Berns Garden Center Shop Small 2025
Stop by our farm booth on Saturday, February 15th at Berns Garden Center Shop Small Event. Selling many of your favorite farmer made items.
Solar Savings Funds Future Program Needs
At Safe Haven Farms, our solar installation is having a positive effect on our farm’s operating plan. With estimated annual energy savings of over 30%, we can now allocate these savings to farm programs or new projects. This year’s savings will support growth in our day services and therapeutic equestrian programs plus assist us in providing new community outreach activities. Thank you, All Points North Foundation, for your investment in Safe Haven Farms. https://bit.ly/3WZOed0 All Points North Foundation
ViaQuest comes to Safe Haven Farms
Safe Haven Farms is happy to announce that we are partnering with a new on-site direct service provider. ViaQuest will be providing the direct care services in both the residential and day programs at Safe Haven Farms. Our current care staff will transition from the previous provider to the ViaQuest team which is a wonderful benefit for the individuals we serve.
Founded in 1999 by CEO Rich Johnson, ViaQuest has grown from a single division in Ohio to serving individuals throughout Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania through their disability, mental health and hospice services divisions. The name ViaQuest represents the overall mission of the company: a group of people on a mission (or Quest) to change the way (Via) healthcare services are delivered.
ViaQuest, Inc. is a healthcare company that believes strongly in choice for its employees and the people it serves. They offer quality, highly personalized, specialized and cost-effective care, empowering individuals to function independently and live their best possible lives. Through a wide range of innovative services referred to as ViaQuest’s Circle of Care, skilled, dedicated employees ensure that the people served are active participants in their own care. To learn more, go to: https://viaquestinc.com
Welcome ViaQuest to Safe Haven Farms!
Solar Expansion Complete - A Dream Fulfilled
Since the official opening of Safe Haven Farms in 2010, we have envisioned having solar to supply our energy needs. Now 13 years later, our vision has come full circle. Thanks to the generous support of All Points North Foundation, Safe Haven Farms has been able to add the final phase to our solar array. This phase will add 25.4 kW to our current 69 kW PV-DC system. Moving forward Safe Haven Farms is on track to save an additional 12% on our monthly electric bills with a total annual savings of close to 38%. These savings will allow us to focus more funding on vital farm programs and much needed farm improvements to support adults with developmental disabilities. We appreciate the continued partnership with those who made this milestone possible, All Points North Foundation, Kokosing Solar, and Butler Rural Electric Cooperative. https://bit.ly/49cIeBp
Welcome Janie Cochran!
The Board of Directors at Safe Haven Farms is excited to announce the hiring of our first Executive Director, Janie Cochran. Janie comes to us from PARACHUTE: Butler County (CASA) Court Appointed Special Advocates where she was their recruitment and development specialist. Her work experience includes volunteer recruitment, fundraising event coordination, grant writing, community outreach, marketing/social media and public speaking. She is a graduate of Morehead State University and has previously worked as a high school home economics teacher and a fabric and color specialist.
Janie serves as an active member of the Middletown Chamber of Commerce, UCBMA, Hamilton Joes Board of Directors, Power of the Purse Giving Circle and has been an advisor to Miami University’s Chi Omega chapter for 20 years. She resides in Hamilton with her 2 children Chloe, a recent Miami University graduate and Gabriel, who participates in Project Life at Butler Tech.
We were thrilled that Janie had familiarity with farming. She grew up on her family’s dairy farm in Kentucky and stated that she wants the Safe Haven “farmers” to have the continued opportunity to share meaningful experiences much like she remembers from her time on the farm.
Janie will be taking on operations and functions which the Board has carried for the past ten years, so we are all delighted to have her here.
WELCOME Janie!
Property Improvements
Thanks to the generosity of our many donors and grants from local foundations, we are continuing to improve and grow the facilities at Safe Haven Farms. This summer and fall, we completed construction of our new hydroponic greenhouse and installed electrical and plumbing services to it. We look forward to using it this winter to keep our vegetables coming all winter.
We received a grant from an anonymous donor through the Hamilton Community Foundation in March to allow us to replace the leaking roof and the gutters of the Welcome House (office building). The original roof was built in 1972 and had been re-shingled a couple of times. All of the old shingles were removed, and new ones installed in August, so now it’s as good as new!
Our horse barn roof has been peeling paint for a couple of years and it was down to bare metal in some places. We had it stripped and repainted this fall. It looks great and should be good for several more years.
After 10 years of wear-and-tear, the carpets in the living rooms and staff rooms of our four residences needed replacing. We replaced them with vinyl plank flooring this spring which will make for longer life and much easier cleanup for the staff. Your continued donations and participation in our fundraisers are what makes these kinds of important property projects possible. Thanks to everyone for your support.
Fall Agriculture on the Farm
Fall is a busy time on the farm. The last of summer harvest and the weekly Middletown Farmers Market are finished.
Late fall activity has turned to winter vegetable planting of spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, garlic, and lettuce blends in SHF vegetable hoop houses. While these will not be grown for market, residents of the farm will have fresh produce available for their own use.
SHF wants to thank its growing list of supporters who come to the Middletown market to especially buy SHF produce and flowers. The community support has been amazing as has the interest in farm activities been gratifying.
Late fall is also a time of planning ahead for next spring. Seed ordering and bed preparation are well under way in anticipation of seed planting in late winter. The goal is to broaden the selection of seedlings planted so that there is a succession of vegetable produce throughout the year. To support this, SHF received a generous donation to purchase and build a Hydroponics operation for the Farm.
This will allow an expansion of the year-round growing season. Winter 2020 will be the initiation of the hydroponics initiative. The plan is to continue the weekly farmers market in Middletown and to add a produce retail store at SHF as well. Stay tuned for more details about this new operation.
Fall Visitors to the Farm
We have had a lot of visitors to the farm this fall! It was a good opportunity to make some new friends and spread the awareness of Safe Haven Farms throughout the local community.
Twenty-two (K-5th grade) elementary students with developmental disabilities from three classrooms at nearby Madison Elementary School visited the farm for a field trip on September 13th, along with ten teachers, aides and volunteers. They had lunch in the picnic shelter, took a hay ride to the back pasture to pick pumpkins and stopped by the garden to pick some fresh vegetables to take home. Then they went to the barn where they interacted with our horses and alpacas and make an “alpaca people” craft in the viewing room. Everyone seemed to have a good time. We are hopeful that this experience will encourage some of them to join our equestrian program in the future.
Four parent advocates representing DD programs from several local high school districts came out for a tour and to learn more about our programs on October 18th. Lakota, Middletown, Princeton and Oak Hills school districts were all represented.
They viewed the houses, gardens and greenhouses, barns and Hatton Center and got a good understanding of the activities at Safe Haven Farms to take back and share with their parent groups in their districts. This could be a good pipeline for future day participants and equestrian riders.
On October 28th, five students with disabilities and five teachers and aides from Madison High School visited the farm for a few hours to enjoy the fall weather and experience farm activities. They had lunch in the Hatton Center, took a hay ride, collected pumpkins and vegetables and interacted with the animals.
It’s very satisfying to see visitors discover us for the first time. They are generally amazed at our farm and the opportunities it presents for individuals with disabilities in the area.
Rezone Provides Opportunities for Individuals with Any Disability
Safe Haven Farms is excited to announce that we are now able to accept participants with a variety of disabilities, not just autism, into our Day, Equestrian and Residential programs. When Safe Haven Farms was founded, a zoning restriction limited those Safe Haven Farms could serve to individuals with autism. We recently completed a rezoning process which involved presenting our request to three Butler County groups: the Zoning Commission, the Planning Commission, and the Butler County Commissioners. The process went smoothly, and, in fact, we were thanked by the Commissioner for our efforts to expand the population we are able to serve.