`Federal grant will let group live off land`

By Sherris Moreira-Byers
Herald Writer

Westfield Behavioral Health Affiliates, a group home for adults with developmental disabilities on River Road in Pulaski Township, has received a Rural Business Enterprise Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

With the $98,450 grant, the five residents of the home, and up to 17 more developmentally disabled adults who would commute to the property, will help the home become “self-efficient,” in the words of resident Eric Engelkeys.

The two-year-old home is the brainchild of Human Services Center and St. Francis Hospital, both New Castle, to enable developmentally disabled adults gain some measure of autonomy through farming.

The 27-acre property includes a woodworking shop, a community garden, raised growing beds and the beginnings of a large greenhouse. Chickens owned by the home produce manure for piles of compost that enrich the soil.

“We hope to sell the produce, and some of the compost, among other things,” Engelkeys said. The grant will also pay for a 1,200-square-foot greenhouse for the cultivation and sale of plants, a fully equipped woodshop to produce such items as picnic tables and benches for resale, sales booths and a drip irrigation system and farming equipment.

The grant will also pay part of the salary of Tom France, Butler, a vocational rehabilitation consultant who works for non-profit agencies.

France, who was hired July 1 by Human Services Center to work at Westfield, began working as a volunteer in June to help get the market garden started.

“The function of this grant is to support rural business enterprises and to create jobs,” he said. The three-year grant will provide hands-on training for the residents and will provide Westfield with a self-sustaining source of income.

“We are in the incubator phase,” said France, “but at the end of three years, it will be a full business cooperative, employing people with disabilities and others as well.”

“We already sell produce at the New Castle Farmers Market on Fridays and are hoping to expand to sell our produce to individuals, restaurants and other group homes, on a weekly basis,” said France.

Cottage industries helped by the grant may include latch-hook rug making and fly tying for fishermen.

“We offer training, but we also try to tap into the residents’ own interests. It gives them some level of flexibility,” France said.

The project is very “cutting edge” said France, who cited a 70 percent unemployment rate for people with disabilities.

“It will help people with disabilities take leadership in their own economic life,” he said. “I don’t work with the word disability as much as I work with people who have skills.”

For more information about purchasing goods and vegetables or volunteering at the group home, call Westfield at 658-3006.

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Updated August 13, 1999
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