foreign [Music] think about the three hardest parts of your day getting up out of bed traffic homework having to take care of the kids you think of those three hardest things of your day and you come and spend some time here at the grow hub surrounded by people that are just so thankful to have a purpose and have a place to come every day and the little things and then after spending some time here on your way home think over those three things again [Music] and they become so small grow Hub is a non-profit whose
whole purpose is to support people living with disabilities through therapeutic gardening agriculture Horticulture practices several of us parents of kids with disabilities that have been a little frustrated with the job opportunities in the community got together and trying to figure out what can we do to create more opportunities but at the same time educate the community to let them know that they are a viable option in the employment world doing the right thing at the right place there was a landscape nursery here for probably 20 years wasn't very big the workers were only paid stipends
and so when we started it we came up with grow Hub which is growing real opportunities for work our main mission is providing meaningful work opportunities for adults of all abilities and we do that by growing the plants and selling the plants and that funds a lot of the other programs that we have going like the art therapy with UF arts and Medicine the Community Gardens nutrition programs grow Hub has been able to bring together [Music] people with all types of disabilities and give them a purpose and a job that they can enjoy and not
feel pressured or have to do it but they enjoy it and like you see Kyle out here he head sales person that's his Jam right there but [Music] I don't understand like that coming out to grow Hub has made him an individual again he looks forward to coming out here grow Hub supports him and gives him a job to do that makes him feel amazing and they don't just give him something to do they let him run with it he puts grow up first it's so important in his life it's his job it's his family
it's his friends it's his space [Music] here at grow over teaching people to provide for themselves whether it be planting these plants taking care of them until you can sell them where it's taking care of this plant for yourself to to nourish yourself and there's a lot of power in that my daughter Caitlin is disabled she has cerebral palsy and she's in a wheelchair and when she graduated from high school she did get a degree at the community college but she's unable to find any work just like most kids with disabilities young adults it was
just very difficult to see her have so many things she wanted to do and have no place to even try to do it there's not enough Avenue and if you can get the community more behind it it can be so much more for so many more people it's a better job here to work and keep you busy and let's keep you going and keep you from sitting around looking around and stuff like that how y'all doing all right I haven't gone to come out here and have my Independence and see the people and Shop resumes
if I didn't have all that I'd probably be sitting at home and just trying to find something to do disability is a spectrum it's also potentially a really challenging word because there might be people that have a disability but we're ignoring the fact that they also have abilities in different ways so finding opportunities where those differences can actually be highlighted or where we can just be okay with doing things a little bit differently and still getting the job done and not having that pressure the cool thing about agriculture and horticulture is there's a million different
tasks and a million different levels that meet all kinds of abilities somebody can find something that they're good at and it's just as important as anything else even though we have this this will work we may need accommodations but we can still do it it's not in my adventures in this person it's what am I doing that I can help you with and then what are you doing that I don't have or to do everybody respects their children we all work pretty well together the best way I can explain it it's it's like that thousand
piece puzzle that if you put it together and all of a sudden you get to the end and you were missing one piece just doesn't work but it just goes to show that every piece in that puzzle was just as important as the first one or the last one and that's that's that's how it is here what we're trying to do is serve as many young adults or adults with developmental disabilities as we can and that goal is fostered and grows when we have more business because when we have more business we can afford to
hire more people the need from the community is twofold one is as dollars as physical dollars so that we can hire more people because there's a whole school program up there filled with growing adults that have all the skills necessary they just need to find a place as we expand out into the community and find more Community Partners that are donating their dollars and they see what those dollars can do in turn they're thinking about how they can start to incorporate some of our employees into their own businesses this place is not just about growing
plants it's about helping people grow to their fullest potential at a deeper level I think what they've found at grow Hub and what the benefit is to them is feeling loved I'm going to cry now feeling I can't cry and talk it's a weakness of mine they feel important for what they bring here and they work on themselves they do art people want to buy their art they grow plants and they save seeds and people buy those and it's really empowering and they get paid for it to me grow Hub is a place that I've
found I'm at my best and I found that my skills and the person I am have found a home most people think they come here to help other people [Music] I've yet to give more to grow her than I perceive it won't happen I love grow her and just a favorite job down in John I ever had when I talked to my friends and say when you pulled up just determine the day and just sit there for a second looks around I found myself feel better than outside today I tell people all the time grow
up is a magical place you walk through that gate magic happens [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] show me her Show Me Love Show Me Love don't let me think weekly though I know that I can break [Music] and don't let me think too long I know when I'm bound to face show me those Show Me Your Love Show Me Love show me the show me [Music] thank you [Music]
