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Located on the Center for Living and Learning property, the Horticulture Vocational Program targets disabled individuals who require vocational training and work adjustment.  Persons with physical, emotional, and/or mental disabilities are candidates for enrollment.  Students with special needs from the local school system can enroll in the program to receive class credit.  The workspace is comprised of two industrial greenhouses and 3 vegetable/herb fields adjacent to the residential facility.  Work occurs both in and outdoors, and the clients have a pavilion with benches and tables provided for their outdoor workspace and break periods.  The greenhouses are operated with a soil-based growing technique that gives the plants optimum growing conditions from both popular agricultural styles.  This setting requires clients to monitor and cultivate plant life while learning the technical aspects of horticulture science.  Program participants are encouraged to take pride in their work and resulting product to promote responsibility and healthy esteem.  Herbs, vegetables, and domestic plants are wholesaled to the surrounding business communities.  It is not uncommon to taste fresh basil from the CLLN Horticulture Program in your favorite Italian dish at local eateries across the Southeast!   Horticulture is the modality used to provide employment training.  However, clients are not limited to the horticulture field in job placement.

Therapeutic Approach

Upon enrollment in the program, clients are placed in a 30-day evaluation and training period.  During this time the Horticulture Program Manager/Job Placement Specialist develops a work plan for the client that outlines their goals for work adjustment.  After this evaluation period the client will begin to receive payment for their labor, provided they are adjusting to the program.  Each workday clients are placed into teams and assigned specific job tasks.  Each team is responsible for all aspects of their assignment including preparation, completion, and clean-up.  Clients are responsible for all elements of the cultivation process including: seeding, grooming, fertilization, harvesting, and packaging.  Some clients assist with delivery of product. Additional duties include maintenance of the work site grounds, greenhouses, and landscaping of the CLLN property.  Clients participate in arts and crafts sessions weekly that allow them to create pottery and packaging. This endeavor allows clients' produce to be displayed and sold in containers they've created.  Within these responsibilities, the following therapeutic issues are targeted:

• Task awareness/orientation and follow-through

• Ability to follow instructions and development of  active listening skills

• Ability to function with/alongside coworkers as a team player

• Adjustment and appropriate response to the authority/accountability relationship with employer

• Appropriate social behaviors in an employment setting

• Development/appropriate use of time management skills

• Development of problem solving skills

• Develop awareness/compliance with job requirements, rules, regulations

• Promotion of confidence/esteem building around productivity and ability to integrate into the community workforce

Services Provided

• Job Coaching/training
• Job Placement which includes case-management/continued coaching at the placement site
• Liaison services with family/guardian, physician, and other service providers to promote the success of the client in this program and the community
• Enrollment in Supported Employment if long-term, more extensive support is needed
• Limited transportation

Avenues of Job Placement
(including but not limited to)

• Local Newspaper Classifieds

• Local Employment Security Office

• Other Horticulture/Wholesale growers

• CLLN's personal network of employment contacts 

Enrollment Criteria

• Between ages of 16-55
• Disabled
• Free of substance abuse
• Registered with Tennessee Vocational Rehabilitation prior to enrollment
• Liability forms completed and signed by client and guardian
• Taking any prescribed medication in compliance with physician's orders