'Agricultural specialisterne': rural employment revolution for those with Autism

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Another farm for people with Autism, located in northwest Ohio, is Bittersweet Farms.

Aside for Residential Services, Community Living, and Specialised Services, the Whitehouse, Ohio farm also offers a Day Program/Vocational Services:

…Bittersweet also has a day vocational program that offers habilitation programming and skills development to adults and adolescents with autism. The program has a wood shop, ceramic studio, weaving and fabric arts department, a horticulture department with three fully functioning greenhouses, two hoop houses, and several fields of produce, landscaping and janitorial enclaves which work out in the community, kitchen and meal preparation programs, visual arts department, and an animal care program in the barn and pastures…

Here is a video on Bittersweet Farms: Bittersweet Farms - YouTube

Christopher Henry, an Autism Design Specialist, has been to Bittersweet Farms and admires the approach there. He believes that the positive approach there, for example viewing each client’s support plan first in a positive light before considering the negative aspects, results in empowerment for the Autistic individuals there. It also results in staff having many positive solutions in resolving a situation that has degraded to irritation or frustration …

…At Bittersweet Farms, a residential and vocational facility for adults with autism, each staff member is required to know the likes, abilities, dislikes, and disabilities of each person with whom they work. The emphasis, however, is on the likes and abilities. Each support plan lists an individual’s likes before his or her dislikes, and staff are asked to learn them in that order. This emphasis guards against an apparent tendency to focus on what people with disabilities cannot do rather than what they can. Perhaps this tendency arises out of honest intentions to avoid all possible harm, but Bittersweet sees it as counterproductive.
For example, one individual at Bittersweet becomes irritated when he is over prompted to do something. So what? This doesn’t help staff members get him ready for bed or motivated to go to work in the morning. For that they need to know what he likes and how he is best supported. This particular individual loves singing musicals, roller blading, hiking, and doing art. Instead of being in constant fear of prompting him, staff members can say, “Do you want to sing a musical number and then get ready for bed,” or “Would you like to roller blade before or after we do the laundry?” If he ever does get frustrated staff members know how to redirect him toward things he enjoys. If staff members only know what he doesn’t like then they will be left scrambling for helpful solutions when he eventually, as we all do, becomes upset…

(sources: BSF: About-us Area Overview; Designing for Autism: More Able Not Less Disabled | ArchDaily)