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Gardening Program Helps Teens Transition from Detention

When youth offenders are ready to leave four months of incarceration in Greene County (just outside of Dayton), they enter an intensive period of probation during which they complete service work or make restitution to the community. The goal is to provide the youths with a chance to learn meaningful skills while performing work that could benefit them, help with their integration back into the community, and provide a seedbed for future success.

As part of this program, in 1998 the Greene County office of Ohio State University Extension identified a site for a garden adjacent to the juvenile court facility. The Extension 4-H educator, Extension horticulturist, and Master Gardeners provide the initial plowing, tilling and fencing, and obtain seed and plant starts. The supervisor of the intensive probation program selects four to five youths each year whom she feels would most benefit from the program, and the 4-H educator teaches them gardening skills and works side-by-side with the youths and their surveillance officer. Together, they plant, mulch, weed and maintain the garden over the summer.

The youth sell the produce weekly at the Xenia City Hall and at the juvenile facility, dividing the money according to the number of hours they had worked in the garden. The program helps the participants learn gardening and entrepreneurial skills; allows them to earn money during their intensive probation (which they used for clothing and school supplies for the fall); and shows them the rewards of using their time constructively.

For information on starting such a program in your community, contact:

Beth Bridgeman
OSU Extension Educator
4-H Youth Development
Greene County
bridgeman.7@osu.edu
937-372-9971

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Created: 2008-04-11, Updated: 2008-04-30