Bloomhaven
The Bloomhaven Foundation School of Floralcraft & Artistry is a registered 501c3 nonprofit work-study program designed for teens in foster care throughout Charleston and the Lowcountry to learn floral design led by Sara Skinner. Students are immersed in a variety of flowers every week, gaining hands-on job experience working with Sara on real weddings, learning the fundamentals of balanced design, budgeting, and techniques essential to starting a career in the event industry when they leave care.
the Bloomhaven foundation
School of floralcraft & artistry
our work is about more than just throwing weddings and parties. we’re fostering a love of floral design and cultivating the next generation of designers - introducing bloomhaven!
The Bloomhaven Foundation School of Floralcraft & Artistry is a brand new 501c3 work-study program offering immersive, hands on courses in floral & event design and production created specifically for teens in foster care in Charleston and the Lowcountry led by Sara Skinner of Scarlet & Co.
Youth in foster care are disproportionately subject to unemployment, educational setbacks, and homelessness; but the Bloomhaven Foundation pledges to cultivate, teach, and prepare youth for careers in floral design and artistry with job placements and ongoing community support for graduates. From sketch to showtime, students learn it all: concept development, palette curation, floral styling, structural builds, digital renderings, tent treatments, ordering, recipes, and more.
We’re leading the way in creating job opportunities for teens living in foster homes as they prepare to leave care.
At Bloomhaven, we believe floral design can be a tool for healing, confidence, and connection. It’s not about perfection — it’s about the process and what it unlocks in each person.
Beyond the beauty of the arrangements, programs like this offer real, tangible skills — opening the door for students to one day step into the world of floral design, weddings, and creative entrepreneurship when they’re ready to spread their wings.
We believe in shaping futures; one bloom, one build, one breakthrough at a time.
FAQ’s
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Our goal is to introduce students to careers in the event industry with hands-on design classes. We provide graduates of our internship program with job placements, ongoing community support, and assistance in securing or furnishing their first apartments.
Younger students learn basic floral design skills at our free weekly classes taught at various group homes in Charleston, while our older college-aged students have the opportunity to join our team for a season or two as interns. They gain real-life job experience (and paychecks!) working on weddings and in the studio leading to better employment opportunities when they leave foster care.
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Charleston, SC hosts around 4,000 weddings per year and sadly about 90% of the flowers go straight into the trash after, even though they usually have several days of life left.
Bloomhaven is changing that by using donated wedding flowers for classes every week! It’s always a fun surprise to see how the kids react to different palettes and refashion blooms into their own bouquets and arrangements.
We’re also gifted with fresh flowers from our friends at Charleston Wholesale Florist, Aperio Farms, and the Urb Farm enabling the kids to learn how to handle and process fresh flowers.
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Make a donation via Venmo or find us on Zeffy below!
Donate your wedding flowers! Florists, brides, and planners in Charleston, please contact us below to coordinate the pick-up of your leftover flowers during breakdown or the following day.
Participate in our work placement program for interns.
Volunteer at a class! or invite the kids to a “field trip” to your business!
Stay tuned for more opportunities to get involved by joining our newsletter (we’ll eventually start one… someday).
