Hand in Hand Farm

Family camp days: Offered 71 days, 7 hours per day. About 20 to 30 participants per day. Entire families, about half of whom have a disabled child, attend during the day. Parents and children get family skills training while performing tasks, playing games, or participating in horse activities. Children also perform tasks as a group with volunteers while parents are getting classroom instruction or participate in horse activities. Many families attend only one or two weeks each year but this face time give instructors the opportunity to observe family dynamics as well as characteristics and needs of individuals. Most of these families then attend online parenting classes as well as receiving individual support long distance and the advice and discussion can be tailored to best fit those participants. About 80 families attend each year with turnover of about 25%. Most families report deep changes which include children making rapid progress in skills academically as well as all other areas of their lives. They also report being less stressed with more family harmony and everyone in the family working toward group and individual goals. Camps are offered without cost to participants.

Vocational Training: Offered 60 days, 7 hours per day, average of 4 trainees at a time. These trainees help volunteers conduct the family camp days and family farm sessions, as well as doing tasks on other days that help support the mission, like maintaining the buildings and the grounds. All of the trainees this past year were disabled or had major mental health issues such as depression. All of the trainees that completed training were able to become employed in full-time stable jobs with a stable housing situation.

Family farm sessions: Offered 94 days, 7 hours per day. Dedicated local families support the operation when camps are not inb session. Parents and children learn to model behavior that exemplifies healthy functioning to visiting families during camps. The children train for certifications, called apprentice levels, in Horseman, Teamster, and Ranch Hand area. They also receive a lot of personalized, intensive family skills training because there are only 10 participants per session. Family farm sessions are offered at no cost to participants. About 10 families per year attend family farm sessions each year as well as many visitors that just come a few times. All of the regularly attending families report and exemplify deep positive changes, such as teens coming out of depression and ceasing to have suicidal thoughts, or preschool children becoming potty-trained. parents discipline without anger or violence while at the same time keeping control of their household.

Two online parenting classes taught by volunteers, 90 minutes each per week, about 50 weeks per year to about 40 participants between the two classes. Parents learn a system of planning and discipline for their families that really work. The main function of these classes is to maintain and build on the hand-on in-person education that families were introduced to in the in-person programs of family camps, family farm sessions, and vocational training.