DeJuana Golden
DeJuana Golden: The Healing Garden Project
Lakewood, California
DeJuana Golden is a faith-rooted social entrepreneur transforming neglected land into spaces of healing, nourishment, and hope. As founder of The Healing Garden Project , she partners with churches, schools, and community centers to design and install therapeutic gardens in under-resourced neighborhoods—places where access to fresh food and restorative green space has too often been denied. Through a model grounded in co-stewardship, training, and long-term support, DeJuana is cultivating more than gardens; she is cultivating dignity, wellness, and community transformation.
About DeJuana Golden
DeJuana Golden founded The Healing Garden Project out of a lifelong relationship with the soil—first nurtured by her grandparents, Rev. Larry E. and Dorothy Taylor. What began as childhood memories of tending the earth deepened into a source of personal restoration as she navigated profound grief after the loss of her fiancé. In that season, gardening became both sanctuary and memorial, shaping her vision of gardens as living spaces that restore hope and cultivate transformation.
Drawing on professional experience in nonprofits, grantmaking, and community agriculture, DeJuana leads work that reimagines gardens as healing-centered sanctuaries in communities most impacted by food insecurity and environmental neglect. She completed the SENT program through the National Benevolent Association (Disciples of Christ), further strengthening her leadership in faith-based social entrepreneurship.
The Healing Garden Project
Through its Plant to Heal initiative, The Healing Garden Project (THGP) partners with churches, schools, and community centers to transform underutilized land into vibrant places of respite, nourishment, and connection.
DeJuana and her team of gardeners design and install each garden in collaboration with staff and local volunteers. After installation, THGP provides hands-on training, workshops, and ongoing technical support so host sites can sustainably steward the gardens as hubs for physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. These gardens function as bridges between church and community—offering fresh food, wellness-centered green space, and opportunities for meaningful relationship-building.
THGP directly confronts systemic inequities that have historically deprived under-resourced neighborhoods of fresh food access and restorative green space. By reclaiming neglected land and placing it under community stewardship, the project challenges systems that prioritize profit over public health and human dignity. Each garden stands as both practical intervention and prophetic witness—restoring agency, beauty, and shared ownership in communities too often overlooked.
Financial Model & Sustainability
The Healing Garden Project operates through a diversified revenue structure that includes donations, grants, consulting, workshops, events, and product sales. Maintenance costs are shared with host sites and volunteers through a co-stewardship model that fosters local ownership while reducing overhead.
Partnerships with local farms, nurseries, and small businesses provide in-kind contributions that stretch financial resources and deepen community collaboration. This integrated model supports long-term sustainability while ensuring that the gardens remain community-rooted and community-led.
Through The Healing Garden Project, DeJuana Golden is cultivating more than vegetables and flowers. She is cultivating resilience, reclaiming land, and restoring hope—one garden at a time.
