Melwood: A Horticultural Therapy Pioneer

A seed of personal determination was planted in 1963 when a small group of parents envisioned a world unlike the one that existed at that time for their adult children with differing abilities – one that would provide a fulfilling, meaningful life with choice of employment, rehabilitation, community engagement and recreation. In 2013, Melwood celebrated 50 years of making real this vision for countless families and their family members with differing abilities. Melwood has been the formative leader in job training, employment, life skill improvement, supportive and recreational services for persons with differing abilities throughout the Northeast United States. Its inaugural Horticulture Rehabilitative Therapy Program of producing and selling its plant material to the public back in 1963 would give rise to Melwood’s pioneering social entrepreneurial enterprise model -- businesses with the double bottom line of providing revenue as well as contributing to society by providing jobs, independence and enhanced overall well-being for persons with differing abilities -- that would be adopted all over the world.

Equally as impactful as Melwood’s seminal contribution to the development and practice of social enterprises was the visionary leadership Melwood provided in the early 70s in the formation of the first organization dedicated to the work of horticulture as therapy and rehabilitation. With the growing recognition and appreciation in the US and abroad for the therapeutic value of horticulture as a treatment modality, Earl Copus, Melwood’s preeminent leader, (along with other emerging leaders working at Melwood at that time, namely Paula Diane Relf), sought to identify and assemble all who were using horticulture to address the needs of those they served (not only persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, but many other diverse populations – senior citizens, behaviorally challenged youth, prisoners, persons challenged with substance abuse, etc.). This resulted in the first horticultural therapy national conference in 1972 and the subsequent establishment in 1973 of the National Council for Therapy and Rehabilitation through Horticulture, what is today the American Horticultural Therapy Association (AHTA).

Thus, Melwood has been at the forefront of AHTA’s organizational mission: to promote and advance the profession of horticultural therapy as a therapeutic intervention and rehabilitative medium. Earl Copus served as AHTA’s first president and former Melwood Horticultural Therapy Director Lana Dreyfus was a past president, the founder and president of the former Chesapeake Chapter of AHTA and long-time coordinator of Horticultural Therapy Week. Melwood’s current Director of Horticulture Programs, Sheila Gallagher, CPH, HTR had the most recent honor of representing Melwood at the International Conference on Horticulture Therapy at Feng Chia University in Taichung, Taiwan where she presented on the history of horticulture therapy in the US. In addition to overseeing Melwood’s signature vocational horticulture therapy program and growing Melwood’s HT experiences for more Melwood individuals and in the community, Ms. Gallagher plays a very important role in promoting and advancing the HT profession by presenting at conferences, supervising HT interns and helping to shape a newly formed HT network – the Chesapeake HT Network.

I count myself very fortunate to be a part of an organization with such a rich and proud legacy of horticultural therapy and whose response to the vision of a small group of parents some 50 years ago changed the landscape for people with differing abilities all over the world.

Kaifa Anderson-Hall is a Melwood volunteer, HT intern and member of the Chesapeake HT Network. Her internship has included the revitalization of Melwood’s Learning Garden at Melwood’s Recreation Center for their Camp Accomplish (a camping experience for youth of all abilities).

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