HISTORY
How We Started.
In many ways, Helena's Farm in the Dell is a dream come true. It represents a coming-together of many similar dreams of creating an alternative opportunity for adults with developmental disabilities. the Farm in the Dell is the realization of a dream planted simultaneously in several hearts and several homes.
Bartels’ Dream.
In 1978, a thousand miles from Helena, two of our founders, Lowell and Suzan Bartels, had the dream. Their rewarding involvement with a youth ministry outreach to developmentally disabled people led them to consider buying a farmhouse and sharing a rural family life with developmentally disabled adults who would like to live and work in the country. They had located an ideal property, and were with their plans, when Lowell opened a new business in Montana. Instead of abandoning their dream, they brought it with them to Montana.
McWhorter’s Parent Group.
Meanwhile, in Helena, two other founders, Mary and Hugh McWhorter, were welcoming their beautiful baby daughter and working to help others in the community learn to accept and appreciate people with Down syndrome. They started a local parents group and soon discovered that other parents of children with developmental disabilities shared a fundamental concern for the future of their children and their preparation for adulthood. The couple observed that many parents had not provided for their children's future. When these parents died, their children had no survival skills, no life skills, no vocational skills. Their children lost more than a set of loving parents. They lost everything.
When they saw firsthand the hardships these developmentally disabled children faced, the McWhorters and several other parents in the group dreamed of creating a home where their children would not end up totally reliant on the care of strangers - a home where people with developmental disabilities could learn basic living skills, social skills, and vocational skills. Although many parents initially were opposed to the concept of group homes, the group visited group homes and work sites to determine if their idea was feasible. They learned that the Bartels were investigating the possibility of creating a home, so they invited them to talk with the parent group.
The Plan and Organization.
The parent group listened to the Bartels' plans. Inspired by the potential to provide a meaningful alternative to the available options for people with disabilities, everyone decided to join forces, and formed a board of directors that night, including four members who remain active on the board today.
In 1983, the Rural Opportunities Project (ROP) was incorporated as a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization to provide a home in a rural, farm-like setting for adults with developmental disabilities. No one on the board had ever been through the process of creating a residential and work program, and only one member had ever been involved in a substantial fund raising project. What we lacked in experience, we made up for in enthusiasm and perseverance. We soon identified a workable site for the Farm, developed a promotional brochure, and began the long process of translating our dream to reality.
We originally envisioned the Farm in the Dell as a place where eight developmentally disabled people would live and work with a pair of loving house parents, much as a working family farm. We also envisioned that the profits from various agricultural enterprises would help support the ongoing operations of the Farm.
Fine Tuning the Plan.
As we learned more about state and federal requirements pertaining to residential and vocational services for people with disabilities, we realized that the cost of day-to-day operations would be far more than we originally anticipated. Even with land and buildings free of debt, we would need more than Farm profits to keep things running.
Once we realized the cost and complexity of day-to-day operations, we immediately approached West Mont, a local organization already accredited and licensed to operate group homes, to operate our Farm. Then, several of our members formed a separate organization to lobby Montana's legislature for operations funding, and we succeeded in securing legislative approval to fund operations of the Farm in the Dell with state program expansion dollars.
Becoming part of the state-funded developmental disability system guaranteed funding to operate the Farm m the Dell. State funding meant that we could not automatically place our own children in the Farm or hand-pick residents with interests and capabilities suited for a working farm. Instead, residents would be selected for the Farm from the statewide residential services waiting list. As a result, the Farm might house and provide work for developmentally disabled people of various interests and capabilities. This, in turn, meant that we would need highly-qualified, experienced staff, rather than house parents, to operate the Farm.
While the Farm in the Dell differed somewhat from our initial vision, it would prove to be a dream-come-true for a much wider range of clients than we originally envisioned. The reality of the Farm in the Dell is bigger and better than we ever dared to dream.
Success!
Built with community donations of money, labor, and love, Helena's 34-acre Farm in the Dell opened in 1989. It has housed 22 residents and has provided an opportunity for more than 50 people with disabilities to perform meaningful work and gain vocational skills. There now is a waiting list of people wishing to live and work at the Farm.
The plan we developed and tested is now available as a manual or “cookbook” for others to use for similar projects. We have already assisted projects in several other locations including one in Krygyzstan, a new country that was once part of the Soviet Union.
This page was updated Wednesday, June 25, 2003
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