Rooted & Rising
A garden-to-market program helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities grow skills, purpose, confidence, and belonging.
Rooted & Rising is Inclusion Revolution’s garden-to-market program for Integrated Jobs participants.
In partnership with Mission ABLE, The Haven, SunnySide Village, and Hunsader Farms, participants are learning job skills through planting, harvesting, flower arranging, market sales, customer interaction, teamwork, and the simple but powerful experience of doing work that matters.
MacKenzie, Kevin, and Daniel Showoff and Share Their Harvest
MacKenzie and Cody in the Sunflower Field
More Than a Garden
For too long, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have been steered toward the same narrow set of jobs and activities. But our participants have interests, abilities, dreams, and different ways they want to contribute.
Rooted & Rising gives participants another place to discover what fits. For some, that may be planting vegetables. For others, it may be harvesting flowers, arranging table vases, preparing produce for sale, greeting residents, or helping at the SunnySide Village weekly market.
This program is not about putting people into one more box. It is about opening one more door.
Purpose grows when people are given room to try.
How Rooted & Rising Works
Rooted & Rising combines gardening, flower work, market sales, and community connection into one hands-on learning experience.
Participants help:
- Clear and prepare the garden plot
- Plant vegetables and herbs
- Water, weed, maintain, and harvest the garden
- Prepare produce for SunnySide’s kitchen and residents
- Pick flowers at Hunsader Farm
- Create flower arrangements for SunnySide Village
- Set up and support market sales
- Interact with residents, staff, and community members
- Practice responsibility, teamwork, communication, and customer service
The program is based at SunnySide Village, where a donated garden plot gives participants a real place to grow, contribute, and be seen.
Help Make Our Program Grow
Our Soon-To-Be Garden Plot!
A Real Garden. Real Work. Real Contribution.
SunnySide Village has donated the use of a 45' x 17' garden plot for Rooted & Rising. Our participants have already cleared the space, planted and harvested vegetables, and sold tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and eggplant to the SunnySide kitchen and independent-living residents.
The next phase is to build the garden into a more permanent, productive, and accessible space. We plan to install protective fencing, build eleven raised beds, add high-quality soil, and create a shaded gathering area where participants can cool off, residents can sit and visit, and shade-loving plants can thrive.
Help Us Build It
Flowers, Food, and Dignity
Each week, Rooted & Rising participants also travel to Hunsader Farm to pick flowers. They prepare the flowers for sale and create arrangements for approximately 80 table vases at SunnySide Village.
These arrangements do more than brighten tables. They create connection. Residents see the work, enjoy the flowers, talk with participants, and recognize the ability and care behind each arrangement.
Produce grown in the garden is sold to the SunnySide kitchen and residents, creating a simple but meaningful garden-to-market model. Participants are not just practicing skills. They are creating something of value.
This is what inclusion looks like: people contributing, connecting, and being valued.
Weekly Arrangements for SunnySide Village
Beautiful, Organic Produce
Growing Job Skills
Rooted & Rising helps participants build skills that can transfer to many future jobs, including hospitality, food service, landscaping, retail, maintenance, customer service, floral work, and community-based employment.
Participants practice:
- Following step-by-step instructions
- Arriving on time and staying on task
- Working safely with tools and materials
- Completing routine responsibilities
- Communicating with others
- Preparing products for sale
- Handling simple transactions
- Building confidence through visible contribution
- Taking pride in a job well done
At Inclusion Revolution, we work to find the fit. Rooted & Rising gives participants another way to discover their interests, strengths, and possibilities.
A Partnership Rooted in Inclusion
Rooted & Rising is powered by collaboration.
Inclusion Revolution provides the Integrated Jobs framework, participant support, job-readiness focus, and community partnerships.
Mission ABLE provides gardening expertise, outdoor program leadership, and day-to-day support through Amanda Baar and the Mission ABLE team.
The Haven provides support staff and helps connect participants with meaningful opportunities for growth, independence, and community inclusion.
SunnySide Village provides the garden plot, a welcoming campus, and a community where participants’ work is seen, purchased, and appreciated.
Hunsader Farms provides a beautiful farm-based experience where participants pick flowers and connect with the growing process from field to arrangement.
Market Day at SunnySide
Rooted & Rising is Growing!
What We Need
Rooted & Rising has already taken root. Now we need help growing it into a sustainable, year-round program.
Funding will help support:
- Protective fencing for the garden plot
- Eleven raised beds
- Soil, compost, plants, and seeds
- A shade area for participants, residents, and plants
- Garden tools and supplies
- Job coaches and supervisors
- Transportation support
- Ongoing plot maintenance
- Weekly program facilitation
- Market and flower-arranging supplies
We are pursuing foundation support for the initial garden buildout, but Rooted & Rising will also need ongoing community support to fund the people and program structure that make the work possible.
Help Rooted & Rising Grow
Plant Possibility. Grow Belonging.
Every gift helps Rooted & Rising provide another place for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to learn, work, contribute, and shine.
Your support helps us build more than raised beds. It helps build confidence, dignity, friendships, job skills, and a future where people with IDD are recognized for their abilities.
MacKenzie, Amanda, and Cody Prep for Market