• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

AdvocacyDenver

Health Care Advocacy and Education | Providing active voice and supporting civil rights for people with disabilities

  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Our Staff
    • Board of Directors
    • Strategic Plan
    • Financial Documents
  • Programs
    • Individual Advocacy
      • Adult Advocacy
      • Child and Family Advocacy
      • Make a Referral
    • Center for Special Education Law
    • Policy Advocacy
  • Resources
    • Resources for Adults
    • Resources for Children
    • Immigrant Resource Guide
  • News
  • Webinars
  • Join Now!
  • English
Home / Health Care Advocacy News / Health Care Advocacy News – October 2015

October 1, 2015

Health Care Advocacy News – October 2015

Michael BuchenauHow do Community Gardens affect our Community Health?
Read Catherine Strode’s interview with Michael Buchenau of Denver Urban Gardens to find out!

 

Health Care Advocacy Program News

Community Gardens Sow Community Health Benefits

An Interview with Catherine Strode

Michael Buchenau, MLAMichael Buchenau

Executive Director, Denver Urban Gardens

For the past 20 years, Denver Urban Gardens has helped design, build, and sustain an expanding network of 150 community gardens throughout Metro Denver. This year DUG has 12 new garden projects underway in Metro Denver and is offering technical assistance to other community garden projects around the state. In an interview with Catherine Strode, Executive Director Michael Buchenau says research shows community gardens have the potential to affect community health in urban settings.

What is the concept behind community gardens?

“All of the community gardens we support are initiated within the community. The purpose of a community garden is varied for each group that we support. They can range between a garden to educate children around science, health and culture, to a garden for seniors that is primarily meant to keep folks connected to each other and to keep them active. A lot of our gardens are neighborhood based, in which communities are using the garden to establish some neighborhood stewardship and neighborhood attachment. A lot of gardens are a combination of all of those things with a particular emphasis on one or the other. The venue for any one of those things to be happening is the activity of growing food together.”

How do community gardens promote health?

“The research findings from the Colorado School of Public Health (Primary Investigator Dr. Jill Litt) have shown what we intuitively knew about community gardens. When folks have decided this is a project they want to take on themselves, they have a collective will and a collective purpose. Together as a group they tend to own the project and it becomes a part of their daily lifestyle. That collective will piece is super important as a pathway towards health. It is this social organizing around the garden. Folks have to work together and come up with ideas together. The social structure that gets developed includes: peer support, peer learning, peer pressure to stay involved in the garden, to show up at the garden when everyone is going to be there. That social structure is another pathway toward sustained health. Then, there’s the basic activity of developing a relationship with nature. That combined with the social piece, and the collective will that the project is yours, work together to create this pathway to improve behavior around eating healthier and being more active. That’s how it promotes health.”

Are you saying gardens promote health by promoting community involvement?

“Totally. There are other factors that have been studied over the years that show a definite place attachment with gardens. People get more connected to their neighborhood. They get more involved. They know their neighbors. They know what’s going on with anybody that might be struggling with something and needs help. They feel like they’re more supported, both as a gardener and just in general, by having all of these connections. Community gardeners have a higher place attachment to their neighborhoods than general residents who don’t garden from the research findings. That sense of support you get from being involved in the garden: that other people care about you, know what’s going on in your life, and are there for you if there are some challenges you are facing.”

What is the data on physical health benefits of gardening?

“The findings from the research of the Colorado School of Public Health show that gardeners eat twice as much fruit and vegetable servings as the average resident. They report less days in poor health than the average resident. They have a flat age to body mass index graph. Whereas, for the average resident it’s on a 45 degree angle; as you age you’re going to gain weight. Gardeners don’t. There are a lot of health indicators that they’re healthier folks because of this activity they participate in. It becomes part of their daily activity. It’s in their everyday landscape and it’s just part of their life.”

What is the data on the mental health benefits?

“If you look at Dr. Litt’s research findings from the surveys and interviews, a lot of folks report that they garden because it ‘makes them feel good.’ To the point where you hear some folks say things like, ‘It’s one of the only places where I have control over my addiction.’ Or, ‘It’s a place where I go to get a stress reliever;’ ‘It’s a place where I know I’m accepted;’ It’s a place where I people will listen to me and I connect after a stressful day.’ Especially in low-income communities, where folks are dealing with serious challenges constantly: eviction potentially, someone in the family’s been incarcerated, addictions, violence. These places become places of respite for people and they’re doing something positive for their families and for themselves. They’re being productive but it’s also a place of rest and buffering out all those other challenges they’re facing when they go home. ”

2015 Membership Meeting

Thursday, October 8th

Randolf’s

5:30pm – 7:00pm

For more information please call

303-831-7733


Health Disparities and Intellectual Disabilities, Vol 48. International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities:
International Review of Research in Developmental Disabilities is an ongoing scholarly look at research into the causes, effects, classification systems, and syndromes of developmental disabilities. Contributors come from wide-ranging perspectives, including genetics, psychology, education, and other health and behavioral sciences.
– Provides the most recent scholarly research in the study of developmental disabilities
– A vast range of perspectives is offered, and many topics are covered
– An excellent resource for academic researchers 
More information 

Colorado DD Council Presents:Lydia Brown

From Rights to Justice: Disability and Radical Inclusion
Please join us October 22nd
from 9 am-Noon
Mi Casa Resource Center
360 Acoma St, Denver, CO 80223
Lydia Brown is an autistic and multiply-disabled activist, whose work has focused on violence against people with disabilities who have multiple minority identities.
Please RSVP to Lionel Llewellyn: Lionel.llewellyn@state.co.us
or at
720-941-0176

webinar iconA New Road Forward: How Hospital, Public Health and Stakeholder Collaboration has Changed the Community Health Landscape
Register HereImmigration Eligibility and Application Process Trainings Coming Up!
October 21, 2015
12:30 to 2:00 PM Eastern /
9:30 to 11 AM Pacific time
-OR-
November 19, 2015
2:00 to 3:30 PM Eastern / 11 AM to 12:30 PM Pacific time
Register Here
720-941-0176

Swedish demands $400 ‘deposit’ from amputee at ER
Read Story Here


Women With Disabilities Tackle Reproductive Health

Read Story Here

 

Article by Sally Tanner / Filed Under: Health Care Advocacy News

Webinar Categories

  • Adults (12)
  • AdvocacyDenver News (23)
  • Disabilities Rights (35)
  • eAlert (4)
  • Education (24)
  • Employment (4)
  • eVOICE (18)
  • Fundraising (3)
  • Grant (1)
  • Health Care (32)
  • Health Care Advocacy News (24)
  • Health Care Advocacy Program (22)
  • HealthMatters (1)
  • Housing (2)
  • Individual Advocacy (9)
  • Interview (58)
  • Juvenile Justice (19)
  • Leadership Profile (1)
  • Legislation (8)
  • Medicaid (9)
  • Mental Health (5)
  • News (15)
  • Parent/Family Support (9)
  • Policy Perspective – Interviews with Policy Makers (103)
  • slider (11)
  • Webinars (27)
    • English (15)
    • Español (12)
    • For Adults (7)
    • For Children (14)
    • For Everyone (8)
    • Sex Education (10)
  • Website (1)

Search

Get Services

Call our Referral and Intake Hotline to get the help you need:

Referral & Intake Hotline: 303.974.2530

Article Categories

  • Adults (12)
  • AdvocacyDenver News (23)
  • Disabilities Rights (35)
  • eAlert (4)
  • Education (24)
  • Employment (4)
  • eVOICE (18)
  • Fundraising (3)
  • Grant (1)
  • Health Care (32)
  • Health Care Advocacy News (24)
  • Health Care Advocacy Program (22)
  • HealthMatters (1)
  • Housing (2)
  • Individual Advocacy (9)
  • Interview (58)
  • Juvenile Justice (19)
  • Leadership Profile (1)
  • Legislation (8)
  • Medicaid (9)
  • Mental Health (5)
  • News (15)
  • Parent/Family Support (9)
  • Policy Perspective – Interviews with Policy Makers (103)
  • slider (11)
  • Webinars (27)
    • English (15)
    • Español (12)
    • For Adults (7)
    • For Children (14)
    • For Everyone (8)
    • Sex Education (10)
  • Website (1)

Subscribe to Our Email Newsletters

Latest News

Colorado Children’s Medicaid Waivers

April 10, 2023

An Introduction to Colorado Medicaid Waivers

April 10, 2023

DPS Failed to Provide Speech Services to Over 1000 Students

March 29, 2023

Search the AdvocacyDenver Site

Contact Us

AdvocacyDenver
950 South Cherry Street, Suite 1100
Denver, CO 80246

Phone: 303.831.7733
Fax: 303.839.5178
Online Contact Form
Referral & Intake Hotline: 303.974.2530

Manage Your Membership

© 2023 AdvocacyDenver - All Rights Reserved.