Circular Community Action with Healing House of Alachua
Like the body, a community is a whole made up of interconnected parts. When our parts work together, synchronistically, health is optimized. Similarly, businesses, nonprofits, and local projects all play a role in contributing to a collective. When organizations uplift one another by strategically aligning their gifts and missions, great outcomes are possible. Such has been the case with the Healing House of Alachua and the Gainesville Giving Garden in Spring 2022.
The Healing House is home to healers who offer a range of modalities; acupuncture, massage, biomagnetic pairing therapy, scanio-sacral therapy, and ayurveda. Their team encourages holistic health; their practitioners understand that there are many interconnected factors that influence our wellbeing. In recognition that holistic health isn’t accessible to all in our community, they’ve partnered with the Gainesville Giving Garden to support the farm’s mission. The garden works to provide nutrient-dense, local, organic food to those who can’t easily access it. Upon learning the farm’s mission, the Healing House of Alachua was quick to ask, “How can we strengthen this work?”
The Healing House recognized that sustaining donations were impactful for the garden, as monthly donations allow for funding predictability. Throughout the month of March, their team has provided matched donations - in the form of service offerings - for individuals who become sustaining donors. For any donors committed to $20 per month, $50 per month, or $100 per month, the Healing House has offered free services including acupuncture and massage. While they could have stopped there, they instead continued to use their influence as a beloved, local business to drive donations. They partnered with Superette, a local wine garden, to offer donation-based services at the restaurant. In the following month, the team will donate their time and skills to host an ayurvedic workshop at the garden. All workshop attendees pay a suggested donation, which helps to fund the farm. Their workshop also encourages a deeper understanding of the importance of self-care within our community. With their help, the Gainesville Giving Garden’s fundraising efforts have been amplified. The farm team prepares to feed more families in the 2022-2023 growing year, and while expansion is exciting it is also costly. With help from the Healing House, increasing impact has been made more possible.
While the Healing House uplifted the garden financially, it also offered support for volunteers. Acknowledging that farm work is hard on the body, their team chose to attend a Volunteer Day to provide healing services to volunteers. Their involvement has uplifted the culture practiced at the farm; the garden intentionally maintains a space that is nourishing, safe, and empowering for all who visit. While the garden gives food, it also gives to community by providing a caring and kind space for volunteers to hone self-worth.
Holistic health on an individual level involves self-care, feeling important in a community, eating well, and playing. The collective health of a city is dependent on its people being healthy; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The Healing House of Alachua saw its role in our city - the healers - and used their gifts and influence to boost the garden’s efforts to generate a greater collective health.
