The Green Wheel Collective:
Accessible Horticulture Ecosystems
Growing Food, Connection, and Independence, Together
Cultivated by Center for Independent Living, Jacksonville
Built on a foundation of disability empowerment & the independent living movement, with wildlife & systern inspirations by Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
CIL Jacksonville (Center for Independent Living) empowers people with disabilities in Northeast Florida to live independently through advocacy, education, and support services. As a nonprofit run by and for people with disabilities, CIL offers employment training, deaf empowerment services, assistive technology loans, peer mentoring, and crime victim advocacy.
The Problem
Why This Matters
Across the country, millions of people with disabilities are separated from fresh food, green space, and the dignity of growing their own nutritious produce. Many of the gaps relate to accessibility creating a need for systemic change and inclusive, community farming. Climate disruption, food system fragility and disability equity movements, have created a window of extraordinary opportunity for exactly this kind of initiative.
Food is medicine. Access is a human right.
Food Inequity
Healthy, fresh food remains inaccessible in underserved communities, creating compounding health crises.
Disability Barriers
People with disabilities are systematically excluded from agricultural participation, education, and green space enjoyment.
Disconnection from Land
Communities are severed from their food sources, losing cultural knowledge and ecological literacy.
Centralized Green Space
Public gardens and parks are few, far between, and rarely designed for full participation by all people.
Location Anchor
Starting at Bethesda Park
Every great collective begins with a flagship node, a place that proves the model, tells the story, and invites the world to imagine what's possible. Bethesda Park is that place for the Green Wheel. Bethesda Park is a year-round recreation facility that has the unique feature of being a completely accessible and barrier-free recreation complex. Spanning 20 acres, this park features an adaptive kayak launch, accessible cabins and a stocked fishing pond.
Expansive Acreage
Ample land ready for cultivation, phased development, and a full wheel-shaped garden campus.
Accessible Infrastructure
Proximity to accessible cabins and existing facilities supports inclusive, multi-day programming and retreats.
Flagship Potential
Positioned to become the national showcase for the Green Wheel model: a living demonstration of what community led botanical ecosystems can achieve.
Our Foundation
Focusing on AgrAbility and Community Inclusion
This is the fertile ground from which Green Wheel grows.
Independent Living Skills
Rooted in the CIL Jacksonville mission, empowering people to live fully, freely, and on their own terms. A complete cycle: plant → grow → harvest → prepare. Real skills, real nourishment, real independence.
Peer Mentorship
Community members teach each other, building social bonds and leadership capacity alongside horticultural skills.
Accessible Infrastructure
Raised garden beds designed for wheelchair access, adaptive tools, and sensory engagement at every level.
The Future is Circular
A world where every member of the community has access to a living ecosystem. Where accessibility leads innovation rather than follows it. Where food, beauty, independence, and community are not competing priorities but a single, unified vision, expressed through every garden in the collective.
Everyone Contributes
The Farming Collective gives individuals with disabilities the ability to be part of the ecosystem, encouraging independent farming through real life skills training. Every balcony, yard, and windowsill belongs.
Accessibility Leads
When we design for the most excluded, we create spaces that work better for everyone.
Food, Beauty & Independence
These are not trade-offs. In the Green Wheel, they are one and the same.
Turn the wheel. Grow the future.
