Emanating outside of the Florida Autism Center of Excellence (FACE) are the fragrant aromas of basil, rosemary, dill, mint and other fresh herbs. An assortment of vegetables like carrots, tomatoes and peppers radiate bright hues.

The pleasant sights and smells come from the new community garden at FACE, located right on the school’s beautiful campus and designed just for the students.

The Community Garden is Born
The garden came to life thanks to an enthusiastic community volunteer, Brenda Connolly. A self-described “outdoors lover,” Brenda, a CPA and mother of two, was looking to reinvigorate her passion for gardening in a way that would benefit her community.

“I wanted to develop my vision of growing locally sourced produce in an educational environment,” she said.

Brenda’s pursuit led her to FACE, a public charter school managed by Quest that serves children ages 3 to 22 with moderate to severe autism. Since the garden’s launch, the approximately 70 students at FACE spend time each week during the school year planting seeds, caring for vegetables and harvesting crops.

Garden Therapy for Autism
A program like the community garden helps FACE students develop essential skills in a fun environment while catering to their unique needs and abilities. For children with autism, who can often struggle with learning, taking a complex skill and breaking it down to a series of smaller, more manageable steps can often be an effective way to teach. This practice can be adapted in the garden setting – a reality that Brenda, who had never worked with children with autism before, learned quickly.

“Something like planting green bean seeds can be a challenging task for some of the kids, because there are four to five steps,” she said. “So I had to rethink, ‘okay, we’re going to do it one step at a time.’”

Download the Summer 2010 Q's News to read the rest of the story.