WILMINGTON — A flyer changed the humdrum of the lives of Chuck Watson and Ernest Johnson. It offered, quite literally, a second chance to train for a new job with support from the Delaware Center for Horticulture in Trolley Square.
“I needed something to do,” said Johnson, who lives on Wilmington’s west side. “I had my outpatient program, but then I had a lot of down time.”
“I really didn’t want to come,” Watson added. “It was by chance. My job counselor asked me to give it a try. I did and look how it turned out.”
By the end of a nine-week “Branches to Chances” program that included nearly all aspects of landscaping, both men were hired by the Delaware Center for Horticulture to work as landscapers. There, they can put their new knowledge of flower propagation, soil management, water management, tree and plant identification to good use.
There are some struggles – Johnson still has a hard time with plant identification – but it also opened the door for opportunities to learn new skills for work and perhaps a new way of life. Both Johnson and Watson now work at the horticulture center after completing the program this spring and are entering their second months of work.
Now in its 16th year, the “Branches to Chances” is a horticultural job training program for unemployed, underemployed or people who were previously incarcerated. At the end of the program, the cohort leaves with skills for an entry-level landscaping or park maintenance job. Guest instructors come from the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension Service to talk about their areas of expertise.
Since 2009, the program has evolved to include counseling and case management from Jewish Family Services, computer literacy and financial literacy from the West End Neighborhood House and workplace skills and resume building with the Wilmington HOPE Commission.
Program Coordinator Robert Harris, who was a graduate of the second “Branches to Chances” class in 2000, often spends February working his network in Wilmington, dropping off flyers at Sojourners’ Place and other transitional housing facilities and outside Jenny’s Fry Corner on Seventh Street and the Ministry of Caring, among others. He also calls alumni through the program to tell them to pass the word that the program is starting up again. The Delaware Center for Horticulture advertises at various job fairs and parole offices in the area as well.
“This program is important to me, because the people that come through the program are ready to do the right thing. Once they complete it, they get it. They’re ready to turn their lives around,” he said. “I know there’s a crisis going on in finding reliable help. And the people who come to us, they’re tired of the way they used to live and ready for a change. That’s why the program is so successful.”
So far, 100 people have graduated from “Branches to Chancess” and many have gone on to start their own landscaping companies or into jobs completely out of horticulture.
“That’s what we’re all about – trying to keep the recidivism rate low and so people don’t return to that lifestyle,” Harris
Those who are interested are asked to come by the center and do a garden clean up as the first stage of the interview so they can get a taste of the work. Then, the center asks them to apply and sit down for a job interview. It’s likely each spring there will be 40 people interested in the program and eight that make the cohort.
Program Coordinator Bonnie Swain said that the center balances classroom time with hands-on experience, where the class can get a real-world application of what they learn. For example, the first botany class sees each cohort member get a plant so they can examine it from root to leaf. There’s also field trips to the Longwood Gardens and Mt. Cuba.
“One of the big benefits for us is that we’re seeing people’s eyes open to the natural world,” she said. “We hear all the time that they find peace being outside and working with living things – because a lot of the people we work with have not been introduced to the natural world.”
“We open their eyes to it and they gain a new perspective,” Swain added.
