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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A pilot project at the North Slave Young Offender Facility is helping teach young offenders important life skills through gardening, according to the program's organizer.

Deputy warden Everett McQueen, left, program co-ordinator Lone Sorensen, teacher, Spencer Lyman, and youth counsellor Greg Krivda display a pyramid garden full of strawberry plants on Tuesday. The facility aims to teach inmates at the North Slave Young Offender Facility life skills through gardening. - Cody Punter/ NNSL photo

"The hope is that they will have a valuable skill to bring back to the community," said Lone Sorensen, who is running the program as part of a collaboration between Yk Education District No. 1 (Yk1), the Territorial Farmers Association, and the North Slave Young Offender Facility.

Although the program has only been running since May, Sorensen said the youth at the facility have been enthusiastic about gardening.

"There's certainly been a willingness to take on responsibility," she said.

Leo Ehrenberg, one of the open custody teachers involved in the program who has been teaching at the facility for eight years, agrees the youth have responded well to it.

"I think it's been positive," he said. "They get to get out there and do something with their hands."

The program teaches youth at the facility about the entire food growing process from learning about soil fertility and planting seeds, to harvesting, cooking and preserving food.

Ehrenberg said he hopes to use food grown in the garden for the cooking program, which he also teaches to students.

It is all part of what Sorensen likes to call "edible education," a straightforward approach to teaching.

"If you teach someone to grow a carrot, they will want to eat that carrot," she said.

Although Sorensen's edible education focuses on gardening, her curriculum has other benefits. For instance, reading the packages of seeds teaches English skills; learning about soil PH is a chemistry lesson; and learning the characteristics of different species of plants teaches students about biology and the environment.

"It's a full spectrum of literacy," said Sorensen, who points out that learning how to garden even requires solving mathematical problems.

"If we want to build a raised bed that's three by six, and it's 20-inches deep, how many cubic feet of soil do we need to order to fill that bed?"

On top of everyday life skills, Sorensen believes her program also teaches a broader set of values such as teamwork, responsibility, and self-reliance.

She admits there has been occasions when students have become frustrated or disinterested, as most teenagers tend to be. However, she believes that only highlights the value of the program.

"Nature teaches patience," she said.

Ehrenberg said the staff and the youth, who he said already share a close relationship, have been brought closer together by the gardening program.

"We've had a lot of staff involved, helping along. It's quite a co-operative effort," he said. "It's another aspect where they work together for a common goal."

Although the program is only a one-year pilot project at the moment, both Ehrenberg and Sorensen are hoping the program continues. They are planning to build another teepee greenhouse for next year's season.

"It's something that we're very enthusiastic about and we're hoping this will grow," said warden Chris Comeau, who hopes the program will eventually become part of the facility's regular curriculum.

"There's a lot of benefit to it," he said. "(It's) just another way to give a little bit back."

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