PROGRAM

Summary

Bellfound Farm offers holistic supports to at-risk 18 to 24 year old women so they can achieve economic independence. Using the microcosm of a residential urban farm as a learning lab, participants work together to run a small business enterprise, gain key life and employability skills, build personal resilience, and provide fresh, healthy food to their neighbors.

Vision

Each woman in the program works through three phases. For the first four months a woman lives on the farm, she focuses on foundations: intense therapeutic work on her own mental wellness, and working on the farm. Because women who come to the farm have survived various forms of trauma and often have a lot of unmet needs, our focus is on meeting basic needs and beginning to diffuse that trauma with psychoeducation and coping skills. This inwardly-focused time is balanced by working as part of the farm team, which provides an opportunity to ground themselves in an environment of cooperative entrepreneurship. While part of the farm team, they are responsible for planning and executing a complex set of tasks that allow Bellfound Farm to plant, grow, and share or sell healthy food for ourselves and our community.

As each woman begins to build a better toolbox of coping skills and come out of a state of constant threat, she works with her coach to develop a plan for the future. This plan includes a detailed assessment of their emotional, physical, financial, educational, and interpersonal needs. During previous months, staff has also been observing each participant and noting areas where she seems to have particular enthusiasm or aptitude. These observations can be used to help each woman decide what career opportunities she may wish to pursue. Based on the plans they develop with coaches, women engage in targeted programming to fill gaps in their life skills, get them ready for college or vocational training, and help them begin gaining work experience relevant to their future career. Throughout this stage, which can last up to twenty months, they continue to work on the farm. Over time, as they start school and become employed, the amount of farm work women commit to decreases to accommodate their new responsibilities. By the end of two years in residence at the farm, women are ready to move from to independent housing.

For five years after leaving the farm, participants will continue to connect with their coach and to engage in learning opportunities through Bellfound, even though they are offsite and self-sufficient in their daily lives. Coaches will be there to walk beside each woman as she figures out her future and encounters unknowns. Whether it’s difficulties with financial aid, needing a job lead, wanting advice about career path, or just needing a supportive ear to help sort out life’s difficult situations, our coaches will be there every step of the way. By the end of five years, women will have completed a degree or certificate in their chosen field and be earning a living wage. Graduates of the program will be whole, healthy women who have transitioned from poverty to economic independence.