Community Gardens and that community connection piece that you just shared about is such an important piece that touches on all of those things. Part of PreventConnect and Why We Exist is to highlight really innovative and new strategies to prevent sexual violence and create healthier communities. And I think greening is a perfect example of one of those strategies. I very rarely chat with people and they like understand immediately. And I have to kind of remind them, well, we don't have the evidence behind it yet. We have a growing amount of evidence. But what we're doing right now is building that evidence base. And you all are a part of that, which is really, really exciting. You're some of the first people who are doing this work. And that brings me to you, because this project wouldn't be possible without the excitement of the coalition. And I know that you all were a huge part of why this even got started. So I know that you really drove the push to incorporate greening into Michigan's violence prevention work. What made you all as a state coalition want to explore the connection between green spaces and sexual violence? Sarah (11:43) Yeah, so I had the opportunity, I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier, I'm an with the with the prevention team. So I've just been jumping into this as like the first year of this grant cycle. And previously, the coalition did a lot of work at the state level. And we were really curious about what it would look like at a rural, much more community based and local level. those sort of steward leaders and like creating these mutual relationships with local organizations that have a much more, much keener eye on what's really going on where they're Being able to provide the support, the resources for Hope Shores has been really awesome. And personally, I have been really interested in the same way that Paige has within like just environmental justice, food sovereignty, which is allowing people to grow their own food, know where their food comes from. And as a survivor myself, I have gardened for many years. And I just, the healing effects, not only the prevention side, but the healing effects of being connected with the land, seeing how the bugs interact with the plants and the cycles of the weather. And it reminds you like I am nature as And I did a lot of research in this sort of, the spirituality behind nature as well. Did a lot of research of indigenous wisdom. and have learned a lot through that and really honor that in a lot of our work as well, making sure that we're honoring the local land, the local plants, not just bringing in stuff that is aesthetically pleasing, but benefits future generations as well, and really nourishes our communities and provides medicine and food and all that And of course, the community organizing piece of it as well, like... I think a lot of us have been denied as Americans and around the world that access to nature. And it's so liberating to finally be able to access that even as just a pocket behind a house, like a little garden, even it's just a little tiny space in a little park. We like just seeing the joy on people's faces when you like walk them through your garden or you go into the woods with them, it's And... you know, the benefits are similar to therapy, right? Like the psychological benefits that the peace it brings people, seeing resilience happen in real time with other parts of nature, seeing it happen in plants and realize, oh my gosh, like this can happen to me And I think that's been making me really curious about how this works at a rural level. And I've just been learning every day from the team. Yeah. I hope that answered your question. Janae Sargent (she/they) (14:29) Oh, Sarah. Oh my gosh. Yes. And you went above and beyond to answer my question. am so appreciative that you brought that up. And you're reminding me to make a really intentional note here. You know, we're talking about green spaces as this novel and new concept. We also need to acknowledge it's actually not a novel and new concept. Green spaces and healing has been happening in local communities for... a long time. It's been happening in Indigenous communities for a long time. It's new to the professionalized movement to end sexual violence. As we often see with health equity stuff and health disparity and anti-oppression, it takes the professional movement quite a bit longer to take it on and then we treat it like this new thing. There is this idea that we talked about in our web conference about greening. decolonizing sexual violence prevention. And I think green spaces and gardening is a really great example of that. It's also a great example of the connection between healing and prevention. We often talk about healing after violence as something totally separate from prevention, but they can happen at the same time and they have been for a long So I think it's a really important piece and intentionality. to really take time to learn about indigenous work with green spaces and connection to the land and to ground ourselves in that moving forward rather than being like, oh yeah, like the CDC says this is new, so it's new. There are so many different levels of learning to the connection between green spaces and sexual violence prevention. And we're really just like going for it in this podcast because I'm expecting people. to understand the connection between green spaces and healthy communities, the connection to sexual violence and now in rural areas. So I think if we think about an area like San Francisco or Detroit where there might not be a lot of green spaces, it can make, you know, some, it can make sense to be like, okay, yes, more parks equals more community gatherings, but you all are in a very rural area and you already have a lot of green spaces. So... Why are you taking on this project? How does rural greening differ from what we typically think about when we think about community Janae Sargent (she/they) (00:00) Hi. Oh my gosh. I am so excited to be joined by Sarah, Andrew, and Paige, my incredible guests all the way from Michigan today. Paige, Aliyah, and Andrew Bach from Hope Shores Alliance and Sarah Carter from the Michigan Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. Welcome Sarah, Andrew, Paige. Hi. How are you? Paige Allia (she/they) (00:25) Thanks so much for having us. Doing well on this end. Sarah (00:29) Yes, thank you so much. Doing well. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (00:33) Glad to be here, thank you. Janae Sargent (she/they) (00:36) Yeah, well, we are excited to have you, especially on the heels of our Greening and Growing web conference. I'm really excited to kind of hear about green spaces and sexual violence prevention and what that actually looks like for local programs. Also a really exciting note for our audio listeners, this is our first episode of season four of Prevent Connect. And we're making some accessibility changes that we're really excited about. So in addition to our audio podcast that we host, we're also gonna start cross-posting to YouTube. And we have done that before, but what's different now is that if you're listening to all of us and you wanna see Sarah, Paige, Andrew and I, you wanna see our faces, reactions, and kind of most importantly, check out the live captioning so you can follow along. You can find that on YouTube. It's also gonna be at preventconnect.org. So this is my first video podcast. So thank you, Andrew, Paige, and Sarah for kind of being my guinea pigs. I appreciate you. Paige Allia (she/they) (01:42) You know, I don't think I realized this was your first video podcast. That's really exciting. Janae Sargent (she/they) (01:48) Thank you. Yeah, and I say that now, we'll see how easy this is when I actually go in to edit it. But right now we're feeling very optimistic about But let's just kind of jump right in. Can you tell me, tell our audience, a little bit about who you are and how you all know each other? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (02:11) Thank you so much, Janay. Well, I am Andrew Balk. I am from Hope Shores Alliance along with Paige Alia, and I am our prevention specialist currently working in rural greening. page. Paige Allia (she/they) (02:30) sure. I wasn't sure if you're gonna add a little, I don't know, fun fact or something to that, but I'm Paige Aulia. You see they pronouns and I'm the Prevention and Community Services Coordinator. I am still getting used to that title. It's a shift for me and it's a mouthful. I've been with Hope Shores since sometime during the pandemic. Time is an absolute illusion. I think, Janay, we were talking about that earlier. So it was just sometime during the pandemic that I started And I absolutely love this work and the connection that it has to the communities that we're in, in terms of growing our communities into safer places. Sarah (03:16) Awesome. Hi, I'm Sarah Carter. I use the Aishihe pronouns. I am currently in my last semester of my master's program at Michigan State. I'm originally from Springfield, Virginia, plan on moving back and doing greening work there. And I've just learned so much from Hope Shores, from the coalition. And I'm just really excited to take this work into my future career and talk a little bit about what we've been doing today. Janae Sargent (she/they) (03:42) Fantastic. Thank you so much for introducing yourselves. And I think, know, there are a lot of things that make this podcast episode really exciting for me. One of those is that we get to have a conversation with both the coalition and the local partner. So for people who are not familiar with how it kind of works in the sexual violence prevention space, you have like federal funders. like the CDC who helps to fund PreventConnect, you're really grateful for them. And then you have state coalitions and health departments that then get that money. And then those state coalitions and health departments then pick local programs to implement the project. So there are like a lot of different levels where projects can kind of break down. But I know for you all in Michigan, you work really closely at the coalition and at the local program to make this stuff So I'm really excited for that. And you also have talked a little bit about greening. We're here to talk about greening today. And for people who don't know what greening is, especially when it comes to sexual violence prevention, it's really just referencing the connection between green spaces and safer communities, which is kind of a novel concept when it comes to sexual violence prevention, because when we think about consent and sexual violence, we think about healthy relationships education. We think about bystander intervention. We think about social norms change campaigns. So when you start talking about trees and gardens, my first thought, I'm a nature person and I still was like, I don't get it. So let's kind of start like high level. Can you tell me a little bit about the connection as you understand it between green spaces and safer communities? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (05:29) Sure, absolutely. green spaces in can be what we know are what we know as third spaces. So this can be represented by our libraries, our parks, and now the addition of green spaces. And green spaces specifically can foster self-empowerment through community involvement. And when you have a green space, you're connecting to nature in a free way. You're not paying to be there. So this can be accessible to all populations of our community, especially if we have it in town for those without cars or those who are not able to really get out into the wilderness out here. Janae Sargent (she/they) (06:32) Thank you for that explanation. That makes a lot of sense. And Paige, I feel especially grateful to have you on the podcast today. From what I understand, you actually have some experience working with green spaces and community gardens prior to your sexual violence work. So how do you see that connection? How did you see that in practice? Can you tell me a little bit about your professional history? Paige Allia (she/they) (06:58) Sure. So honestly, when this proposal was originally written, and I'm hearing about greener spaces in rural communities, I was wildly confused. I didn't understand the connection right off the bat, because I was like, we are surrounded by green. What does this mean? And then when folks started talking about like what that actual connection was, I realized, oh, it's just specific language. So a lot of what Andrews already spoke about, like that positive interaction between community members and nature is exactly what speaks to healthier communities. So we know that there are vast benefits to community gardens from the physical wellbeing to the mental emotional wellbeing. And these impact us on all levels, as well as like on our spirits, spiritual level. So it reconnects us to nature and to the earth. I know you asked about my background with this. So in grad school, I focused in anthropology and sociology on urban community gardens from the Kalamazoo area across the state over to Detroit and was a part of implementing these more than a decade ago at this point. And some of the... the first community gardens that were really cropping up in some of these urban areas and that were being adapted from other spaces across the US to cultivate spaces of connection. And really a big push with those ones at the time was about like the local food movement and really knowing where our foods are coming from. So the thing that I took away from all of that was that there's this innate sense of belonging when we learn how to grow our own food, plants, flowers, and then being able to share this with one another, whether it's exchanging veggies with a neighbor because maybe they're having a more successful pea crop. I can't for the life of me grow peas, so that is always the example I think of there. Or maybe it's talking with local farmers at a farmer's market, or maybe it's being a part of a community-supported agriculture share. And of course, connecting in any of these shared garden spaces, like with your neighbors, that maybe you don't necessarily know. Janae Sargent (she/they) (09:31) really appreciate you sharing that page. And we're gonna come back to that rural piece of it too. We recently hosted a web conference that's available at preventconnect.org and Joseph from the Michigan Coalition was sharing and I thought this was such a poignant and really funny thing. He was sharing. When we talk about green spaces and sexual violence we don't expect, it's not like we're planting trees and then trees are going to swat away a perpetrator. That's not how it works. It's not just green spaces exist, so sexual violence doesn't happen. When we think about why sexual violence exists in the first place, we think about those key factors like, food insecurity, housing insecurity, economic disparities, racism and sexism. We have to think about how we can address those bigger factors. And Green Spaces Community Gardens and that community connection piece that you just shared about is such an important piece that touches on all of those things. Part of PreventConnect and Why We Exist is to highlight really innovative and new strategies to prevent sexual violence and create healthier communities. And I think greening is a perfect example of one of those strategies. I very rarely chat with people and they like understand immediately. And I have to kind of remind them, well, we don't have the evidence behind it yet. We have a growing amount of evidence. But what we're doing right now is building that evidence base. And you all are a part of that, which is really, really exciting. You're some of the first people who are doing this work. And that brings me to you, because this project wouldn't be possible without the excitement of the coalition. And I know that you all were a huge part of why this even got started. So I know that you really drove the push to incorporate greening into Michigan's violence prevention work. What made you all as a state coalition want to explore the connection between green spaces and sexual violence? Sarah (11:43) Yeah, so I had the opportunity, I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier, I'm an with the with the prevention team. So I've just been jumping into this as like the first year of this grant cycle. And previously, the coalition did a lot of work at the state level. And we were really curious about what it would look like at a rural, much more community based and local level. those sort of steward leaders and like creating these mutual relationships with local organizations that have a much more, much keener eye on what's really going on where they're Being able to provide the support, the resources for Hope Shores has been really awesome. And personally, I have been really interested in the same way that Paige has within like just environmental justice, food sovereignty, which is allowing people to grow their own food, know where their food comes from. And as a survivor myself, I have gardened for many years. And I just, the healing effects, not only the prevention side, but the healing effects of being connected with the land, seeing how the bugs interact with the plants and the cycles of the weather. And it reminds you like I am nature as And I did a lot of research in this sort of, the spirituality behind nature as well. Did a lot of research of indigenous wisdom. and have learned a lot through that and really honor that in a lot of our work as well, making sure that we're honoring the local land, the local plants, not just bringing in stuff that is aesthetically pleasing, but benefits future generations as well, and really nourishes our communities and provides medicine and food and all that And of course, the community organizing piece of it as well, like... I think a lot of us have been denied as Americans and around the world that access to nature. And it's so liberating to finally be able to access that even as just a pocket behind a house, like a little garden, even it's just a little tiny space in a little park. We like just seeing the joy on people's faces when you like walk them through your garden or you go into the woods with them, it's And... you know, the benefits are similar to therapy, right? Like the psychological benefits that the peace it brings people, seeing resilience happen in real time with other parts of nature, seeing it happen in plants and realize, oh my gosh, like this can happen to me And I think that's been making me really curious about how this works at a rural level. And I've just been learning every day from the team. Yeah. I hope that answered your question. Janae Sargent (she/they) (14:29) Oh, Sarah. Oh my gosh. Yes. And you went above and beyond to answer my question. am so appreciative that you brought that up. And you're reminding me to make a really intentional note here. You know, we're talking about green spaces as this novel and new concept. We also need to acknowledge it's actually not a novel and new concept. Green spaces and healing has been happening in local communities for... a long time. It's been happening in Indigenous communities for a long time. It's new to the professionalized movement to end sexual violence. As we often see with health equity stuff and health disparity and anti-oppression, it takes the professional movement quite a bit longer to take it on and then we treat it like this new thing. PreventConnect (00:01.454) You're listening to PreventConnect, the podcast bringing together voices from across the movement to end gender and power -based violence to give you the tools to practice primary prevention in your daily life and at work. We're highlighting emerging research, promising strategies and stories from on the ground prevention practitioners doing this work in new and innovative ways. bringing you topics like foundational strategies to prevent violence, primary prevention and youth engagement, critical race theory and school climates, prevention in a digital age, and more. I'm your host, Janae Sargent, and this is PreventConnect. There is this idea that we talked about in our web conference about greening. decolonizing sexual violence prevention. And I think green spaces and gardening is a really great example of that. It's also a great example of the connection between healing and prevention. We often talk about healing after violence as something totally separate from prevention, but they can happen at the same time and they have been for a long So I think it's a really important piece and intentionality. to really take time to learn about indigenous work with green spaces and connection to the land and to ground ourselves in that moving forward rather than being like, oh yeah, like the CDC says this is new, so it's new. There are so many different levels of learning to the connection between green spaces and sexual violence prevention. And we're really just like going for it in this podcast because I'm expecting people. to understand the connection between green spaces and healthy communities, the connection to sexual violence and now in rural areas. So I think if we think about an area like San Francisco or Detroit where there might not be a lot of green spaces, it can make, you know, some, it can make sense to be like, okay, yes, more parks equals more community gatherings, but you all are in a very rural area and you already have a lot of green spaces. So... Why are you taking on this project? How does rural greening differ from what we typically think about when we think about community Andrew Balk V (HSA) (17:27) This is a wonderful question and really it's the process of... connecting our community together and connecting to our community in the area. So when we think of rural areas, a lot of the times you're seeing farms and you're seeing a whole bunch of plots of land that is being used for food, but most of the times those are going off to, or the food is usually being grown towards major corporations or big chain grocery stores, and it is rare to have that food. go locally. So we are trying to participate in, at least if we're talking about growing food and food liberation, we are trying to connect with that community. We're trying to give self-liberation to those around us and also beautification of our rural areas. A lot of our rural areas, I mean we're not backwards, you know, but we still have lack of funding towards our towns and we also have people on city councils where our funds are not being directed towards the beautification of our places, which can lead to depression, which can lead to violence. It really is a big picture idea here. Like you were saying with these ideas that are being forwarded by the CDC and in this research, it is using these big picture items with the focus towards preventing And the difference in rural communities from urban areas is really only just... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Paige Allia (she/they) (19:19) I think there's... Janae Sargent (she/they) (19:32) No, that's okay. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (19:34) I don't know why, I'm just so nervous. Janae Sargent (she/they) (19:37) That's okay, you're doing great. You're doing absolutely amazing. Do you want to kind of, you can take a moment and collect your thoughts and then I know Paige maybe had something to add and then we can come back to you after. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (19:49) Yes, yes please. Paige Allia (she/they) (19:53) I was thinking about what Andrew was saying about where our communities are able to put in funding and resources back into the communities. And I think, one, it's very important. But I think that oftentimes where that focuses is in areas that are already receiving a lot of funding. Whereas what we're looking at... really making an impact are the areas that people are not feeling safe in. So we're looking at the areas that are less developed, maybe like have like a lot of overgrown grasses, the places that aren't getting the care that they deserve. So all of those kinds of spaces. So what it does is those other spaces are getting the supports already wonderful. And we're going to come at this from another angle. add to what is happening in the communities as Andrew Balk V (HSA) (20:57) I love that in addition to what you were saying, to funding. We do see funding going towards rural towns, but those towns are usually tourist destinations. And the majority of the country that is rural is not a tourist We are just simple people, well, living complex lives, you know, in our nice little area. Janae Sargent (she/they) (21:28) It is so interesting that you said that, Andrew. So I currently live in a rural for people who are not watching the video, I use air quotes, rural area on the Central Coast of California. It's bougie as heck here. And I'm not saying we don't need resources, we don't need funding. We absolutely do. I grew up in what I would consider a real rural area of California. And so when I came to the Central Coast and started writing grants and saw that we were categorized as rural, I was like, what do you mean? We have a huge university and we're right next to Big Sur and everybody here has wine memberships and everybody's very rich. Like we don't, it's a different kind of rural, you know? So like the green spaces where I currently live are probably very different. than the green spaces in a lot of areas where Hope Shores is And Andrew, I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but you grew up in the area that you are now working in. Is that correct? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (22:42) Um, no, but I did grow up in an extremely desolate area in North Idaho. And, uh, we lived in the boonies and the mountains. Um, Janae Sargent (she/they) (22:49) Okay. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (22:54) Coming from my experience of living in rural places, we did not have a lot of funding. We were very self-reliant and we had to connect our community through very solid practices. It took a long time for our community to really grow, not in the sense of population or wealth, but as a So I'm gonna or I'm trying to take those lessons that I learned from where I grew up to here in northern Michigan Janae Sargent (she/they) (23:18) Thank you for sharing. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (23:28) where a lot of our community is disjointed and a lot of our board members on the city council don't necessarily want to advocate for change. Janae Sargent (she/they) (23:28) Thank you. that makes a lot of sense. Well, could you all maybe before we dive in to some of the evidence behind this, and I know, Sarah, you have some of that, why don't you help to paint a picture of what it's like in the area that Hope Shores is located in, in rural Michigan? What is it like where you're all Paige Allia (she/they) (24:06) I'd be happy to do that. So firstly, I wanna start with saying, and perhaps I'm a little biased because I am a Northeast, lower Michigan farm kid at heart. I did grow up in this area. So we live in one of the most beautiful natural areas surrounded by lakes and forests and rivers. It is an outdoor person's dream. And sometimes we try to keep this a secret so we can contain it to ourselves. But as Andrew already mentioned, we are very dependent on tourism in the area as well. We are on the opposite side of the state from Traverse City, which often when people think of Michigan, that is a Northern city people think of, but that is on the opposite coast. So we... serve five counties in the lower peninsula, which is roughly 5,000 square miles. And our service area is entirely rural. And this means that resources for survivors of violence are really limited and they are shared among multiple counties. So transportation is very limited. There's not an extensive public transit system. Access to high-speed internet is also very limited and it comes in and out, sometimes even in one of the larger cities that we live in. I still have buggy internet here or there. Distances to grocery stores are significant and these all impact our communities. I would say poverty is a significant barrier in this area. So for example, one of our county's rates at the fourth highest in terms of the asset limit income constrained employed. That's Montmorency County, which essentially means it's just a framework of understanding the struggles of households that earn above the federal poverty level, but not quite enough to afford the bare bones household budget. And I think one of the biggest determining factors that we can look at in terms of like what poverty looks like and the impacts here are when we look at the rates of students experiencing homelessness because that is a key indicator of well-being and two of our five counties are in the top five ratings across the state in terms of numbers of students who are experiencing homelessness so that's Alcona and We also have the highest rate of uninsured individuals in the state with really high patient to physician ratios so access to like primary care and health care is pretty limited as well. Janae Sargent (she/they) (27:04) Thank you for painting that picture. I think that that's really helpful. So how does then greening address some of those things that you just talked about, Paige? Paige Allia (she/they) (27:15) Well, certainly the, my goodness, food security wise, farming locals, growing their own food, having those resources is a key component of that. So creating more access than just going to the Dollar Tree because we have lots of dollar stores in the area that people are very reliant on. And I think those. outnumber the number of grocery stores in fact. But that's not always going to be a source of fresh foods. So having those garden spaces is one way that we can connect people to one another and to those foods in a very practical way. Another way is in terms of how cultivating these spaces connects people to their wellness. Sarah and Andrew have both spoken about that. The health benefits to community gardening are absolutely a part of what occurs here. That groundedness, that centeredness, it can help to release stress. Movement for all populations is essential and so this supports many aspects there. And when we lower stress levels, we're supporting people's overall health as well. Janae Sargent (she/they) (28:48) There are two things that you mentioned, Paige, and I think Andrew had spoken about these previously too, that I really wanna focus in on. Number one, the piece on food sovereignty. Andrew, I think we were chatting about this in our prep call, as is the case, I think, in a lot of rural areas, if you're driving through it, you see a lot of food. You see people growing a lot of food. So you assume the community is very rich in food, but the way that our food system works in the United States, is it's very rarely for local consumers. A lot of those big growers are shipping elsewhere. So you mentioned a lot of people actually in Northern Michigan are, you're in a food desert. So that is a huge, that is a big piece that community gardens can solve. And then the other piece that I think a lot of people miss when we have this conversation are gardens versus community gardens. I'm really gonna focus in on that word community. We know that community connectedness is a huge level of protection against sexual violence and all other interpersonal violence. Paige, I think you and I were chatting prior to this call about this idea of, let's say, a neighborhood and everybody in the neighborhood has their own personal garden and they go out and they grow their zucchinis or their tomatoes and there are good things about that, but they're not. connecting with each other. The real level of healing and feeling protected and loved and cared for by your community is when we interact with each other. So that's where community gardening comes in. That's where trading and giving food comes in. It's about building those relationships. And Sarah, I know from the coalition level, there is quite a bit of growing evidence that supports that idea. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Sarah (30:45) Yeah, there is a lot of research that comes out of the crime prevention through environmental design. And they talk a lot about the health, the physical, psychological benefits of being close to nature, and that those natural spaces as protective factors. And often, honestly, this stuff isn't really well researched. A lot of people are like, well, show me the paper, show me the research. And it's like, we'll go outside, you know, grow your own food. Like when you step into those spaces, you feel it yourself and you know that it's probably reflecting within others as well. I think Andrew had mentioned earlier that sort of empowerment, I mean, having responsibility for another life, that stewardship really builds like self-efficacy. Like, oh, if I can take care of this plant, like I can take care of myself. And if I can give... a handful of tomatoes to my neighbor, maybe next year or next week they'll give me a bushel of corn or something. And I think when we look towards community, it's no longer about scarcity and competition, but it's really about abundance. Abundance in friendship, in sharing, laughter versus worrying, is my next paycheck going to be able to help me afford what I need to buy? And it is definitely unique in Michigan as well because we have such long winters That it's also especially important to make sure that food is abundant in these more northern states in the United States and countries around the world. Yeah. Was there anything else you'd like me to elaborate on? Okay. Janae Sargent (she/they) (32:29) No, that was so powerful. you so much for sharing that. And, you know, we do get a lot of questions about research and evidence behind this. And I think number one, there are things out there people have to look. And number two, we're like, well, you get to be a part of that evidence. Like, there are some things, especially when we're talking about decolonizing our work, we have to be willing to do things that have not necessarily become evidence-based yet. I'm a personal fan of evidence informed. and being a part of that evidence, you know, when we talk about grassroots movements to end violence to, for community healing, they're not basing it off of studies and trials and research paper and peer review journals, they're basing it off of how people feel in the community. Obviously, it's a little bit different when we're getting funding from federal structures, but we have to kind of be able to walk that line. So Sarah (33:22) and you know, in my research, oh, okay. In my research in food sovereignty, a lot of the times you see the word food desert pop up, right? It's really an intentional withholding of food and resources, right? They don't have to build a Dollar Tree on every block. And also a lot of times we don't recognize, you know, in Detroit, for example, like you can probably call a neighborhood of food desert, right? I'm using air quotes for those listening. when really there have been generations of people gardening in their neighborhoods, you know, for forever and providing food for their neighbors. And I think that we forget that when we look at the research and look at the numbers and break it down, it's harder for someone in academia to look up on Facebook who's chatting with who and who's exchanging food, right? Or going out in the neighborhood, maybe doing an anthropological So I think, yeah, recognizing that these systems are set up for a reason and research isn't always gonna lead us to the answers that we're trying to look for. So, yeah. Janae Sargent (she/they) (34:29) Mm, yes, thank you for sharing that. And I think that's what's amazing about this conversation right now. Sarah, you're coming from kind of more academia perspective. Paige and Andrew, you are those people in communities connecting with other people. Like that is what is happening. So we've kind of painted the picture. I wanna transition there. I wanna talk about the actual work that you're doing, the things that you're outputting, as much as I would love to just. Pick your brain and share knowledge for this entire conversation. So you all are still very early in the stages of this work and building that evidence. Andrew, you're really the person on the ground building this project out. What does that look like for you? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (35:15) Yeah, fantastic question. So right now we are definitely still in the planning stage, the research stage. We are collaborating with the coalition heavily on this mutual aid design. The community garden, we're really just looking at how the community, how we need to address the community's needs, right? We were talking about how like we're. we're having family dollars and dollar stores pop up everywhere all around town. And the reason we're seeing this from developers and we're not having personal development in our communities is one, you know, of course, economic disparity. We aren't... able to connect as a community since we're also on online spaces so much, to really pull together money to build gardens or to build mutual aid stores for these places. So really we're just addressing the needs of our community and we're looking at ways to empower not only the current residents of our towns but future We have kind of like a lost You know, you hear about canning and you think back to like a Great Depression era, right? I mean, like that's the way of preserving food, but that is a way to grow your own food and preserve it for yourself. That's self-empowerment. And canning and those ideas are just seen as negative because of the connotation of poor from a Great Depression era. And with the modern day becoming more of an economic despaired time, we're really looking to empower the future generations to make sure we can rely on ourselves and connect our community further. Janae Sargent (she/they) (37:27) Thank you for sharing. And it sounds like I know you're all working on a few different things in your community. One of those things is a community garden that you all are in the process of sketching. That's a community garden at one of your service sites, right? Can you tell me a little bit about that? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (37:44) Sure. This is actually at the office I work out of. We have two offices or three offices currently. In one of our southern counties, Iosco County, we have a very big backyard and we didn't really have much to deal with it. And I mean, you think, well, what's the point of... building a garden in a backyard where people are not really going to see it. Well, this is our outreach office for our southern counties. This is where survivors come in and they come and seek services. They work with our advocates for medical, legal, and additional services. And this is just another section we are here to come and add to that self-empowerment for those going through the motions of self advocacy Sarah (38:42) and it's been really exciting. Like, as soon as I heard I could have the opportunity to jump on designing a garden, I did. And I've done some permaculture courses before, which is sometimes controversial. It really is just Indigenous techniques of growing with the land. But using those natural structures, like spirals, using just the native plants and a lot of herbs that you would think like... that actually can help with depression, with anxiety, with blood pressure, and foods that people can learn how to pickle with, or make sauces with, or even sell at the local farmers market. And it's been really fun working with Andrew. He has such a creative mind. And we have just talked a lot about their future engagement ideas, community engagement ideas. like selling seeds, sharing seeds with one another, getting involved with those who know how to forage and like teaching classes in this space for survivors and people who may not be survivors. Maybe their family members can come in and just decompress, learn, and have a private space to access that little bit of that pocket of nature. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (40:03) Thank you so much, Sarah, for adding that. I really liked that piece on focusing on native plants, right? Because if you look around the country today, a lot of our, for example, grasses and our current plants that we see all over the country is a lot of European and foreign grasses. And a lot of the native permaculture and the plants, sparse and few and far between. If you look at Illinois, for example, the Prairie State as what it's called, the Prairie State has maybe about 50 acres left of prairie these days as opposed to thousands of acres back in the 50s. So we really want to just push the culture towards, like you said, Janae, decolonization of not only the land, and working with prevention work. Janae Sargent (she/they) (41:09) Mm. Thank you so much. really powerful. And you all actually want this garden to be survivor led. Can you tell me a little bit about I think I froze, I'll repeat. I said, and you all actually want this garden to be survivor led. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (41:40) Sure, absolutely. It all starts with those who really need self-empowerment. it is a focus of equity, right? This is furthering that idea of equity in our communities. And if we can have those who... who can really use this outsource, they can also speak on behalf of possibly bringing this elsewhere, bringing the culture excuse me, I'm sorry, bringing the culture of, Janae Sargent (she/they) (42:24) Don't be sorry. Do you wanna hear, let's... Oh, I think I'm frozen. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (42:27) developing our own food to other community members. So those who may not be seeking our services will have their own outlets as time goes on. Sarah (42:40) And, you know, like earlier mentioned it, like we were mentioning how this knowledge of nature of plants, of food is intentionally kept from us and how empowering it is to be able to learn about these things. And it's like really exciting as well. Anytime I've like brought someone to look at my garden, like I'll explain a few things like how do you know that? And I'm like, well, YouTube and like, TikTok and talking to people and reading books. But what a gift it is for people to share that knowledge with you. Um, and it's, and it's so empowering to be able to be like, I know how to plant this. I know when to harvest it. I know the properties of this plant, how it's going to help me feel better. And I can give this, you know, St. John's wort to my friend because she's feeling down and, you know, um, and it's, it's just that, that stewardship of land and for that, for their community is just such a healing. tool for So that's a really exciting part. Paige Allia (she/they) (43:40) For a lot of the survivors we work with, many of them are fleeing their homes and many of them had gardens. And I see this as one of those tools that they may choose to really step foot into and reconnect and hopefully teach us as well. what we're learning from a variety of other resources and such, but I see them like choosing how to grow it and if they're gonna take items to farmers markets and how they're gonna develop their own business plans and move forward and maybe they're gonna Maybe they have like crafting skills and such and they're gonna in the winter farmers markets have different booths set up So I just really see it intersecting so much with the intervention work as well as the prevention side of things in that sense. So really giving survivors the space and supporting them in that. Janae Sargent (she/they) (44:46) Hmm. You know, I think when most people think about community gardens, they only think about the actual space. And so it can feel quite a bit smaller than it actually is. You know, a few veggies and plants in a backyard is one thing, but so much community and connection and healing, like you all said, happens around gardens, from the food to the actual garden itself. Some of the most powerful healing moments that I have had have been in community gatherings at gardens. Something about being in a community garden disarms you. And it makes, at least for me, I'll speak for myself. I had a recent experience in a community garden. A friend of mine is a, she's a practicing Mennonite and invited me to a church service in her hometown. And I am someone, you know, being queer and growing up really religious, you know, I was kind of like, I don't know. But I think that stewardship over the land and this care for each other care for community, like being in that space made me feel a lot more connected. It created more pathways for healing. You know, it was just a different feeling than walking into a brick and mortar place. It felt quite literally like there was physical decolonization happening. And for anyone who is kind of unsure about what that feels like, I would encourage you to move your meeting space from a brick and mortar space to a community garden and tell me what happens. Or if you're meeting with a friend and you're going out to get a drink. Maybe offer like, let's walk to our community garden instead. And tell me what feels different in your body because I guarantee that something will. I'm curious for you all, since you are in the earlier phases of this, what do you hope will come out of this garden? What are some of your dreams? Andrew Balk V (HSA) (47:02) What we really look forward to is connecting with the audiences we don't usually get to connect with. Because oftentimes in this work, we are a little bit out of bounds for those who are maybe. in their own world, maybe they have their own house, and they aren't aware of all of these problems that a lot of our population faces. And when we do give services to those people, they don't necessarily, they don't see it because they're not there. And I think by connecting to our agricultural community and in a more relatable way for our rural area, I think we would be able to connect to those populations. And that is one of my hopes, is connecting community in a place that is maybe more xenophobic towards outsiders, towards those that they don't see as part of the inn. Janae Sargent (she/they) (48:10) You know, Andrew, I love that you mentioned that talking about connection, a big conversation that we have in the sexual violence space is how to bring people together with different perspectives, um, that a lot of people don't feel comfortable talking about sexual violence, where they have different ideas politically. And you know, I, my personal perspective, there are two things that I think bring people in from all sides. Ah, we'll say three, three things that bring people together from all sides of the political political spectrum, food, sports, and pets. I think if you can tap into any of those things, you're really starting in the right So I just really appreciate you bringing that food piece into it. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (48:58) Can you repeat that last remark? It froze up. Janae Sargent (she/they) (49:02) Yes. I said, food, sports, pets. And I just said thank you so much for bringing that piece into it. Andrew Balk V (HSA) (49:13) Oh yeah, thank you. I just love interacting with those that... don't normally get to have that spotlight. In these rural communities, we have so many TV shows in the country, for example, that portray us as backwoods, backwards people. And you got like all the murder mysteries, or you've got the lakeside cabins that are for the multimillionaires. And really, when we're just average people, just like those who are in the city, we have very few people who actually do come out and speak to us really and those who usually do sometimes they do have ulterior motives sometimes they are pure of heart but there's that miscommunication that pits us against each other that we're seeing a lot in our country right now with very competitive ideas and focusing on culture war items that should have been solved a long time ago as opposed to Helping us the workers helping us the common people Janae Sargent (she/they) (50:36) What about you, Paige, Sarah? What are your dreams? Paige Allia (she/they) (50:42) I think when it comes down to it, I think there could be so many directions in which it grows, but like my big hopes, my dreams for this garden are that they create. more space for love, more space for connection, and friendships. Sarah (51:07) Yeah, seconding everything they both said, I think, and just love for nature, love for food, feeling like there is something in their life they can have a little bit of control of. You know, as survivors, our lives can be pretty chaotic. And having a place that they can go to at Hope Shores, even if it's just like a little backyard or a meeting or a day they just go to like the market and share seeds. I just hope that stays with them and that they spread that knowledge to other people. I know, and I know that all these survivors that come, they'll definitely spread this love and knowledge as Janae Sargent (she/they) (51:51) I think that's a really inspiring and powerful piece to kind of bring this conversation to a close. Thank you so much, Paige, Andrew, Sarah, for having this conversation with me. I feel quite a bit more grounded than I did when I started and I am so appreciative of your work and really excited to see where this goes. For people who are listening and are feeling super stoked and want to see what happens, how can people follow along and connect with you? Paige Allia (she/they) (52:28) Absolutely. So we are on Facebook, we're on Instagram, and of course our website is www.hopeshores.org. Janae Sargent (she/they) (52:40) Thank you. if you have questions about this episode, you can go to Spotify, they have a Q&A feature, you can leave us questions there. You can also comment on our corresponding posts on same thing, Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, you name it, we're there. We're on threads. If you're on there, I think me and three other people are on threads, find us and interact with this episode. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you all. Sarah (53:08) Thank you, Janae, for this space. This has been great. Paige Allia (she/they) (53:09) Thanks for having us. PreventConnect (00:02.71) Beyond their garden sketch, Hope Shores is working on a community labyrinth that will incorporate native plant species, stone and other natural resources to shape a winding pathway for reflection and mindfulness. Their hope is to support creativity, self-reflection and stress reduction in creating spaces for survivors and the larger community. They're currently in the process of hotspot mapping to find an accessible space in the community for the labyrinth to live. You can learn more about greening as a strategy to prevent and end sexual violence in our two latest web conference recordings, Greening and Growing Parts 1 and 2, created in partnership with Prevention Institute and featuring leaders across the spaces of violence prevention and public health. If you enjoyed this podcast, check out other Valor Media Podcasts, Leadership Moves, and Valor Conversations. And make sure you rate us and write us a review on Spotify and Apple Music so we can reach more listeners like you. PreventConnect is brought to you by Valor US and the Centers for Disease Control. You can find more information about this episode along with past episodes, web conferences, and blog articles at preventconnect .org. As we work to bring you more podcasts like this one, we need your help ensuring that this podcast and others like it reaches listeners like you. Take a second to rate this podcast wherever you're listening to it. That helps us show up on main podcasting pages and reach new listeners. And of course, if you have an idea for a topic that you'd like to see us cover, reach out to us and comment on this post on our Instagram page.