In the Weeds

Turning over a new leaf

Robert Sands, CEO, Pamlico Rose Institute

Growing Together: Introducing Our Revised Mission at Pamlico Rose

At Pamlico Rose Institute for Sustainable Communities (PRI), growth has always been rooted in the soil of purpose. Since our founding, we’ve embraced the healing power of nature, the arts, and service to community. The core mission we built our organization and Rose Haven Center of Healing around, supporting women Veterans and at-risk populations through a holistic wellness framework, remains as vital as ever. But like any well-tended garden, we’ve expanded our rows, deepened our roots, and are now ready to share a broader, more inclusive vision for what wellness can mean in a changing world.

Through our modified website, this bog and other avenues of outreach, we are introducing our revised mission, which incorporates the past and reflects our future: to promote individual and community wellness through sustainable living practices, creative expression, and the transformative potential of nature. This renewed focus brings into sharper focus our "groundbreaking" work on developing and growing wellness gardens into nature-infused outdoor community-based wellness centers.

And at the center of this expansion is our thriving partnership with AmeriCorps.

From Healing Havens to a Network of Wellness Gardens

Our initial efforts were centered on the development of Rose Haven Center of Healing in Washington, NC as a safe, restorative space designed especially for women Veterans. With an emphasis on Total Life Fitness (TLF), we offered a pathway to wellness and healing through art, horticulture, mindfulness, and creative therapies. That work helped us envision an expanded mission based on the premise that wellness incorporates activities that work across mind, body and soul and like healing, wellness works best when it is accessible, community-rooted, and resilient. Continuing this theme, we developed three other gardens in Beaufort County, at Chocowinity Primary School, Beaufort County Community College and a garden supporting the Town of Aurora.

We have maintained our Wellness Gardens of Aurora as our flagship gardens and additionally, with the help of AmeriCorps, we are now seeding a state-wide network of organizations as host sites, to assist their efforts in advancing wellness in their own gardens and outdoor nature spaces. To these host gardens, schools, public parks, and neighborhood nonprofits we’re bringing the tool kit for wellness into the hands of staff, volunteers, and local residents, and our own service members. This new phase of growth allows us to take the lessons of Rose Haven and scale them, while helping tailor each garden and program to the unique needs of the communities we serve. Every site becomes a local compass pointing true "north" in the direction of healthy living, and a means to promote healing.

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The PRI Wellness Corps: Service Rooted in Purpose

In 2022, we were awarded a three-year Public Health AmeriCorps grant, one of 80 programs nation-wide, as a response to the impact of COVID on under-represented communities. Our PRI Health Corps grew gardens and food while our members learned about and experienced first hand the field of public health. We started a new three-year AmeriCorps grant in September 2025 with a slightly different name and expanded mission and footprint. Now our dedicated members, young adults, students, middle aged folks seeking a new lease on life and retirees, bring their energy, creativity, and compassion to the new iteration of our partnership with AmeriCorps and host sites across the state. Through hands-on service, education, and outreach, we help advance wellness programming while fostering healthy living.

Our Corps members serve in a wide variety of roles:

• Building and maintaining garden spaces

• Leading workshops on nutrition, mindfulness, and sustainability

• Supporting local food initiatives and farmers markets

• Creating accessible educational materials

• Hosting intergenerational events around wellness and the arts

Whether it’s a raised bed behind a rural library or a thriving pollinator plot at a public elementary school, our members help cultivate a wellness approach that integrates/promotes physical, social and psychological health —one garden at a time.

Looking Ahead: Wellness for All, Community by Community

We see wellness not as a product but a process. It’s the result of consistent attention to the body, mind, spirit, and environment. And it’s most powerful when shared.

Through our partnership with AmeriCorps and the enthusiasm of our local host sites, we are expanding this shared vision of wellness, especially in communities that have been historically underserved or overlooked. Our revised mission reinforces our belief that sustainable change comes through education, engagement, and collective action.

We invite you to be part of this journey and a participant in our ongoing story. Whether you’re a community member, a prospective AmeriCorps service member, a supporter, or simply someone curious about what’s growing in your town, we welcome you.

Let’s build a future where gardens grow wellness, and where every act of service sows the seeds of hope.

In the Weeds will be our online platform for sharing activities, insights on wellness, updates and maybe even a story or two about how we are meeting the need for healthy living across our garden sites. We will post on our Facebook page when a new In the Weeds hits the streets! Till then, have a safe and happy, even merry holidays.