Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Tanner.
Hi Jamie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Growing up with an incarcerated parent, I didn’t realize the impact early childhood trauma had on my life until I started hobby farming in my 30s. I had always found nature, animals, and gardening to be a bright spot in my dark world…when I started inviting other traumatized individuals to farm and garden with me at my hobby farm (Simple Sparrow), I realized it was healing for all of us.
Trauma experts like Dr. Bruce Perry say that “community is a buffer to trauma.” Throughout my life, I was fortunate to have a loving family and church community that surrounded my mother, siblings, and me during my father’s years in prison. Church and family truly were the buffer to our trauma. It was through those safe and compassionate communities I found healing and peace in the storm. As an adult, I was a combat medic in the US Army. I continued to find that safe and compassionate relationships and farm nature remained a balm and buffer for more traumatic experiences.
Simple Sparrow Care Farm, founded as a 501c3 in 2017 nonprofit, grew from Simple Sparrow “hobby farm.” We provide therapy services and farm education to all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to Learn + Grow + Heal through safe relationship in caring compassionate community. We recognize the value of trauma informed care and purpose filled work at the farm in order to foster meaningful relational connections. At the care farm, people have the opportunity to care for land, gardens, and animals so they are better equipped to care for themselves and others. When people Learn care, we Grow compassion to Heal the world.
My most favorite day at the care farm happened in 2018. We were piloting an employment program for survivors of human trafficking and one of the survivors (D) wanted to help give a tour to a family who was visiting the farm to learn about caring for chickens. The family had just adopted 4 siblings. All were young girls who had been sexually abused and exploited by their biological family. The family who adopted these girls had 10 children total and the new sisters looked nothing like their new family. D, however, looked like them and shared a similar trauma. D exemplified compassion and care that day. She helped those precious girls feel safe and told them all about care for chickens. D could love and care for sweet little girls like she wanted someone to love and care for her. On some level, she was also loving and caring for herself.
I walked down to the barn with one of the little girls; she was 4 years old and curious about everything. When we got down to the barn, she came to an abrupt stop and froze.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” I asked.
“Is that a turkey?” she asked, about to cry, “Before my new mommy, I had a very mean grandmother that told me she would make a turkey kill me…”
I knelt down beside her and looked at the large turkey hen roosting in the barn. “That’s Alice,” I said. “Can I tell you a story about Alice?”
She nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on Alice.
“A few years ago, Alice hatched out lots of turkey babies. They looked just like her. And she was the best mommy and cared for them and protected them under her wings. She wouldn’t let anything hurt her baby turkeys. Then last year, Alice found a nest of eggs that had lots of other bird eggs in it. Alice sat on that nest and hatched out some baby turkeys, baby ducks, and even some baby chickens! And you know what…Alice was the best mommy and cared for all of them and protected all of them under her wings. She wouldn’t let anything hurt her babies…it didn’t even matter they were all so different…just like your new mommy.”
The little girl beamed and lifted her head high. “OH! OKAY!!! Let’s go feed Alice!” So we marched into the barn and fed Alice.
The family now raises chickens and D and I continue to meet for coffee or lunch regularly. We all had the care farm to meet at and connect to one another through safe relationship. Together, we create a caring compassionate community that is a buffer to trauma.
At Simple Sparrow, all staff members are trained in TBRI (Trust Based Relational Intervention) in order to better serve the needs in our community through the care farm. In 2020, Simple Sparrow Care Farm served over 4,000 people through our care farm programs and services. Our volunteer program exceeds 200 volunteers annually. Our therapy team, built through partnerships with local therapists, includes licensed counselors and therapists specializing in a variety of therapeutics including trauma/sensory integration, occupational and recreational therapy, family, marriage, and child counseling, equine/animal assisted therapy, and Christian counseling.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Challenges and struggles are a part of life. If my life were a road, it would be a back country road in the Rocky Mountains: boulders sprinkled here and there, jutting out from the middle of the road in some places that scrape and ruin the bottom of cars, fresh mountain air that may cause some people altitude sickness, and views that are too majestic and mysterious to be man made.
The biggest struggles are just overcoming my fears: fear of failure, fear of abandonment, fear of “I’m not enough.” So I sit with myself and God (usually in the milk barn with my goats and dog and a friendly barn cat) and together we decide to just keep going and doing the best we can. Oftentimes, all I need to do is just take that next step. I find I can usually do that: just take the next step, then the next one. I figure, if I can focus on doing life right and well, loving God and loving others, then that’s a pretty good way to live.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am most known for developing a trauma informed care farm model. Care farming is a model of how to utilize farm nature for therapy and/or education. Globally, there are distinctions in the model known as “social farm/garden” or “therapy farm/garden.” Thousands of care, social, therapy farms exist throughout Europe and they are gaining popularity in Australia and the US.
Simple Sparrow is the care farm I started outside of Austin, Texas. We are a very collaborative nonprofit, serving mainly Williamson County, but have gained national and international interest. Our methods are evidence based on current trauma research conducted at the ChildTrauma Academy in Houston and Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development in Ft. Worth. Additionally, we are evidence supported and work with multiple education and therapy institutions to determine the efficacy of our care farm model. In the Fall of 2021, I started work on my doctorate degree. My dissertation is on trauma informed care farming: what it is, why it works, and how to do it. I am so excited to share more about our work and publish more research on the subject of care farming! More on our research and resources is found on our website at www.simplesparrow.farm/research.
I am proud of the work our team has put in and the support we have in our community. Trauma informed care farming is virtually unheard of. When we first started, we brought something new to our community to provide holistic mental health and relational care. Furthermore, our care farm model not only addresses human needs, but how human needs can live in harmony with nature: Our purpose as humans is to help the whole of creation live up to its fullest potential. When people work together to help the earth, not exploit her, we live up to our fullest potential too. It is encouraging to observe people from hard places learn to steward the earth (care for gardens and animals) then watch them flourish in their personal relationships, school, and career.
How do you define success?
As living beings, success is helping another living thing live up to its fullest potential.
Pricing:
- Private Farm Visit: $45/group up to 10
- Counseling/Therapy Services start at $100/hr
- Sequential Relational Path: starts at $840
Contact Info:
- Email: office@simplesparrow.farm
- Website: www.simplesparrow.farm
- Instagram: simplesparrow.farm
- Facebook: Simple Sparrow Care Farm
Image Credits:
Jessica Scott
