For homeless women veterans, garden project at VA helps rebuild sense of place

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CAROL LOLLIS

Pamela Provo, a resident of Cottage 23, in her room.

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CAROL LOLLIS

Kim Tougas, back left, and Pamela Provo look over a garden at Solider On on the campus of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leeds.

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CAROL LOLLIS

Kim Tougas, a resident of the Soldier On shelter for women.

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CAROL LOLLIS PHOTOS

Laurie McGrath, left rear, the director of the Soldier On program for women, with residents Hope Williams, Kim Tougas and Pamela Provo and, at right, Kerry Lahey, a case manager, at the garden created at Soldier On in Leeds, on the campus of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

NORTHAMPTON - Outside Cottage 23 at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leeds, small garden plots are giving women a longed-for sense of roots.

Cottage 23 is a shelter for women run by the nonprofit veterans support organization Soldier On. It is home to five female veterans who can soon add "vegetable gardener" to their resumes.

The group planted the garden with help and materials from Robinson Donovan, a law firm in Springfield.

"We all discussed what we wanted to grow and then the Soldier On shelter in Pittsfield started the plants for us," said Laurie McGrath, director of Soldier On's women's program.

Most women in the cottage say that given their periodic homelessness, they hadn't gardened in years.

"I don't think any of us would claim to be a great gardener," McGrath said.

As the story of this new garden emerges, it is clear, it will intertwine with the tales residents are already sharing of their lives before coming together inside the safety of Cottage 23.

'Took convincing'

Resident Kim Tougas, a native of South Hadley, served in the military for 17 years. As an Air Force reservist at Westover Air Reserve Base, she was activated for Operation Desert Storm in 1991, but was never deployed. After leaving the military in 1999, Tougas said that escalating problems with alcohol brought her to the Soldier On shelter. "I was going downhill fast," Tougas said. "My father got me an application for the shelter, but it took a lot of convincing for me to come."

Tougas eventually agreed to move into the house, and said she was shocked at how comfortable she felt. "It wasn't a shelter like I thought, with cots and stuff. It really feels like a home," she said.

Tougas said that with the aid of the hospital's substance abuse program and the house's no-substance policy, she has been sober since she moved in a year ago. "After I went through the program, I was able to go back to school at Holyoke Community College. I'm getting a degree in human services so I can give back what I got, and then I want to get my own place," she said.

Kerry Lahey, case manager for the women's program, said Soldier On designs an individual program for each person who enters the house.

"They each come here for a different reason. We develop a treatment plan that plugs them into whatever they need to improve their lives, whether that's counseling, food stamps or a disability pension," Lahey said.

Needed a bed

Resident Pam Provo says she came to the shelter early this year looking only for a bed. But she is now improving greatly due to her program, she said. Provo got off the bus at the V.A. campus on a Friday afternoon in January, and was immediately given housing at the Soldier On women's shelter. "I came with only the clothes on my back and a coffee mug," Provo recalled. "They gave me clothes and a shower and even gave me my own room. I slept so well that night."

Another factor helped Provo feel at home that night: when she arrived at the shelter she was greeted by her older sister. "She just walked into my room a few hours after I got here. I hadn't seen her in years, and I had no idea she lived here, too."

Provo hadn't had a room to herself in 3½ years. After serving at an Air Force base in Texas in the mid-1980s, Provo moved back to Florence to get married and raise a family. She and her husband separated in 2002, and Provo lived in apartments in Northampton and Greenfield until she could no longer afford them.

In August 2005, she began living on the street and in shelters in various cities. "I've lived in Tampa, Sioux Falls, Washington, D.C., Springfield and Boston. I stayed in New York City for a week one winter, but it was easier to live on the streets there than in the shelters because they are so overcrowded," Provo said.

Part of the care that Provo receives at the shelter is regular visits to the podiatrist because of frostbite and other foot problems she developed during her years of homelessness.

"I feel like I'm not homeless anymore. I have my own things, and I feel safe and have friends here," Provo said. "The other shelters before were just cots. They definitely didn't have gardens."

"I love my room," Provo said with pride, looking about her space inside Cottage 23. "It's cozy and homey ... and I have my own TV." Each of the women's rooms has a different color scheme, thanks to help from the Wilbraham Junior Women's Club, which redecorated the interior of the house, bringing in leather couches, wood tables, curtains and other furnishings.

Now, Provo is seeking a volunteer position at Cooley Dickinson Hospital and hopes to go to school to be a medical assistant in the future. Provo said she is also looking for permanent housing and hopes to get a car.

Mission builds

John F. Downing, president and chief executive officer of Soldier On, in a visit with the women of Cottage 23, joked about how rare it was to have a man in the house. "The house is run by women for women," Downing said. "I think the garden is a reflection of the growth - they are healing and supporting each other, and together they have the independence to make the house their own."

Downing said that until four years ago, both men and women inhabited the 12-bed shelter. "I think women veterans sometimes get lost in the system. When they were living in the house with men, I think they were getting treated like men," Downing said. "They're coming here to escape something, so we needed to develop an environment where women could feel safe, so the momentum could stop and the healing could begin."

Outside, Tougas pointed out spaces where beans, lettuce, squash, cucumbers and other vegetables have been planted in the three large garden boxes in the cottage's backyard.

She said she and her housemates hope to have some of the more artistically inclined veterans on the campus decorate the sides of the wood boxes, to make the yard even brighter. Although the recent rain has taken care of the watering, Tougas said the next project for the veteran gardeners is weeding.

McGrath said that Robinson Donovan, the Springfield law firm, plans to stay involved with the women at Soldier On. Since 2008, it has offered marketing, public relations and pro-bono legal services.

It will return in the coming weeks to plant marigolds and put in stakes for the green beans. The firm hopes to share a "harvest meal" when the vegetables are picked, McGrath said.

Karen Gravelin, chief operating officer of Robinson Donovan, said that getting to know the women of Cottage 23 while gardening is a highlight of the project. "It was great to talk to the women there and share our life experiences and listen to theirs," Gravelin said. "It was very humbling."