Like so many businesses and programs, Jovial Concepts found itself faced with some difficult challenges when the COVID-19 crisis emerged in Colorado.

Jovial, which cultivates life and work skills through garden-based programming, quickly pivoted to keep participants safe by ensuring they were socially distant and took other precautions, including sanitizing tools. Jovial is one of the many programs funded through RMHS with Denver mill levy dollars that is finding ways to continue to deliver services during these challenging times.

Jovial aims to provide job training while cultivating life and work skills for transitioning students through gardening and cooking. The nonprofit manages 67 gardens across metro Denver.

Before the stay-at-home order, Jovial hosted a program for students to learn life skills and gardening through experience in the residential gardens that help feed underserved communities. Students with IDD were taught gardening along with valuable life skills such as cooking their own lunch.

“We have an awesome community center. Our volunteers come here to learn rather than learning online,” said Kristina Welch Executive Director at Jovial Concepts. The student gardeners rely on the lunch section in the program to keep them active and learn basic life skills like cooking. The classes are done in mainly in person but have changed during the stay-at-home orders.

Click this link to continue reading: https://www.rmhumanservices.org/single-post/2020/04/30/Creating-Connections-from-a-Distance-Mill-Levy-Funded-Initiatives-Shift-to-Distance-Learning