learning and support. She is investigating how the interpersonal space created by this work provides people with access to, knowledge of and skills for harvesting healthy foods. In particular, Saxen’s inquiry focuses on the learning experienced by people as they relate to the surrounding land, wildlife and soil. The project’s first instantiation involved a community of Burundian refugees, whose forced displacement, history of political and physical trauma and mismatch of existing skills to current economic demands had led to experiences of exclusion in their new homeland. Saxen has investigated the impact farmland has on the Burundian community, offering them an opportunity to use their vast food-growing skills creatively and independently on land of their own. A second project was founded for a group of diabetic patients on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside of Dayton. Diabetes is a challenging disease to treat because much of the treatment requires the patient to change their daily behaviors. However, studies consistently show that knowledge is insufficient to prompt sustainable changes in behavior. Furthermore, in the patient-physician encounter, the participation of patients in the process of their own healing is often sidelined by the limited time and space of the traditional clinic. Experiential “garden clinics” can help by becoming places for patients to learn about food choices and healthy behavior and to actively grow the nutritious food that is necessary for their treatment. Saxen’s research examines whether patients who share the food they produce with the greater community are empowered to make the necessary behavioral changes while also shifting their self-perceptions from being exclusively recipients of health care to providers of health for themselves and others. Saxen’s projects build on her master’s thesis in public health at Wright State University, which investigates social support in the Burundian community, and is part of a collaboration with Dr. Richard Saxen, an internist at Kettering Health Network.
23