More than 300 people attended the third American Horticultural Society symposium on youth and gardening, June 27 to 30 in Pasadena, California. Reporting on that meeting is Lucy Warren, a free-lance garden writer based in San Diego. The Garden Projectin San Francisco isn't just for youth, but it touches children in many ways: by giving troubled mothers a chance to change their lives; by creating gardens in once-de-pressing school yards; and by giving juvenile offenders a chance to earn a paycheck. Seventeen years ago Catherine Sneed took a job in the legal services department of the San Francisco City fail. Her first assignment was to connect women prisoners with community resources on their release, but it didn't take her long to see that the resources were almost nonexistent. The typical client was 18 to 30 years old, had several small children, had been charged several times for drug possession, theft, or prostitution, and had little formal education. Often the women came to prison as malnourished substance abusers, and would gain weight and detoxify during their six-month to one-year sentences. Yet when it was over, they would be set free with nothing but 8.5 cents bus fare.
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