HEALING GARDEN

The idea of creating a healing garden was conceived by the Team at CAC/NEPA to help visually provide a sense of renewal for child and teen victims of sexual abuse, severe physical abuse and neglect served by the nonprofit child abuse center.  The Healing Garden features natural elements – earth, water, air and fire, incorporating a variety of components including a butterfly garden, a rock garden, a reflection area with a waterfall, fire pit, hammock swings, a picnic area, and a children’s area with a sandbox and swings.

The healing garden provides a special place for relaxation and trauma therapy sessions, offering child and teen victims of abuse a safe and inspirational place for them to heal and find serenity.  Planting a seed is a definitive act of faith in the future, and accordingly the children whom we serve at the CAC/NEPA will have the opportunity to plant flower seeds in the garden.  Children will also be able to paint a rock and leave it behind in the rock garden, making a promise to the subsequent children receiving child abuse intervention services at our center – that they are not alone.

Planting-A-Promise was a community project of the Leadership Lackawanna Core Program Class of 2016.  The team from the Leadership Lackawanna Core Program Class of 2016 along with Dunbar’s Evergreen Landscaping, Inc. helped facilitate transforming the vacant plot of land into the healing garden to provide a sense of renewal to children and teens as they work through the healing process and rebuild their lives with the help of the staff at CAC/NEPA.  The garden plans were designed by Dunbar’s Evergreen Landscaping, Inc.