Craft Your Own Life
Programs For Young Adults
Young people ages 20-25 are encouraged to apply for Craft Your Own Life, a day long retreat on Thursday August 12th. Join us for a day-long retreat in a peaceful setting with tips to grow your own food, self-care, and conversation to envision a bountiful life forward. It’s free but spaces are limited so apply now.
We celebrated 20 years of SOL (Seeds of Leadership) Garden in 2018, our longest running program, and an amazing, life-changing experience for youth and staff alike! We have transitioned this to our Craft Your Own Life Program, and hope others will learn from our resources and curricula below.
Enjoy a new, youth-made video that shows a day in the life of our SOL Garden program!
Since the programs inception in 1998, 400 SOL Garden participants, most low-income and underemployed, have gained valuable life, college and career skills as they have:
- Cultivated a quarter acre garden and donated thousands of pounds of vegetables to families and senior citizens in our low-income community
- Constructed their own 40′ solar greenhouse and designed and built the “SOL Shack” meeting space
- Helped planted and tend gardens throughout the community at a shelter for homeless families, elementary schools, a hospital and health center, a library and for local families
- Created and sold hundreds of ceramic SOL Bowls
- Given over 30 presentations at conferences and events
- Participated in Earth and Spirit youth retreats and outdoor adventure, workshops in nutrition, cooking, and healing arts, celebration art, and helped thousands learn, celebrate, and play at the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival
Inspire your own program and teaching! We are happy to share our curriculum, "Food for the SOL: Youth, Food, Justice and Community Building”.
Also, please enjoy the SOL Garden Blues we wrote with musician Katie Sachs, then performed at the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival.
Attendee Testimonials
"I got a lot more confident in my ability to say and do things…to get a job done, roll up my sleeves and do it…SOL Garden is unbelievable and tremendously important. It pretty much carved out the life I have right now…There were people at SOL Garden who actually cared about what I had to say." - Shawn
"You come here and it’s like whatever is stressing you out vanishes because you know you have all these people here to support you and grow food with. There’s not drama, there’s no stress it’s just like the most relaxed atmosphere…the best place to be." - Vanessa
"Because of SOL Garden, I now think about my health, and what I eat. I think about how I live my life and the effects and impressions I make on others. I think about the world and how I have a choice to be an active citizen. I think about what small things I can do to make a difference and I think about big ideas that could change the world." - Kacie
"Coming here is the best decision I ever made." - Jen
SOL Garden is free to local youth, and made possible through grants from the MA Cultural Council Youth Reach Program, The AT&T Aspire Program, The Green Leaf Foundation, and individual contributions.