In 1991, a group of parents and invited professionals came together to discuss the state of affairs for their children, and the plight of Lancaster County adults with mental retardation and other disabilities. Existing programs were at capacity with long waiting lists. Our group, determined to build a step where none existed, imagined a more flexible environment where adults with mental retardation and other special needs, families, and the community, would partner together to create new opportunities.

We wrote a mission statement expressing a desire for a financially secure, long-term home in a safe, family-like setting where there is respect for the individual in a holistic sense, and where fun and creativity are revered as basic human needs. The home would be situated on land that supported a small farming operation with year-round projects. This environment, with many on-going activities, would stimulate residents and offer them new options. Then we took that dream and made it come true.

Five families who love an adult member with special needs incorporated, pooled their finances, and purchased an eight-acre farm in Millersville, PA in the summer of 1994. Homefields’ philosophy is a nurturing, self-sufficient one, so the people who eventually moved to Homefields, with the help of their families, were instrumental in renovating and personalizing their own home. Everyone rolled up their sleeves to remodel a ranch house, restore a stone house, disassemble and move a fence, paint a barn, clean up the grounds, and plant even more flowers.

Three years after the first meeting, three adults who require assisted living moved into the stone house. Soon after, the ranch house was completed and three other residents moved into that home.

All of the original residents continue to live as independently as possible at Homefields. The residents, supported by the professional staff of Community Services Group, are loved by their families, and are protected through the watchfulness of family members, advocates, the Lancaster County Office of Mental Health/Mental Retardation, and Homefields’ Board of Directors. New families have come our way seeking a home for their cherished son or daughter.

Goodwill at Homefields has grown, not just in numbers of plants in our fields and greenhouses, but in offering a job of choice to 30 trainee farmers and up to 100 shares of produce through this cooperative farm program.

In order to support both families in need and vocational growth, Homefields is seeking ways to expand. We have made attempts to purchase neighboring properties but have not been able to compete with developers. This quest remains our focus in 2004.

Homefields is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization