Women Plan Fairfield Farm To Employ Autistic Adults
FAIRFIELD (CBS13) — Two Bay Area women have a unique idea to employ adults with autism on a Fairfield farm.
Ben Stanley, 26, thinks it's cool. He's the inspiration for what's to be created on the 10-acre piece of land. It will be called B. Walker Ranch, after Ben whose middle name is Walker.
"I love chickens and roosters too," he said.
The 19th Century farm will be rehabilitated and eventually employ adults with autism, like Ben. His mom, Jeanine Stanley envisioned the concept.
"He's worked hard in his therapies and he's come to a place now where he's not sure what's here for his adult life," she said.
She and co-founder Pamela Hale Mitchell say they're worried about the increasing number of American children diagnosed on the autism spectrum, now 1-in-68. At 22, they age out of the public education system.
"The programming is so limited," Mitchell said. "It's really like a glorified babysitting service in a lot of them. The need is so great, so parents are getting a little panicked on what's going to happen to my child when I die? What's my child gonna do when I get older?"
They say a farm is the perfect place for adults with autism to work through their different behaviors because of the variety of jobs on a farm.
"They might be in the nutrition program, then they might go to [occupational therapy] behavioral, they might go to education with the computers, they might go out into the field and pick, they might process, they might go into the commercial kitchen," Mitchell said.
The farm was donated to the cause. The women already have nonprofit status and have secured a corporate sponsor, but they still need more donors to get the ranch up and running, hopefully in a year.
They're already getting calls from parents who want to bring their adult children to the ranch.
"We are going to employ as many that can be employable," Stanley said. "Some will come and won't have many employable skills, but we will find a place for them and give them purpose."
Ben will no doubt work on the farm. He already has his jobs picked out.
"Drive the tractor, ride in the pickup truck, uh, feed the animals," he said.