feel good
Community garden growing wellbeing and purpose among vulnerable young people at risk of homelessness
Hailie Hansen and Xander Parker are taking part in a program which provides support and accommodation for vulnerable young people. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)
In short:
Young people at risk of homelessness after spending time in state care are taking part in an affordable living program.
At an apartment complex in Adelaide's south, the young residents are creating a community garden to give them sustainable access to fresh herbs and vegetables.
What's next?
Researchers are studying the project to gain insights into urban heat and community wellbeing.
Hailie Hansen and Xander Parker, both 19, live in an affordable apartment complex in Adelaide's inner south-west.
They're taking part in a program run by Anglicare for young people, aged 18 to 25, who are at risk of homelessness after spending time in state care.
In return for a small portion of their income, the residents are supported to live independently with access to staff who can assist them with managing household tasks like paying bills and cooking.
The young couple have overcome incredible hardship, and say that without the program, they "would have been homeless".
The pair are hoping the project will help them work towards their goals. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)
"I was a DCP [Department for Child Protection] kid. My mum and dad obviously weren't the greatest," Hailie said.
"My foster mum — when I turned 16, COVID was happening — she wasn't super chill with a disease spreading around, so at 16, I moved out."
Her partner Xander had been living in a "rough situation" in a caravan in Murray Bridge before the pair met and moved to Adelaide.
They have now been "happily and comfortably" living in the complex for a year and a half.
Participation and wellbeing coordinator Rebecca Walker said many of the residents had experienced significant trauma.
Rebecca Walker says there is a waiting list for the program, which is proving very popular. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)
"I think it's so important for every young person to have people in their world who care about them and support them," she said.
Ms Walker said there were staff onsite to help with a range of tasks, such as finding out "how to make that bolognese or that lasagna" — a skill that many would typically learn from parents.
"A lot of our young people haven't had the opportunity to have parents or people be able to teach them those skills, so they can come down and access the support workers," she said.
"They've got staff on site to be able to mentor them and support them through learning those skills."
Green ambition
Now, the residents and staff are working together to add a community garden, yarning circle and bush tucker area to the housing complex.
"We started to have conversations with them around what they would like their space to look like," Ms Walker said.
"One of the themes that we just kept hearing over and over again was a green space."
Plans for the garden include citrus trees, tall hedges, an Indigenous-themed mural and a lawn. (Supplied)
For Hailie, the initiative is a wholesome one that "gets all of us together".
"It's not the biggest apartment, we can't have our own gardens," she said.
"But having something self-sufficient down here that we can all contribute towards is really nice."
The raised garden beds will provide access to fresh herbs and greens for the residents. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)
The community hopes it will also mean cheap and sustainable access to fresh herbs and vegetables, while creating habitat for wildlife such as bees, birds and butterflies.
"This is the busiest event we've ever had at the site," Ms Walker said of a recent planting session.
"We're really, really excited to see that the young people were just thrilled to have this opportunity and are really responding to it."
Sophie Thomson (left) from the ABC's Gardening Australia recently helped lead a planting workshop at the site. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)
Xander and Hailie hope the gardens will grow further opportunities for residents to put their green thumbs to good use.
"If they see thriving plants, they might want to come down and ask if they can get a little plot of land too," Hailie said.
"That might extend the garden even further."
Researchers map impacts
The project is of interest to University of Adelaide researchers, who are examining the impacts.
Ehsan Sharifi will be mapping the project's impact on heat in the surrounding homes. (ABC News: Nicholas Sanders)
Ehsan Sharifi from the School of Architecture and Engineering is investigating the urban heat map effect of adding plants to the space.
"We know that the urban spaces which tend to have more hard materials, like asphalt and paving, heavy materials, tend to be warmer than the natural landscape counterparts," he said.
Dr Sharifi said adding protective vegetation such as green walls or shade trees — which is the next step in the project — could make a space cooler by two to 10 degrees Celsius.
He said it could also provide a blueprint for inexpensive heat mitigation in urban areas.
"Projects like this kind of tell people, normal citizens like myself, that you can have an impact and you can make a cooler space in your home," he said.
Dr Sharifi analysing thermal imaging and thermometer data, which reflects air and surface temperatures. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)
Dr Sharifi said urban hotspots could be largely prevented with careful planning.
"It's not an expensive practice," he said.
"[We're] basically talking about choosing the colour of your roof, choosing the colour of your wall, or having this paving or that paving, or having this tree or that tree — so it's usually a matter of choice, rather than spending more or less.
"That's a big value."
'Hope and wonder'
Mark Kohler from the university's School of Psychology is also tracking the impact of the green space on the young residents' wellbeing, moods and problem-solving skills.
"We tend to feel more relaxed when we're in nature," Dr Kohler said.
"There's something about it that helps our attention, helps us think clearly, maybe even helps us sort of plan in ways that we don't do when we're maybe in built environments or on a screen.
"We can see that physiologically, and we can also see that in the way people respond to surveys."
Dr Kohler will publish a report on the effectiveness of the program. (ABC News: Nicholas Sanders)
Dr Kohler said that, as green spaces dwindle to make way for housing development, there was a need for further investment in similar projects, and to "put an impetus on green space development within different housing development complexes".
The project could, he said, encourage participants to foster a greater sense of care for themselves and others.
"In nature, there's almost like an endless range of possibilities as to how we might interact," he said.
"Often, when we talk about nature, we think about instilling a sense of kind of hope and wonder, or hope and awe, and it sounds a little bit kind of soft and fluffy.
"But really, what that is getting at is people's ability to feel purpose in life, and to be able to find a way of harnessing that and engaging it and being productive in their own way."
Xander has been putting the veggie patch to good use, and harvests ingredients for his cooking. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)
Ms Walker shares that sentiment.
"The garden has its own magic and has a different effect on every person who steps into it," she said.
"We just want to see young people thrive and have every opportunity they can to achieve the things that they want to achieve in their life.
"[It's] just a joy to watch, and just to be a tiny little part of that journey with them I think is really, really special."