INDIANAPOLIS (June 18, 2018)—Bellfound Farm, a new not-for-profit organization, has begun service in Indianapolis. The 17-acre residential urban farm offers wrap-around support for women ages 18-24 who are justice-involved, allowing them to learn skills to become self-sufficient. Bellfound Farm is the brainchild of Nekoma Burcham and Alena Jones, winners of Women’s Fund of Central Indiana’s NEXT Fellowship Prize, a nationwide competition for comprehensive solutions to help emerging adult women move from poverty to a lifetime of sustainability.
“We know that 98 percent of women in the criminal justice system have experienced trauma, and the number one reason women reoffend is lack of safe housing and lack of stable employment,” said Burcham. “Having a safe place to live and their basic needs met allows the women to switch the focus from survival to starting to imagine a future.”
Women — as many as 20 at a time — can live at Bellfound Farm for up to two years. Women living at Bellfound Farm receive mental health counseling, coaching and skill development as they cooperatively run the small business of an urban farm. As the women progress, Bellfound’s partner organizations will work with them off site to provide additional life skills training. In addition, Bellfound coaches will continue to support the women for up to five years as they earn a degree and/or certificate, find employment that leads to a career and acquire long-term housing.
Bellfound Farm also plans to donate and sell a portion of harvested produce to make fresh food more accessible to the community. In addition, plans are in the works to sell farm shares for the 2019 season, allowing the public to purchase produce on a weekly basis. This small business aspect enables the women to gain real, transferable skills, as well as a different mentality and outlook on life, says Jones.
“In many cases, the women we’ll work with have been talked about their entire lives as a problem for society,” says Jones. “By donating back some of the food the women grow, they start to see themselves as part of a solution. It shifts their entire mindset. That’s an important goal.”
And, thanks to a $250,000 grant from Women’s Fund, Bellfound Farm will also renovate a marketplace to include retail space, a demonstration kitchen and flexible meeting space for the community. Burcham and Jones will work with a number of organizations, including the Marion County Diversion Program, for referrals to Bellfound Farm. They expect to welcome their first group of five women in September 2018 after facility renovations are completed.
Women’s Fund, a fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), created the NEXT Initiative in 2015 after finding a gap in effective, age-appropriate programming for women living in poverty. The organization’s research highlighted the alarming fact that nearly three out of every 10 women living in poverty are between the ages of 18-24. Bellfound Farm won the NEXT Initiative prize and, after two years of mentorship and funding from Women’s Fund, is now an independent 501(c)3 organization.
Baker says the urban farm idea developed by Burcham and Jones through the NEXT Initiative boldly addresses multiple barriers that this demographic face and it is her hope that Bellfound Farm has a lasting impact for the women, their families and the community.
More information about Bellfound Farm is available at Bellfound.org. Visit womensfund.org for information about Women’s Fund and the NEXT Initiative.
