Across from the San Luis Obispo Mission, nestled between a custom hat retailer and yarn store on Chorro Street, stands a house plant oasis. Upon entering, customers can walk down a long, narrow hallway leading them down isles of plants, pottery and botanical care products.
Throughout the year, the shop is covered in green. House plants hang from the ceiling, sit on shelves pushed up against the walls and cover most of the walkway, leaving only a small path for shoppers to stroll through.
During the holiday season, Growing Grounds Downtown is sprinkled with pops of bright red and white leaves, as the faint rush of fountain water sounds under holiday music. From November to December, amidst its usual supply of house plants, the store is selling poinsettias and highlighting local makers to fund its employment services as part of Transitions-Mental Health Association (TMHA).
“The holiday season for many people is about giving, and what better way, I feel like, to give a gift than to also be giving back to the community as you’re doing that,” Growing Grounds’ program manager Anna Wiens said. “It’s like a win-win.”
Annual poinsettia fundraiser
From mid to late November, the store held its annual poinsettia fundraiser, where customers could pre-order poinsettias for pickup in early December.
“I think during the holiday season, and always, the Growing Grounds is a place of hope,” Wiens said.
The store still has a selection of 4- and 6-inch poinsettias in five colors for sale, as well as 8-inch ones coupled with ivy and chrysanthemums, according to program supervisor Liese Foote.
“They’re just the most healthy, robust poinsettias you’ve ever seen,” Foote said. “The shop just looks so festive, and it’s not because we’re, you know, decorating with things that we’ll throw away and end up in a landfill. It’s poinsettias, which, when taken care of, they can last all year.”
Since mid November, the store has offered products from local makers in an effort to support local artists. The Holiday Makers Spotlights so far have featured candles, bath products, macrame, jewelry, skin and body care, art prints and more.
Foote has been compiling gift guides with themed products, like birds and Monarch butterflies, on the shop’s Instagram. She said it’s been wonderful working with local businesses.
“Every single local maker that we’ve worked with is so creative, and their products are beautiful. And they’re invested in our community,” she said. “They’re all from this area, and so we have this common goal of making sure that our local retail spaces support not only mental health services here in San Luis Obispo but also our local makers here.”
How Growing Grounds works with TMHA
TMHA is a non-profit “dedicated to eliminating stigma and promoting recovery and wellness for people with mental illness,” according to their website. They provide social, clinical, homeless, housing, family, forensic and work services to clients in San Luis Obispo and North Santa Barbara Counties.
Growing Grounds encompasses three TMHA work programs: Growing Grounds Nursery in San Luis Obispo, Growing Grounds Farm in Santa Maria and Growing Grounds Downtown. All proceeds from the organizations help fund their programs.
The three offer TMHA clients paid employment in a “safe and supportive environment,” according to their website. Those enrolled in the program gain job skills and experiences in retail with support from TMHA staff.
Much of the Growing Grounds staff — the supervisors, job coaches and clients — are acquainted, which contributes to the store’s encouraging environment.
“A big piece of working at the Growing Grounds programs is building your self confidence,” Wiens said. “It’s hard to have the confidence to put yourself out there, especially if you’re dealing with, you know, mental health symptoms that are challenging and maybe are aggravated by stress.”
Wiens said TMHA clients are employed at the plant store for 16 weeks, learning from job coaches on how to work with customers or run the cash register, for example. Each client’s learning experiences are individualized to their interests and goals.
“Some people are at the place where they can have a little bit of training and just kind of be let loose to work, and then other people are more comfortable working more closely together and having a supervisor kind of guide them through different things,” she said.
Assistant supervisor and job coach Lela Whittier has worked at Growing Grounds for seven years.
“For the most part, this program doesn’t just sell plants, and it’s not just because the public enjoys it so much,” Whittier said. It’s also helping with the local mental health crisis, she said.
One of the most important tenets of TMHA’s mission right now, according to Whittier, is to eliminate the stigma around mental health and the people coping with it.
“A mental health crisis is no joke … so we need to support each other,” she said. “It’s a community effort.”
Wiens said the best way to support Growing Grounds Downtown is to shop there. They can be found at 956 Chorro St. and contacted at 805-544-4967.
More information on TMHA’s Growing Grounds Downtown can be found on their website and Instagram, @growinggroundsdt. Below is a list of several San Luis Obispo County mental health resources.
Resources:
- Central Coast Crisis and Mental Health Support Hotline, 800-783-0607 (confidential, free and available 24/7)
- Mental health resources on TMHA’s website
- SLO County’s Behavioral Health Holiday Guide
- SLO County National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) resources
- Cal Poly counseling and wellbeing services
- Cal Poly’s After-hours Psychological Crisis Hotline, 805-756-2511 (available 24/7)