Residential Services
Supported Living:
We provide the stability and comfort everyone deserves in an extraordinary setting. With dependable, well-trained Residential Support Coaches providing round-the-clock care for individuals with disabilities who choose to live as roommates, every day brings new learning experiences for all of our clients. Our residents are given daily support in achieving goals they set in partnership with their support network (therapists, family members, case managers, etc.). Clients are given a variety of opportunities to build community connections that are meaningful to them, helping them to develop new relationships, expand their interests, and broaden their abilities.
Mandy’s Farm supported living clients have full access to adaptive horsemanship lessons, our therapeutic aquatics center, and opportunities to build skills in caring for their own garden using organic practices.
Customized In-Home Supports:
Mandy’s Farm now offers Customized In-Home Supports. This program allows individuals with developmental disabilities to live in a typical family setting, with either their own family or a surrogate family they select. Mandy’s Farm assists with identifying and monitoring these placements, ensuring that every individual has the opportunity to learn and grow in the setting they choose. For more information please e-mail info@manysfarm.org today.
Day Services
Mandy’s Farm helps individuals to explore opportunities to advance their employment, education, life skills, health, and well-being.
Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, Mandy’s Farm is offering day program services online via Zoom for existing participants. This programming is currently limited to those who are already enrolled in our programs.
Our services are designed to help individuals identify, develop, and achieve their goals. Our pre-vocational Day Services program offers access to all of our amenities spread across three sites, including our fully-operational barn, therapeutic pool, orchard, cold frame greenhouses, gardens, and our visual arts program in the Los Ranchos, called Appaloosa Art Space.
In addition to workshops and daily activities that take place on site, our Day Services programs focus on offering community activities through which clients are able to form meaningful relationships in the community. Clients take part in service learning, farmer’s market sales, and extensive recreational activities (shopping, visiting restaurants, viewing work in local galleries, hosting community art events and workshops, exploring museums, etc.) that offer opportunities for building life skills and new experiences in the community.
Mandy’s Day Services values the Employment-First principle, and strongly values the belief that everyone can work. We see Day Services as an opportunity to identify individual’s skills and interests in order to develop a path to integrated work in the community. Many of our workshops and daily activities are designed to help pinpoint areas of strength and opportunities for growth.
Day Services are provided to individuals on weekdays from 8:30am to 3:00pm. Clients are welcome to select days of service based on their individual schedules.
Each month, clients are able to collectively develop a calendar of daily workshops and activities based on season, client goals, and activities that are meaningful to them. Many of these workshops and ongoing areas of interest include career exploration, agriculture, visual arts, and fitness.
Career Exploration Workshops including:
- Service Learning
- Employment 101
- Adaptive Agriculture
- Vermi-composting
- Farmer’s Market Sales
- Social Skills Groups
- Literacy Workshops
Additional Workshops including:
- Visual Arts (Painting, Drawing, Ceramics, Printmaking)
- Animal Husbandry and Adaptive Horsemanship
- Fitness (Yoga, Swimming, Community Classes, Dance)
- Community Recreation (Movies, Bowling, Restaurants)
- Coffee Club
- Cooking Workshops
- Music Workshops
Employment
The Mandy’s Farm Employment Program helps individuals find meaningful employment opportunities in the community at minimum wage or higher. Employment services are designed to help individuals identify skills and interests, develop relationships with community businesses, and ultimately carve out a long-term career path. We fully embrace the Employment-First principle and have designed our program to give participants real opportunities to participate in and contribute to their community while making an equitable wage. We believe that everyone can work and that the individuals we serve are prepared to enter the workforce.
Mandy’s Farm also works to meet the needs of Albuquerque businesses with services that are offered at no cost. Employment services are available to any local business interested in strengthening, diversifying, and expanding their workforce. We provide support in identifying and screening qualified candidates, on-boarding and training new hires, and monitoring employee performance on an on-going basis. Our job developers also consult with businesses about applicable tax incentives, ADA resources, and more!
Interested employers who wish to learn more about employing individuals with disabilities and its benefits, as well as those who are actively looking for employees, can contact us at any time at info@mandysfarm.org.
In the state of New Mexico, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are provided with access to in-home, community, and vocational services through allocation to the Developmental Disabilities (or DD) Waiver. However, the waiting list for these services is currently ten to fifteen years long. After high school, individuals on the waiting list are left without access to adult services for years at a time. Among those on the waiting list, 89.9% are unemployed, increasing the likelihood that they will live in poverty. This is often exacerbated by the frequent need for family members to provide unpaid in-home caregiving. Parents, siblings, or other members of the household often have to leave employment in order to ensure the safety of their loved one with a disability.
Through the VAMOS Program, individuals with developmental disabilities (14+ years of age) who are navigating the transition into adult life without the DD Waiver are eligible for an eight-week intensive job training program, hosted in the spring, summer, and fall of each year. VAMOS students participate in life-skills based courses, job fairs, job site tours, benefits counseling, mentoring with employed peers, and complete 40 hours of paid work in customized internships within local nonprofits and businesses.
The VAMOS Program is offered to individuals and their families at no cost, thanks to the New Mexico Commission for Community Volunteerism, the New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, the Carl C. Anderson Sr. and Marie Jo Anderson Charitable Foundation, Sandia National Laboratories, the Calvin P. Horn Foundation, the Nusenda Credit Union Foundation, Wells Fargo, and BBVA Compass Bank.
