Special Hearts Farm isn’t a typical farm. While workers do grow vegetables, collect chicken eggs to sell and, occasionally, take poop samples from the animals, its purpose is more than agriculture. Special Hearts Farm is a non-profit organization that provides beneficial farming and gardening experiences for individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities to support them with work opportunities once they’ve left the K-12 school system.
The program started back in 2014 at Dr. Phillips High School with founder and Exceptional Student Education (ESE) teacher, Kathy Meena, and the school’s agriculture teacher. They watched how her students' behaviors changed when interacting with the goats.
“It’s funny because we tried a lot of jobs at the high school, and a lot of them were things that my students didn’t really enjoy. We were actually doing the recycling, and we would walk by the [agriculture] teacher’s goats, and my kids would always run over and try to feed the goats’ grass,” Meena recalled, “We just saw the human to animal bond with our students and how the behaviors decreased when they were with the animals.”
This is known as animal assisted interventions, an evidence-based practice Special Hearts Farm is built on that helps create bonds between individuals and animals. Emily Davis, the farm’s director of development, shared a study by Purdue University of Veterinary Medicine that examined the usage of animals to facilitate social interactions.
“They found that 75% of participants in their study demonstrated significant improvements in language and communication, and fascinatingly enough that 100% of participants demonstrated positive changes in their emotional experience,” Davis explained.
Students and employees at the farm work on multiple tasks throughout the day such as mowing, filling hay, cleaning around the barns, and giving the animals food and water. Jade McFarland, a paid weekend farmhand, has been employed for a year and said her passion for animals and this work has changed her life.
“I was so depressed and had a lot of anxiety,” McFarland recalled of her time before working at Special Hearts Farm, “And now, when I came to this place, it totally changed my behaviors. Animals are my passion.”
Esteban Estrada and Stephen Gibson, who were also students that became employed farmhands, share their experiences and lessons learned at the farm.
“My favorite thing is [tending to] the boy goats and girl goats,” Estrada shared, “I put hay in their bowl, and I give them food and I put water in their bucket.”
Gibson added, “Before Hurricane Milton came through, our class got to do the mowing. That was something I had never done before, run the mower.”
Special Hearts Farm is teaching its farmers work and life skills, as well as how to enjoy the little things in life. “So yes, we work very hard here. There’s a lot of poop scooping to do, but there’s also a lot of love,” said Davis.
Recently, Special Hearts Farm has been granted zoning approval for a new location. The Forever Home project is on 19 acres, allowing the animals more pasture and land to graze. It will also include an agricultural training facility, where students will learn how to host events like a farmer’s market. It will also include housing for up to 30 residents.
“That’s something we’re very happy about,” Meena shared, “because once their families are gone and they don’t have anyone to care for them, they can live at the forever home.”