Craig Collins Craig Collins, left, and Alan McKelvy help teach Sweetser's Assertive Community Treatment clients how to garden.

Five mental health clients of Sweetser in Brunswick trade their labor on a Wiscasset organic farm for shares of the vegetables they grow.

"One client, Jason S., who is enrolled at Sweetser's vocational training program, shows up to garden every Friday, rain or shine. The others come when their lives and their mental illness allow them to participate," said Alan McKelvy, a Sweetser vocational specialist.

A few years ago, McKelvy bought the first share of produce from his neighbor, Craig Collins, who owns a Maine Community-Supported Agricultural (CSA) Farm. A former social worker, Collins got to know McKelvy and his work at Sweetser, and decided to combine gardening with public service. "It's the best way to affect change with clients," he said of vegetable farming.

To help Sweetser clients learn marketable skills, Collins plowed a 160'x30' garden plot at his Two Sisters Farm in Woolwich and taught Sweetser's Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) clients how to plant, tend and harvest.

According to clinical supervisor, Rita LaBarbera, gardening teaches skills such as timeliness, trust, commitment, following instructions, initiating ideas and follow through. The ACT gardeners plan to sell extra vegetables to Sweetser employees.

Nationally recognized and accredited, Sweetser has nearly 200 years of experience caring for adults and children who are living with mental illness, behavioral disorders, or substance abuse problems.

Sweetser is a nonprofit organization serving more than 16,000 adults and children throughout Maine. For more information about Sweetser, see www.sweetser.org . For access to mental health services call the Sweetser PromiseLine at 800-434-3000.