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Salon Sessions: The People’s Flower School
Introducing Salon Sessions, a new conversation series at The Branch created to provide a safe and welcoming space for open, respectful civic dialogue about the issues shaping how we live and care for one another.
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Join us for our inaugural session on Sunday, October 18 from 2:30-4pm with Becca Amos and Meredith Wheeler, the co-founders of The People’s Flower School, for a conversation about the necessity of accessibility to the natural world for all human beings and the use of therapeutic floral design as a vehicle for envisioning and building futures that support our collective wellbeing.
Connecting with nature is proven to benefit overall wellbeing, yet people in jails and prisons are often denied access to plants and the natural world. To address this disparity, The People’s Flower School introduced Floral Therapy, an innovative therapeutic horticulture program focused explicitly on the use of flowers and floral design, as one of many tools, therapies, and resources for harm reduction offered to participants of HARP (Helping Addicts Recover Progressively) inside Chesterfield County Jail. In a setting designed to isolate and punish, Floral Therapy unlocks deeply personal, spiritual, cultural, and familial connections, empowers participants to cultivate relationships with the rhythms and cycles of the natural world, and provides mental health support and vocational training to people impacted by the legal system.
As The People’s Flower School expands to include the voices and contributions of fellow local abolitionists, florists, and gardeners, creating stronger bridges through the walls, we are excited to gather together with the broader Richmond community with the continued goal of breaking barriers to connection.
The event will include a pop up with beverages from Le Cache Dulcet, including tea, coffee and matcha available for purchase.
