New Growth Project

New Growth Project is a nonprofit care farm and supported-employment program located in Rockford, Michigan, serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in and around Kent County. Operating on 21 acres of land that has been farmed chemical-free for more than 40 years, New Growth employs nearly 20 adults with disabilities in meaningful, paid agricultural and production work, including growing vegetables, crafting handmade goods, and running a seasonal farm store.

New Growth's Mission

New Growth Project provides job opportunities to adults with disabilities by growing nutritious food for the community.

Farm Snapshot

Location	Rockford, Kent County, Michigan
Founded	Established September 2021 · Grand opening May 2022
Farm size	~21 acres total, roughly 8 acres in vegetable production
Business structure	501(c)(3) nonprofit
Staffing	Two co-founders plus nearly 20 employees with disabilities; volunteers & seasonal interns
Operating budget	Funded through product sales, CSA, and donations
Programs / services	Supported farm employment with peer mentoring; farm store; CSA; Rockford Farmers Market; Farm Market Delivery; Field & Wick apothecary line; gift boxes; family volunteer days
Who they serve	Adults with intellectual & developmental disabilities; the wider community through fresh, chemical-free food

ORIGIN

New Growth Project was born from a gap its founders knew personally. Christine O’Driscoll and Carly VanDuinen both have close connections to neurodiverse individuals — O’Driscoll is a parent of a child with special needs — and kept encountering the same reality: roughly four out of five adults with cognitive disabilities are unemployed. That absence of work too often means isolation, a lack of routine, and a missing sense of purpose. Thus, New Growth came to be.

New Growth Project was established in September 2021 and held its grand opening in May 2022, employing about 10 individuals in that first season and running from mid-April through mid-October. It has grown quickly since.

O’Driscoll and VanDuinen had initially explored buying one or two acres in Grand Rapids, with easy bus access a priority. Instead, 21 acres came to them through an acquaintance — land that had been farmed chemical-free for decades and, as they described it, “became part of our vision.” They purchased the property with a loan from a private lender. O’Driscoll and VanDuinen own the land personally and lease it to the nonprofit, a structure they chose intentionally for future flexibility.

Their founding board was built from their own networks: a behavioral specialist, a marketing professional, a well-connected fundraiser, an experienced board member who helped drive board accountability, and an accountant. They board operates as an “advisory board,” provifing expertise while preserving operational freedom.

PROGRAMS, STAFFING & OPERATIONS

The Work

At its core, New Growth is a working vegetable farm. Employees are placed first in roles where they can experience immediate success, then supported, through a peer mentoring model, to take on progressively more responsibility. Work includes seeding, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, washing and packing produce, handcrafting the Field & Wick apothecary line (candles, soaps, salt scrubs, room sprays), assembling gift boxes, and staffing the farm store and farmers market.

The farm is MAEAP-certified and grows chemical-free, “better-than-organic” produce. Employees and volunteers plant 90–95% of all seeds.

Accommodations & Adaptive Tools

New Growth has leaned into physical and structural accommodations that make farm work genuinely accessible: hand transplanters usable from a standing position, a paper pot transplant system, specialized potato tools, and wheeled chairs that move up and down rows in the field. Straight planting rows make navigation easier and give plants a better chance to thrive.

For employees who don’t thrive outdoors, the Field & Wick production line offers a niche. Specialized, more independent roles, like one employee who serves as the farm’s dedicated Tool Manager allow workers to develop real expertise.

Staffing Structure

New Growth is led by a three-person executive team — the two founders plus their operations lead — supported by three permanent staff members, with a fourth position coming on soon. Three seasonal peer mentors round out the team during the growing season.

Peer mentoring is central to how the farm operates. New employees begin with 1:1 support, then transition to a 1:3–5 ratio as they find their footing, with the pace depending on individual needs. Peer mentor roles are paid staff positions; the farm found early on that volunteers didn’t step into that responsibility at the rate they had hoped. The ratio matters: expanding employee capacity means expanding mentorship capacity first.

New Growth is exploring a bigger question: how to not only support their own employees, but how to become a place where job coaches and disability support workers come to train. They are already a community partner for a university dietetics program, and that model of becoming a training hub feels like a natural next step for the organization.

WATCH NEW GROWTH'S STORY

Successes

Employment growth with staying power. New Growth grew from roughly 10 employees in its first season to nearly 20 today — with retention rates that have exceeded early expectations. Employees who arrived expecting a season or two have stayed for years.
Skills that carry home. Families have reported that employees bring new skills and confidence back into their daily lives — an outcome that extends the farm’s impact well beyond the workday.
A diversified, mission-aligned revenue base. From the farm store and CSA to restaurant partnerships and the Field & Wick line, New Growth has built multiple revenue streams that reinforce rather than distract from the mission.
Chemical-free, certified growing. The farm earned MAEAP certification and has sustained fully chemical-free practices on land farmed that way for more than 40 years.
Deep community integration. Partnerships with schools, job coaching businesses, a university dietetics program, rehabilitation facilities, and local employers have woven New Growth into the fabric of its region.

What's been challenging

A waitlist the team describes as heartbreaking. Two to three people reach out each week seeking a spot. Expanding capacity means adding not just employee slots but peer mentors to support them, which is a staffing and funding constraint that limits how quickly the farm can grow its impact.

Transportation. Many employees rely on guardians or families for rides, which requires scheduling flexibility the farm has had to build in deliberately. A regional bus system exists but is not consistently reliable. New Growth has begun exploring rideshare partnerships with other nonprofits as a potential solution.

Extending the season. New Growth is working toward longer, and eventually year-round, employment. Currently, the season runs roughly mid-April through mid-October, which limits both income and continuity for employees.

Grant funding. New Growth has not yet secured significant grant support. The team is actively working to change that while maintaining their commitment to building toward 50% product-based revenue.

Insurance complexity. As programming and products expand, so does insurance complexity. The Field & Wick line required a new layer of product liability coverage, and the team monitors their policies annually to ensure they stay current.

WHO THEY SERVE & COMMUNITY IMPACT

New Growth currently employs or engages 48 neurodiverse individuals across paid and volunteer roles, including 14 regular employees, additional sporadic employees, and 4 regular neurodiverse volunteers. A local rehabilitation facility sends participants for a 3-hour session every other Friday. Local businesses bring groups for volunteer days. New Growth also hosts a University of Michigan environmental science intern.

Demand far outpaces capacity. Two to three people reach out each week, and the waitlist has become one of the farm’s most pressing challenges. To bridge the gap, New Growth offers volunteer opportunities to waitlisted individuals while they wait for a paid position to open.

“I love it here. I want to be here every day.”

Megan B.

Employee