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4 Directions Farm: Creating Pathways to Purpose

small farm in Latrobe is helping disabled students acquire marketable skills that could change their futures. That’s no small order. Disabled individuals are at a disadvantage when it comes to finding work. According to a 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey, fewer than 20 percent of adults with disabilities were employed in 2017, in contrast to more than 65 percent of non-disabled people who held jobs. 


4 Directions Farm wants to help close that gap. Cindy Keller and Starranne Meyers, special education teachers who founded Guiding Hands School in El Dorado Hills, opened the 57-acre working farm last year to teach skills that will help disabled youth earn a living doing work they enjoy and reap the fulfillment of contributing to their communities. 

Cody Ames and Ramz Dixon


At 4 Directions, students who may become uneasy in restrictive classrooms are able to flourish in open space with lots of movement, fresh air, and natural light. These youngsters, who face challenges ranging from physical to developmental to emotional, learn to care for the farm’s alpacas and goats and tend to its agriculture, including two new ventures: a 4,000-square-foot lavender field and a fledgling Christmas tree farm, which the students helped plant (thanks to a recent donation of evergreen saplings) and will care for as they mature.

Along with farming, budding entrepreneurs and craftspeople can work in or make products for the nonprofit’s boutique, Soul Filled Creations, housed at Guiding Hands. Resembling a charming country store, the shop is stocked with organic soaps, sachets, lip balms, greeting cards, T-shirts, tote bags, and much more, all made or decorated by students. The children learn to manage the store, wait on customers, run the cash register, and even develop products. Many of the items contain lavender, which will come from the farm’s lavender field once it’s ready to be harvested. The store is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays, and all money raised supports the farm’s projects.

The farm also operates during the school year and invites visitors; the interaction allows students to feel pride in what they’ve accomplished and develop interpersonal skills. Volunteers and donations are welcome too, as the organization seeks more venues to sell the students’ wares and plans to build a new barn.

The name 4 Directions is intended to evoke the four directions on a weather vane, which can point anywhere and represent the unlimited choices these kids should be able to make for their lives. “When people with disabilities have jobs and can contribute to their community, they show others they are so much more than their disability,” says Program Director Quynn Meyers-Keller. “Here we give them tasks they actually want to be doing.” The organization’s motto wraps it up perfectly: Everyone deserves the chance to find direction in life.
4directionsfarm.org

by Linda Holderness