The range of choices available to parents of children with special needs becomes narrower and narrower as these children grow into adults. The American school system’s obligation towards these young adults ends at the age of 22. Then the question quickly becomes what now? How will my child pass their time for the next five to six decades?
For some parents, that might mean a day program, with outings and quite possibly some time spent in a “sheltered workshop” setting, doing piecemeal work for piecemeal wages. Day programs can be a place to leave your grown child so that you can carry on working, knowing that your adult child is being looked after by people who are hopefully prepared to work with a range of disabilities and needs. For some adults with intellectual disabilities, this might be an appropriate and safe setting.
For other families, the search begins for a workplace that is flexible enough to deal with your child’s particular skills mix, and possibly even their personal eccentricities. Sometimes, you connect with a third party contractor, who works under a state or county contract to introduce your child to potential job settings to determine which job might suit your child best. There will be interviews, experiential work days, one-on-one job coach (if needed), and support (should child need help navigating the eccentricities of each job setting. There are often many failures before at last, your child finds the setting and the employer.
In some cases, however, that perfect job match remains elusive. Perhaps it’s because the employer is new to this whole intellectual and developmental disability thing, and lacks the patience and flexibility needed to onboard and train an employee like this. Or perhaps it’s because your child has had so many mismatches in job settings that s/he’s given up. Or maybe no one has ever sat down and explained exactly what kind of behavior, preparation, and communication is needed to hold down a job….besides your parents, of course. But no one ever listens to their parents, right?
When parents and caretakers bring their kids to A Farm Less Ordinary, they may notice a few pleasant changes:
Your child will be active during their days here, burning calories by walking, bending, carrying, etc. They will come home ready to eat dinner and then sleep.
·Your child will make friends while they’re here. They will be surrounded by people who “get it”, who don’t judge, and who are ready to accept everyone’s “quirks”.
·Your child will be expected to work when they’re on the farm. If your child is having a tough day, they – like all adults – will be asked to still complete their work. Because that’s what a job is: you still have to show up and get your work done, even if you’re not in a great mood.
Your child will come home with food that they’ve grown. In fact, we wish our Growers would take home more food, but not everyone is a fan of vegetables, apparently!
Your child will be paid for their work, just like any employee expects, after working hard.
Your child will leave AFLO with core job skills and specific agricultural skills. We are thrilled when our Growers decide not to return to work here because they’ve found work elsewhere.
Our goal is to transform our Growers into an adult with a work history and the job skills that are often more difficult for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to absorb in a traditional environment - skills that need to be modeled and even explained. We don’t assume that our Growers know these things on their first day of work here, but we expect them to leave here ready to use those skills in both non-traditional AND traditional work settings, which will hopefully make those post-school years less stressful and more fruitful for the entire family.