Grants 4 Plants Follow-Up | Carl E. Dahl House Community Garden & Safer Birth Foundation

Hello plant people and welcome back to Herbal Radio! This week will be the second and final episode of our 2-part series featuring the four esteemed organizations that were the recipients of the 2023 Grants 4 Plants Program.

For those unfamiliar with Grants 4 Plants, Mountain Rose Herbs created the grant program back in 2018 to support nonprofits, small businesses, and home herbalists who are working towards making this planet a better place. Since its inception, we’ve proudly been able to fund many invaluable initiatives leading towards organic and sustainable agriculture, herbal education, protection of native and medicinal plants, and environmental stewardship.

This week, we are featuring the Therapeutic Farm Assistant and the SUD Counselor of Carl E. Dahl House Community Garden, Breanna Murphy and Kelsey Cass, as well as the Founder of Cincinnati Birth Center | Safer Birth Foundation, Meghan Nowland.

We hope each of you listening in today will be inspired by the commendable work these organizations are providing for their communities and beyond. Please be sure to check out the links included below to find out how you can support these invaluable initiatives. We’ll see you next week when we hear from the other two organizations that won the 2023 Grants 4 Plants program. For now, we thank you for joining us on another botanical adventure! 

Learn more about these organizations and the hard-working faces behind them:

Carl E. Dahl House at Evergreen Grove is a residential treatment facility for me with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Unlike traditional treatment facilities, the Carl E. Dahl house used a farm care modality as part of the resident's treatment plans. Working in the gardens and with our rescue animals allows for traditional treatment barriers to be dropped allowing for a more natural approach to self-healing and care. GAAMHA, the parent company of the Carl E. Dahl House, works to create a world where people can get help when they ask for it, no matter who they are. The gardening program allows for our residents to be hands on with nature. The clinical benefits of being able to say they took ownership of garden bed, planted, watered, weeded and cared for the growing plants that eventually will produce foods that naturally heal the body are priceless and cannot be duplicated in a traditional office style treatment model.

Breanna Murphy helps manage the day-to-day operations of the animal care part of the program at the Carl E. Dahl House, where they have over 60 animals, many of which are rescues or special needs. Breanna has been working with Kelsey for two years to get the garden project to where it is today. She has her Bachelor’s in Sustainable Food and Farming, is a certified Ayurvedic Health Counselor, and has completed 3 herbal apprenticeships. Breanna and her husband have a small homestead and permaculture nursery called Singing Kettle Botanicals, where they focus on perennial food sources and medicinal herbs hardy to zone 5.

Kelsey Cass is the Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Counselor at the Carl E Dahl House, and is in recovery herself. Kelsey and Breanna have been working together to implement the garden project as part of their clinical curriculum and therapeutic farming. Kelsey has her Bachelor’s in Human Development and Family Studies, is a certified yoga instructor, and certified in permaculture design. She first became connected with GAAMHA and the farm when she started teaching yoga at the farms pilot program a couple of towns over, and volunteered with the clients doing gardening and various nature related activities.

“It’s been an absolute blessing to work here where I can share all my passions and interests, while helping others, and with the most amazing team of people.” – Kelsey

Learn more about Carl E. Dahl House at Evergreen Grove by visiting the links below:

Carl E. Dahl House website

GAAMHA website

R.O.O.T.S at Evergreen Grove website

Donate to Carl E. Dahl House HERE!

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Safer Birth Foundation (SBF), by Cincinnati Birth Center, is architecting the future of maternity care by creating the world's best midwifery centers. The objectives of the Safer Birth Foundation are to increase and democratize birth options, grow midwifery, and decrease birthing mortality. SBF does this by expanding access to midwifery care through financial aid, expanding the midwifery workforce, and supporting midwifery-led care.

Meghan Nowland, Founder of the Safer Birth Foundation and the Cincinnati Birth Center, experienced midwife, doula, and lactation consultant, brings expertise and confidently calm energy to her clinical approach for clients across the local Cincinnati area since 2014, in Kentucky since 2020, and Indiana since 2024. She moved to Walnut Hills with a passion for improving Ohio’s maternity care and regularly volunteers to teach community childbirth education classes. In addition to her work as a midwife, she’s a founder of Ohio’s chapter of the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives. Most recently she’s been involved with legislative efforts to increase access to midwives and serving on the Kentucky Midwives Advisory Council, creating regulations for licensure of CPMs.

Learn more about Cincinnati Birth Center | Safer Birth Foundation by visiting the links below:

Cincinnati Birth Center website

Cincinnati Birth Center blog

Donate to Safer Birth Foundation HERE!

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