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The Paid Leave Podcast
Paid Leave is a hot topic in our country right now. The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world without a national paid leave policy, and Connecticut is one of only 13 states and the District of Columbia to have a state program in place. Other cities and states are working to join the paid leave movement. The Paid Leave Podcast examines the state of Connecticut's paid leave program and the impact it has on various groups and diverse communities. Radio veteran Nancy Barrow interviews the people who fought to make paid leave a reality in Connecticut, and those who will ultimately benefit from the program. The states with paid leave include Connecticut, Rhode Island, California, New Jersey, New York, Washington, Massachusetts, Oregon, Maryland, Delaware, Minnesota, Colorado, Vermont, New Hampshire, Illinois, Minnesota and the district of Washington, D.C.
The Paid Leave Podcast
How a Doctor Used Farming to Heal Herself and Her Community
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August is National Wellness Month. Farm Worker Appreciation Day also falls in August. In this episode of The Paid Leave Podcast, we find out about a doctor in Connecticut and her story of resilience, farming as therapy, and kindness.
Dr. Ivette Ruiz, a traumatic brain injury survivor and founder of Healing by Growing Farms in East Haven, shared her journey of overcoming adversity through gardening. In 2020, she suffered a brain injury while deploying for Hurricane Isaias, leading to significant challenges including food insecurity and loss of insurance. Despite these obstacles, she found solace in gardening, which became therapeutic and led to the creation of a farm that provides free services to brain injury, trauma survivors and the disabled. Ruiz emphasized the importance of mental health and community support, highlighting the benefits of the Connecticut Paid Leave program, which could have significantly aided her recovery.
This sub-urban farm serves as a place of learning and healing for survivors, urban farmers, BIPOC communities, veterans, and aspiring growers; offering a platform to learn diverse agricultural practices and maximize the potential of small and large spaces. She elevates awareness through local and international presentations and consultations for diverse audiences like the USDA FSA, University Extensions, Agri Stress Response, Common Ground, and Yale Health.
For more information about Dr. Ivette Ruiz and Healing by Growing Farms please visit, https://www.healingbygrowing.com/ (healingbygrowing.com).
For more information or to apply for benefits, please visit, https://www.ctpaidleave.org/?language=en_US (ctpaidleave.org)
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Hello, Connecticut, and welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. The title basically says it all. I'm Nancy Barrow, and I will be delving into this new state program and how it can help you and your family. This podcast will give you information you should know about Connecticut Paid Leave and maybe just a little bit more. Connecticut Paid Leave brings peace of mind to your home, family, and workplace. Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. Dr. Ivette Ruiz is a bilingual and bicultural third-generation beginning farmer. Her background lies in diverse areas and platforms around disability integration, marginalized groups, holistic coaching, leadership development, and organizational development. For over three decades, she worked in public service, health, and human services, higher education, disaster relief, and faith-based organizations. She was an executive coach, consultant, advocate, international speaker, and a trainer, Dr. Ruiz is a traumatic brain injury survivor, and her journey is one of overcoming adversity and channeling her experiences into building a vibrant community around food and inclusivity. Dr. Ruiz's passion lies in being the founder of Healing by Growing Farms, a space that nurtures not just crops but also hope. The suburban farm serves as a place of learning and healing for survivors, urban farmers, BIPOC communities, veterans, and aspiring growers, offering a platform to learn diverse agricultural practices and maximize the potential of small and large spaces. Healing by growing farms isn't just an East Haven farm; it's a beacon of hope reaching across the globe. They provide no-cost, life-changing support for brain injury and trauma survivors worldwide, offering a sanctuary for healing and personal growth. She elevates awareness through local and international presentations and consultations for diverse audiences, like the USDA FSA, University Extensions, Agri Stress Response, Common Ground, and Yale Health. And I do believe I hear a rooster in the background. Thanks for joining me on The Paid Leave Podcast, Dr. Ruiz.
Ivette Ruiz:It's my pleasure, my honor, and yes, I close the window so that the rooster's noise is a little bit minimal.
Nancy Barrow:I can't wait. I want to come visit your farm because it sounds like it's just magical.
Ivette Ruiz:We would love to have you.
Nancy Barrow:Well, tell me about your journey. Can you share the story of your traumatic brain injury and and how that changed your life?
Ivette Ruiz:Well, the story of the life-changing day was in 2020, the summer of 2020, when I was deployed to go ahead of Hurricane Isaias to set the pathways for communities that were in the path of the hurricane, and while saying goodbye to my grandchildren, I fell, hit my head against some trees, and suffered a brain injury. That days shifted my whole life and changed it in a way that it's really hard to explain without getting choked up just six years later, because I went from being a very alert and focused person, ready to go to the mission, and then all of a sudden having loss of memory and lots of difficulties, including losing mobility, losing speech, and many other issues that come with brain injury, but at the time I didn't realize it because I was still marching orders to go ahead with my team, and it was until I started acting weird. Meaning that my grandson said I was acting weird, and he said something is wrong with you. You need to go to the doctor now and stop. And it was his small little voice that sort of prompted me to go there. And through that challenging journey, here I am today, have thrived through it all and still working through it.
Nancy Barrow:Well, let me ask you this: What were some of the biggest challenges during your recovery? I know that it must have been difficult, and maybe losing some hope about how you're going to come out of that traumatic brain injury.
Ivette Ruiz:Yes, it was very difficult. Some of the biggest challenges for me were. Losing insurance because I resigned from my post, given that I could no longer do disaster relief. The doctor said that I needed some time to rest my mind and to heal, and that that would take a while. And so, having resign and not having benefits to live caused me to have food insecurity, and that was the other challenge. That was a very very big one. I didn't. I decided not to tell family and loved ones because I didn't want to burden them with my situation, and so I sort of kept it to myself. The people that I did say this to try to be helpful, but a lot of the programs, which was a third challenge that I try to reach out to, sadly did not were not able to provide services for me. A lot of the services meant that I had to be a certain age to get food services at my home, or there were services that were not for people with mobility issues. They were in church basements, like food pantries. So if I wasn't driving or I couldn't get down a flight of stairs because I was wheelchair bound or in a walker or in a cane, I could not access the food, and the programs that I thought were there to help me actually were not meant for someone that had the challenges I had. Finding a way to overcome that became very stressful and a very gray space in my life, where I questioned my faith and hope, and where I questioned whether I should continue to live or not, I went through a time that I was suicide. I had suicide ideation, but it was by the grace of God, as a Christian woman, that I sort of reached out to an old colleague slash friend to share how I was feeling in that dark space, and she spoke life to me, and she reminded me who I am and where I stood. Sorry, and she just let me know that it will be okay. That I will get through it, and I have.
Nancy Barrow:Well, I think support is one of the most important things in finding your community, right? So it was really wonderful that you had that to help you through that time where you were in despair, right? Like suicidal ideation and all of that that comes with it, and and depression. I'm sure you were depressed, you know, losing what you had prior to. You were well educated, and you know you were a vibrant person in the community, and then losing that, I'm I'm assuming would be very very difficult, and losing food and being food insecure must have just been something different that you've never experienced before.
Ivette Ruiz:Yeah, it was definitely a challenging time, and not having insurance was very disappointing because where the places that I turned to get health insurance or second opinions did not, you know, turn me down because I didn't have health insurance or the cash to pay it. I even went for alternative healthcare consultations in different farms or different therapies in outdoor places. But everybody wanted $100 for just 45 minutes or more, and it became very very challenging and you do become as a strong person who all of a sudden is battling with many insecurities. It is difficult. I have had many difficulties in my life, so challenge is not something that is the first time situation for me, but brain injury was, and I think it's very different when you are an individual who helps people with disabilities and unserved communities, like I have had for all of my life. But when it happens to you personally, it is definitely different, and it takes a different toll on you when you're hit with it face to face, no money, no food, not proper healthcare, and mobility. Not knowing two plus two, all of those things add up, and definitely make anyone depressed and questionable whether which way they should go next.
Nancy Barrow:Well, you look great now. I mean, and you're doing really well now. But let's start about the gardening. When did you start gardening, and then realizing that this was therapeutic for you?
Ivette Ruiz:Sure, my friend Jane, who I called during my darkest of time. Reminded me how much I loved gardening, and before my time with doing disaster relief, I used to spend hours and hours gardening and just being outdoors. And I sort of give that up because when you respond to national disasters, you're going for weeks and months at a time, and you don't have the flexibility to do that, and with my position that I responded to national disasters, I was on call 24/7. So I had let that go. So she reminded me the power of gardening and the impact that that had in my life always as a positive change. And so I decided to go outside that same day after that call, and we were in the middle of the COVID pandemic. And I was also a responder helping out with the COVID pandemic, sort of doing research, finding out what we had body bags because a lot of hospitals were not of body bags, where where people needed to be, how do people reach people that they didn't know about? So I was in the middle of so many other things in the deep and roots of the pandemic. So that didn't make it easy. But one thing I did know was that there were people that were going hungry because there was no food in the shelves, and so I knew that I had a green thumb that I could grow stuff, so I started reaching out to folks, letting them know if they could give me seedlings or seeds, because again, finances were very limited, and people started sending me seeds and seedlings, and I started growing food and I started going outdoors, even when I was in the most of pain, even with tears in my eyes. I just started going outdoors and started just messing with the soil, preparing it for when the seeds come, because just like we have to prepare our minds and our bodies and our souls to pivot from where we at to where we want to be, so we don't get stuck in the trauma. I had to prepare the soil. I always say that the soil in nature and planting is just very similar to our souls and us becoming that seed in the darkness and seeing light. And I started growing potatoes and and sticks. And sticks are for those people that don't know is just a piece of bare stick. It's not even a bare root. Bare root has roots on the bottom. A stick is just a piece of wood that looks like a pencil and has no roots, no stems, no leaves, or nothing. And so, a lot of those willow sticks got donated to me, and other sticks of other crops and vegetables, and I just didn't know what I was doing with those because I never had done those, and I just followed the instructions, get some soil, and stick them in there, and water them, and nurture them. That's all I did, and that's where the journey began for me in a different way because it was gardening to provide food for others, but what I didn't realize how therapeutic and healing it was for me. I did it most for the community, and to get out of the house, all the other benefits that stem out of it were just bonuses and just God's blessings to me.
Nancy Barrow:You know, nature can do a lot. You know, it can heal a lot of things, and it's wonderful that you found that. And when did you decide to open your farm to the other people who were also suffering?
Ivette Ruiz:Sure. Well, as a researcher, one of the things that I did was begin to do the research because I knew it was having a positive impact on my life. And when I started going to Gaylord Hospital for my therapy and different other places for my therapy, I started hearing other people being depressed and feeling blue and feeling sad because they were experiencing long COVID. Although at the time we didn't know it was called long COVID, but people were really, really struggling, and I just started saying to people, you know, I I recently went through something similar, although it was not long COVID. I have a space in my property that I'm growing food for other people. Would you like to join me? Has helped me tremendously. I've done some research to back it up. So before I started telling people about it, I did some research that to to back up. I believe that people move better when they have data, and data shows that when you are in green environments and when you're surrounded by plants and leaves and life all together, including animals, that people heal a lot faster. That people take less medication. Depression goes down. High blood pressure goes down, and the list goes on and on. And I just started sharing with people and just volunteering my space, and what ended up being something to produce food and help the community and help me. Heal ended up being a respite space to heal others, and that's how healing by growing farms was birthed. Because before I knew it, people started telling other people, clients started telling other clients, and there were people showing up in canes, wheelchairs, and walkers, and it just blew my mind.
Nancy Barrow:It's amazing how healing, like you said, nature can be. Is there a story of somebody whose life was positively impacted through your farming at Healing by Growing Farms that really sticks with you?
Ivette Ruiz:Yeah, Well, I have a few, but I know time is limited, so I will definitely share the most recent one. The most recent one was a young man who came here to do volunteer work through an organization that provides brain injury services, and they wanted to place some of their clients to do volunteer work with other similar like people like me. I have a brain injury, and he started coming here a few times a week to learn how to do volunteer work and to engage in nature because he loves to be outdoors and he felt like he wanted to contribute to something that had a bigger cause than just being at home. He also wanted to gain skills to be employed again and get a job and reunite the workforce, and I had them here and I trained them animal husbandry. It was in the middle of the winter. We have emotional support animals: rabbits, quail, chickens, roosters, and I showed them how to connect with the animals and how to take care of them. And in the process, they take care of us because a lot of our animals are adopted with trauma, and so somebody with trauma helping another thing with trauma really is really really impactful, very soothing and very healing. And as a result, he not only learned new skills and was very happy to be here and explain how being here provided peace and healing for him, but he was also was able to get a a job with Deep, and now has a job that he can contribute to his own livelihood. And although he's a brain injury survivor, he has learned a valuable lesson that I learned and that I share with people is that we can't let trauma or an injury define us and control us, but we have to take that and turn it around so that we don't get stuck and find a way to get unstuck and pivot so that we can still live and thrive.
Nancy Barrow:Did you ever think that you were going to have a farm that was going to be a therapeutic farm and help other people.
Ivette Ruiz:I've always thought of having a farm since I was a child. I always said when I retire I was going to have a a farm for people in communities who have never visited a farm. But I never in a million years thought that the route that it will come to be was this root, and never thought it will be a therapeutic find for trauma and brain injury that morphed as a result of my own brain injury and my own my own tragedy and struggle.
Nancy Barrow:And you describe yourself as a third generation Latina farmer. What shaped your connection to agriculture in your family?
Ivette Ruiz:Sure. Well, my I grew up with all the great stories of my grandparents being farmers, and with my father's mom having a very small plot, and she will grow sugarcane and bananas and guava and papaya and all kinds of stuff, and I remember as a child going with her and just harvesting stuff and weeding and watering and just her joy doing it. And so then I saw my father taking care of animals and raising chickens and raising roosters, and you know we a as a result of that we've always been a family with limited resources. But when you are able to grow your own food and you're able to live off the land and work with the land, then that fills a gap, right? And we you know we're also tending to the land and being good to the environment, which we need to do, and so you know, seeing my grandparents, seeing my father, then it just it just was there in my roots already, and that's where my my I believe that's where my my ancestors. That is who you took after. You took after your family and your ancestors who share this vision with you and planted the seed in your heart.
Nancy Barrow:Yeah, it's such a beautiful story. You know, I think there is something so lovely about having a garden that can feed your body and your soul. You know, there is something. About being in the dirt, that is very grounding.
Unknown:Yes, I agree. A lot of people ask me why I decided with healing by growing as a name, and after much prayer and and thought, I thought healing by growing because I I grew and I healed by growing things, but I didn't only grow stuff, food and fruit. I grew my mind, I grew my spirit, my soul, my body, my mobility change. It was like the whole person. It was like a whole 360 growth in every step of the way, and in the process, I healed, and I'm still healing because you know it is really difficult to get through some things. But it is very nurturing and reassuring to know that when you try, it is all possible.
Nancy Barrow:After your after I love that. And after your brain injury, did you have resources available to you? I know that you said you lost your insurance, but was there any place that you could go to get resources? You know, therapy, anything like that?
Ivette Ruiz:So yeah. So what a little bit. I expand on what I shared. So I did not have resources because I didn't have health insurance or cash to pay for them, and or I didn't have mobility. So the issue with food was I didn't have mobility to go get it, or I didn't meet the criteria of being a veteran, or I had to be over 55, or I have to have independence. There was always a checklist that I didn't qualify for meet because I was recently employed. It was really difficult for me to sort of buy the Cobra insurance that your employer asks you to buy afterwards because I went from being employed to recently and unemployed and I wasn't able to do that and I didn't want to ask for benefits from the state at all because I've always have felt that while it is there to be used and I believe people that need it need to use it. I feel like sometimes it can be a crutch for people, and I know that if I push myself hard enough, that I could manage, and that's what I chose to do was to push myself to find ways to get food, to find ways to get out of my dark bubble, so that I can begin to get income and be employed again, and slowly I just went back to work. I'm a life coach, a certified life coach, so I started doing some life coaching, and I started growing my own food, and I just started supplying myself. I did get some folks that donated food here and there, and that donated my physical therapy copayments until the insurance ran out, and that was the extent of it.
Nancy Barrow:You know, I'm sad about that because unfortunately, Connecticut Paid Leave wasn't around when you were injured, but I I think it really would have helped you to get income replacement as you healed. We give we started giving benefits out in 2022, so the program can give you up to 12 weeks of income replacement while you take time away from work to focus on your serious health condition or that of a loved one, and you can take those 12 weeks in many ways, right? Like you can do it in a block of the 12 weeks. Take that whole time off. You can do it intermittently, or you could do a reduced schedule from work. And I believe that it can really help the people that you are helping and their caregivers to take time to focus on getting better, right? Because you treat a lot of people with trauma and TBI. So, how would a program like this help the people that you serve?
Ivette Ruiz:Well, I am so grateful for the Connecticut Leave program. Although I wasn't able to benefit from it, I know that it helps 1000s of people, and it definitely would have helped me, and could help other trauma or brain injury survivors because the main thing that you lose with brain injury oftentimes is your employment if you are employed because brain well brain is a magnificent organ and it heals itself with time, and it creates new pathways, and you could relearn many things. It does take time, and oftentimes employers can't hold your job for that long, or you're just not at the capacity where you could pick up the job you had when you have an injury. And I think having an income for 12 weeks, three months is really crucial to pay for your copayments to get the therapy that you need and to get the benefits of medical service. That is so important during the first few weeks of your injury. It also will be instrumental and vital to food, we don't heal properly if we don't have the proper nourishing food intake in our bodies, and often times that is one of the biggest things people lose out. There's a big percentage of community members that within the food insecurity, big numbers that struggle with food insecurity because they're disabled because they have trauma or brain injury, and they're homebound. And I believe that having that secure income for 12 weeks is a life-changing benefit that many people could benefit from.
Nancy Barrow:Yeah, and we do treat chronic conditions. So, if you started taking your 12 weeks in January of a year, you would have those 12 weeks for that entire year, and then in January you would start accruing more time again. So, if you needed like intermittent leave to go to a doctor's appointment or go to a physical therapy or occupational therapy, it would be there for people who are employed, and if you lose your job, you still have those benefits for the three months after you leave a job. So there is some flexibility with Connecticut paid leave, and I think we're super lucky we have it in the state.
Ivette Ruiz:I agree. I believe it's a blessing for a lot of people, and I believe a lot of people are just beginning to learn about it, so I am glad for the work that you do and for talking about it because I think it's really helpful and information that people need.
Nancy Barrow:Yeah, and it's even for part-time workers. You know, if they work about 11 hours or more, even minimum wage, they would they would be able to have these benefits. So it's really important for people to know about.
Ivette Ruiz:Yes, of course, and we definitely share it with folks that come to us that are working or that we're working and need assistance. Now that I know about it, I definitely have been sharing.
Nancy Barrow:Thank you so much. When you think about your journey, Doctor, from family farming roots that we talked about to surviving a traumatic brain injury to founding a healing-centered farm. What are you most proud of when you look back at that and and you see what you have accomplished?
Ivette Ruiz:I'm most proud of two things. The first one is we have very very low resources because I work to support my farm, and I have limited work as a life coach working for yourself. You depend, like any consultant, you depend on clients to come to you for you to get an income. So some months I have three clients, and some months I have zero, and some months I have 10. And so I'm proud of that. Despite the limited resources, I'm still able to provide all free services to all brain injury and trauma survivors that come here. We don't charge a penny. We don't charge an insurance. We don't charge anything. Everything is free, and we donate upwards to 1000s of pounds of food every growing season at no cost to anyone. Because my goal is to break the barriers that I confronted with food security, not having money, not having insurance, and we also deliver the food for those who are homebound with mobility issues, my goal was to break every barrier that I had so that somebody else can live and thrive without those challenges. So going through all that and pushing through is one of my biggest achievements because I see people smiling and with full tummies, and an extension of that is because we have maximized our space because we're a very small suburban farm. We have created 14 healing gardens across the globe. We have created a healing garden in Nigeria for children. One in Mexico for children. We have one in Ohio, Iowa, Rhode Island, Massachusetts. We have five in Connecticut, and the list goes on and on because we are creating healing by growing gardens, so that they could build community, they could provide food security for folks who need it, and bring people together, the healing community with like-mindedness, all free of charge. So that is one of my biggest moments that I'm proud of. Accomplishments. The second one is seeing people doing a task in the farm that come here with a walker or in a wheelchair. And I put him to do a task on one side of the property, and then when I turn around, they're completely on the other side of the property without their wheelchair and their walker. Because somehow I always freak out and go, "Oh my God, you're gonna fall! What are you doing? And they say, "For the moment, I forgot that I was hurting, that I have pain, that I couldn't walk, and I made it here fine, and I'm okay. To see the transformation of people that come depressed and sad to smiling, that come holding onto that wheelchair for dear life, like I'm gonna die in this, to giving a renewed hope and faith, it's a testimony that I can't get tired of speaking about because I believe that God has created that miracle not only in me but I'm also seeing it in life.
Nancy Barrow:I just think it's such a special place that you've created, and I'm so glad to hear that it's spreading across the globe. I mean, we need things like that. We need good, good stories like this, and and beautiful things that can help people. I think that that's what's missing in in the world right now. And so I'm glad that you are a part of that and spreading such a wonderful resource for people.
Ivette Ruiz:Thank you, thank you. Mental wellness is a serious thing. I don't believe a lot of people talk about it because it's taboo in many cultures and families, but if we don't take care of our mental health, it definitely leads to suicide, and suicide continues to creeps in numbers. And it's really, really important that we have safe spaces to talk about it, and safe spaces to get resources and support, even when you don't have money, even when you don't have insurance, and even in your darkest of moments, it's important to have those spaces for people. Our goal is that in the next 10 years, that we will have a healing garden across every state in the USA.
Nancy Barrow:Wow, that's a that's that's a big challenge that you're giving yourself. But I, just meeting you and and talking to you, I bet you're going to do it. And I do agree, mental health is really important. It's like if you break an arm, you're going to go to a doctor, and if your mental health is broken, you need to take care of it. And what a great way to take care of it by growing food and getting into a garden and just getting into nature. I think that's super special. I really do.
Ivette Ruiz:Thank you, Nancy. And we also help in the environment along the way. You know, our tag line is "tanando, meaning healing our brain, our souls, and our soil. We also use the word "spirit" because it doesn't only heal us and our brain and our spirit, but it also helps our earth with the climate, the way that it's going, and the carbon exchange, and the loss of pollinators. We make sure that everything we do here benefits our world, our land, our universe, while it also heals us in the community.
Nancy Barrow:Let me tell you, I do love bees, so you know those pollinators are really important, and the birds as well. So, what would you like people watching this podcast to take away from our conversation today, Doctor?
Ivette Ruiz:A takeaway for me is never to give up. To have hope, even in the darkest of moments, because if I can do it, you can too. Whoever you are watching or listening to this, there is always a way to climb out of it. But it does come at a cost, and sacrifice and lots and lots of hard work is not easy. But nothing in life worth having is easy.
Nancy Barrow:Yeah, you are a special human being. That's all I can say about you, Dr. Ivette Ruiz. Thank you for sharing your work and your story, your connection to nature, this incredible mission behind healing by growing farms. I think that your approach reminds us a little bit that healing doesn't always happen in an office or a clinic, right? It sometimes happens with our hands in the soil or surrounded by the community and reconnecting with just something a little bit deeper. and And I just want to thank you again for being a guest on The Paid Leave podcast.
Ivette Ruiz:Well, it's been my pleasure and my honor. Thank you for having us, and thank you for sharing our story. I appreciate you.
Nancy Barrow:It's it's really a wonderful story, and I really want to come and visit your garden. Please check out the show notes for more information about Healing by Growing Farm in East Haven, and for more information or to apply for benefits, please go to ctpaidleave.org. This has been another edition of The Paid Leave Podcast. Please like and subscribe so you'll be notified about new podcasts that become available. Connecticut Paid Leave is a public act with a personal purpose. I'm Nancy Barrow, and thanks for listening.
