Goodness Growth Holdings & Vireo Health Join Green Flower and GF Institute to Promote Groundbreaking Push for Standardized Cannabis Credentials

VENTURA, Calif. and MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Flower announces that Goodness Growth Holdings, Inc. (CSE: GDNS; OTCQX: GDNSF), a physician-led, science-focused cannabis company and IP incubator and subsidiary Vireo Health are joining the newly-founded GF Institute (GFI) to promote professionalism, credibility, and equity in the cannabis industry through standardized education and industry-approved professional credentials.

"At Goodness Growth Holdings, we believe in leveraging science for better outcomes to achieve scalable improvements to workforce development. GF Institute's Standardized Certificate program helps to drive our mission of bringing the power of plants to people," said Dr. Stephen Dahmer, Chief Medical Officer of Goodness Growth Holdings. "GFI's leadership in bringing leading employers together adds crucial operational transparency to our highly-regulated industry as brands continue to build on the success of recent years and establish trust with patients and consumers with each new interaction."

GF Institute and the GFI credential program's development is overseen by an independent Steering Committee, composed of leading cannabis employers committed to making strategic investments in workforce development and who also firmly believe that professional credential initiatives result in better business outcomes throughout the cannabis supply chain.

"The cannabis industry's rapid growth in recent years has created an even greater need for the establishment of real, powerful, research-tested standards like what GFI provides for our field's workforce," said Gil Christie, the inaugural chairman of GF Institute. "Goodness Growth Holdings' focus on operational excellence while driving scientific innovation afford both the brand and Dr. Stephen Dahmer, individually, a unique and important presence as a GFI Founding Member."

GFI is launching with 3 credentials: Dispensary Associate Certificate, Cultivation Technician Certificate, and Manufacturing Agent Certificate, to focus on the largest sectors of people growth in the industry. Each credential is 15 hours long, 100% online, and consisting of 2 units with exams at the end of each unit. The first unit is cannabis health, safety, and compliance -- and covers everything you need to satisfy mandatory training requirements in cannabis. The second unit is a skills based training, designed to give people a foundational level of knowledge and skill in each key area of the cannabis industry.

On successful completion of a credential, an individual is automatically granted membership to GFI. The GF institute will offer its members exclusive access to continuing education content, networking and career development opportunities, and more.

"Every aspect of our business at Vireo Health and across the Goodness Growth Holdings portfolio is intensely focused on creating incredible experiences for our patients and customers. Educating our customers is only possible if our employees have a consistent and functional baseline level of knowledge about cannabis that is both operationally relevant and up-to-date. GF Institute's professional credential programs focus on developing job readiness and specific skills in applied environments that ultimately means employees can become a competent cannabis professional without going to medical school or specializing in cannabis botany for the last ten years, though those levels of professional experience are obviously valuable in such a fast-growing, ever-changing industry," continued Dr. Dahmer.

With these standardized credentials, the industry can build a truly skilled and talented workforce that provides better service to cannabis customers and patients, safety and consistency in cannabis products, and a new level of confidence, sustainability, and value across our industry. As is demonstrably true from other highly-regulated industries that have deployed the professional credential model to workforce development, GF Institute recognizes that well-trained people bring professionalism, industry-adopted credentials bring credibility, and equity in cannabis education is centered around about ensuring this program reaches and impacts the people who need it most.

On successful completion of any single GFI credential program, learners are automatically granted individual membership in GF Institute. GFI will offer members of this post-graduate community voluntary continuing education content, networking and career development opportunities, and more.

GF Institute is now accepting applications for new Founding Members through December 31, 2021. For more information about GF Institute or the GFI credential program, please visit gfinstitute.org and download the complete program documentation, including course syllabi and answers to frequently asked questions.

About Green Flower:
Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

About Goodness Growth Holdings, Inc.

Goodness Growth Holdings, Inc., is a physician-led, science-focused holding company whose mission is to bring the power of plants to the world. The Company's operations consist primarily of its multi-state cannabis company subsidiary, Vireo Health, Inc., and its science and intellectual property incubator, Resurgent Biosciences, Inc. The Company manufactures proprietary, branded cannabis products in environmentally friendly facilities and state-of-the-art cultivation sites and distributes its products through its growing network of Green Goods^® and other retail locations and third-party dispensaries. Its team of more than 500 employees are focused on the development of differentiated products, driving scientific innovation of plant-based medicines, and developing meaningful intellectual property. Today, the Company is licensed to grow, process, and/or distribute cannabis in eight markets and operates 18 dispensaries across the United States. For more information about Goodness Growth Holdings, please visit www.goodnessgrowth.com.

Contact: Adam Summers
e: [email protected] p: 708.223.2336

SOURCE Green Flower