Place of Rebirths:

Sustainable agriculture at Cliffview creates a space for the vulnerable

Margaret Gabriel

Cliffview has served in different ways according to the needs of the community over the span of its 50- plus years. The scenic location on a peninsula surrounded by Herrington Lake found yet another purpose in 2019 when the diocese partnered with Divine Providence Way and Mountain Comprehensive Care to transform it into Divine Providence at Cliffview, a substance abuse recovery program.

When Ginny Ramsey, director of Lexington’s Catholic Action Center, learned Cliffview Retreat Center would no longer be in the ongoing plans for ministry in the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, she saw an opportunity for rebirth for the 42-acre property in Garrard County, one that would combine protection of human dignity and care for the earth.

Even with the interruption of the coronavirus pandemic, the ministry of Divine Providence Way at Cliffview has manifested itself in patience and sustainability.

CARE FOR LAND & PEOPLE

First known as Cliffview Lodge, then Cliffview Retreat Center, the initial four-acre plot was purchased by Father Ralph Beiting so he could create activities and camping for boys in his four-county parish. Shortly after the Diocese of Lexington was established in 1988, the Christian Appalachian Project gave the property to the diocese. In November of last year, the transfer from the diocese to Divine Providence, Inc., was completed and the transformation began. From the onset, the partnership was intended to assist people to conquer addiction, “with an emphasis on mind, body and spirit,” Ramsey said. “God’s earth is right there, and we know that for people who are walking through recovery, the earth helps in the process.” The agricultural efforts at Divine Providence Way at Cliffview are perfectly in keeping, Ramsey said, with the lessons taught in Laudato Si’, the 2015 encyclical of Pope Francis on care for creation. The original plan called for residents to begin the work of planting vegetable gardens, building green- houses, creating bee hives and constructing chicken coops under the direction of people knowledge about sustainable agriculture. “Then COVID hit,” Ramsey said. And Cliffview was reborn yet again.

The Catholic Action Center (CAC) in Lexington provides shelter for 130 men and women experiencing homelessness. When social distancing was recognized as a key to mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, it became clear that another plan was needed for the community. Ramsey quickly worked out the details to transport 35 people who lived at the CAC but are in at-risk categories for contracting COVID-19. “We sent the kids to camp!” Ramsey said.

For 100 days, the at-risk group lived at Cliffview while Americorps volunteers created the elements that will provide meaningful work for people who will recover at Divine Providence Way at Cliffview.
While living at Cliffview, the temporary residents lent an occasional hand to the work of the Americorps volunteers. Olivia DeLeo, Jillian Turner, Jason Biven and Clarissa Dennis, students at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, grew in their knowledge of sustainable agriculture. “We could really see how well it will work in a treatment program,” DeLeo said. Sustainable agriculture lends itself to a simple lifestyle which will also be beneficial.

PREPARING A SPACE

Rick Godby began to volunteer at the Catholic Action Center in August 2019. A member of St. Mark Church in Richmond, he lists Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin among his heroes. “The thing that attracted me to the Catholic Church is that there are Catholic parishes everywhere in every little country in the world and people are there trying to do good things,” Godby said. “They don’t just believe, there’s action, too. To me, being Catholic means service. If you can serve and you don’t, you’re just missing out.”

Godby, a retired engineer, began addressing some of the renovations Cliffview needed. Even then, he said, Ramsey envisioned Divine Providence Way at Cliffview as a place where people would reassemble their lives through God and nature and wanted to create the needed infrastructure before the residents could move in.

Godby found information on the internet about the best way to lay out the garden and what was needed to raise chickens, bees and worms. He knew that the first year would be a challenge because the land had never been used for gardening but as pasture for dairy cattle.

Godby and the volunteers have nurtured a garden that includes corn, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. Until the treatment program starts, the produce from the garden will be donated to the Garrard County food bank. Ramsey said that, throughout the summer, they weren’t sure exactly when Cliffview would begin its next chapter, but that by late summer they realized they were ready to turn the facility over to Mountain Comprehensive Care to begin the drug and alcohol treatment program in early November.

“We’re walking in faith and doing the COVID dance,” she said. “We’ve quit planning and just walk through a day at a time.”