Ins & Outs of SVG 2020

INS OUT DISCOVER ST. VINCENT 39 To visit Hand2Earth Nursery and Rehabilitation Project and view the Grow in Time products, please contact hand2earth@gmail.com Contact them at growingrowout@gmail.com or message them @growintime on their social media accounts. Listen out for news about a Grow in Time shop opening in the near future! Hand2Earth’s vetiver nursery provides two prisons with vetiver grass for craft training programmes, planting materials for ex-offenders to plant in their own communities, and is currently expanding into a natural farm for demonstrating vetiver systems technology for climate change resilience. One such beneficiary is 24 year old Rod Lewis of Sandy Bay who participated in the prison programme for two years and is now busy in his community planting vetiver, designing a sustainable farm and supporting these activities with his craft work. Intent on pursuing an Associate Degree at SVG’s Community College next year, Rod recently enthralled visitors at the Everything Vincy Expo with his enthusiasm for sharing what he has learned. The programme emphasizes working together and teaching others, as well as delivering entrepreneurship training that helps the sense of connection to community to prevent reoffending. Artist/designer Vonnie Roudette, project coordinator and manager of Grow in Time, the non- profit marketing arm of SVG’s Prison grass craft programme, started the training with prisoners in 2015 and given technical assistance in design development, marketing and entrepreneurship training. Having won public recognition for the high quality products, winning an export-ready award from Invest SVG in 2018, Grow in Time focuses on the placement and well-being of its trainees after they leave prison. Part of this is experience given to assist in marketing products and developing entrepreneurship skills through interaction with the public. Grow in Time produces customised floor mats and baskets for Young Island Resort, The Prime Minister’s Residence, hotels and residences in Mustique and Bequia, and Canouan has exported to residences in New York, making spaces elegant statements of sustainable local enterprise. The transformation of long blades of green grass in the field through creative hands into long-lasting artistic beauty is a wonder to behold; so too is a young man’s unwavering enthusiasm to utilise and teach what he has learned in prison. A sequel to the short documentary film “The Grassmen” will be released in January 2020. This film features the journey of the grass from the field into prisoners lives, linking environmental Vetiver being harvested on the H2E project to make prison craftwork. Once harvested vetiver grass springs back to its original height within 2-4 months, making it an ideal sustainable renewable raw material. conservation andprisoner rehabilitation to raise public awareness of community based solutions to socio- economic challenges. St. Vincent’s prison authorities must be commended insupportingacreativesolutiontocrimepreventionthat reconnectsprisonerswithnatureandtheir communities proving that Vincentians bring creative solutions to every challenge!