116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Healing Prairie Farm near Iowa City opens for youths in crisis
Johnson County care farm provides therapy and shelter
Sep. 28, 2024 5:30 am, Updated: Sep. 30, 2024 7:52 am
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
IOWA CITY — Emma Nelson, a peer support specialist at a new care farm near Iowa City, is helping kids process their emotions while they work with farm animals and engage in therapeutic activities.
Healing Prairie Farm is a youth crisis stabilization center and youth shelter that opened last spring on a 20-acre property in the 5000 block of U.S. Highway 6 near Iowa City. The program is free to families, but it requires an admission assessment first.
The farm provides free short-term stabilization for youths experiencing a mental health crisis, and shelter for youths who are unhoused, have run away from home, were kicked out of their home or are couch surfing.
As a peer support specialist, Nelson experienced mental health crisis in her youth and is equipped to help others struggling with similar issues. “It’s something I needed desperately when I was younger and didn’t have,” she said.
Care farm models have been shown to lead to improved moods, reduced anxiety and decreased rates of relapse by providing developmentally appropriate care in a more healing environment than traditional alternatives like hospitalization.
Nelson, a former competitive horseback rider, also cares for the animals on the farm. She works with kids staying at the farm through animal therapy.
In addition to Nelson, the farm is staffed 24/7 with mental health providers. While staying at Healing Prairie Farm, youths can participate in individual and family counseling, peer support groups and therapeutic art and music recreation.
Healing Prairie Farm is a collaboration between CommUnity Crisis Services and United Action for Youth, which provides youths in crisis a therapeutic place to receive care.
Kids can participate in horse “spa days,” goat yoga and learn to care for the animals alongside Nelson. There are two horses, a llama, two pigs, chickens, four goats, rabbits and cats that live on the farm. Two more horses will be added once a new barn and outdoor riding arena is completed at the end of the year.
Nelson said she works on the connection between a horse and rider and teaches kids how to stay calm by using breathing techniques.
The youth crisis stabilization services are available to kids ages 10 to 17 years-old who need immediate crisis intervention and stabilization. Youths can stay on the farm between three and 10 days. There are special considerations for admissions for youths aged 10 to 12 based on the ages of other youths also staying at the farm to ensure “a healing space,” according to Healing Prairie Farm’s website.
The shelter on Healing Prairie Farm is open to youths ages 12 to 17, and is a place where they can work with staff on building life skills and attend school and work during their stay. Youths can stay in the shelter for up to 21 days.
The goal of the shelter program is family reunification or a successful placement to a stable housing situation. After youth leave this program, they receive six months of follow-up care.
Sarah Nelson, chief executive officer of CommUnity Crisis Services, said staff building relationships with youths is the “primary intervention” to help improve the mental health of the kids they serve.
“Something beautiful since we opened is that youth discharged from the farm reach back out to us for support,” said Sarah Nelson, who is Emma’s mother. “I’ve never seen that in my career where a youth has discharged and reaches out to talk to staff. That tells me we’re doing relationships really well. Kids are leaving the farm feeling like there are adults who care about them and who they can trust.”
The vision for the care farm came about because of the gaps in the mental health system the Nelsons experienced as a family when Emma was a youth, coupled with Sarah Nelson’s decades of experience on the mental health field.
Talia Meidlinger, executive director of United Action for Youth, said the farm is a “dream come true.” It’s a place where kids can “get a brain break and learn some new skills.”
“Young people are inundated with technology, academic expectations, family and social expectations and stressors related to housing and food insecurity,” Meidlinger said. “They feel all those things.”
Healing Care Farm is a place for kids to heal in a setting that feels like home with kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms, Meidlinger said.
“No one gives parents a handbook that says, ‘This is your child. This is how you parent them and navigate all that comes with that.’” Meidlinger said. At Healing Care Farm, families can get help and support without judgment, she said.
The Healing Care Farm property previously was Kinderfarm Preschool, a nature-based program that closed in 2022 after almost 50 years of educating 3- to 6-year-olds.
It was funded with $1.5 million from the Mental Health/Disability Services of the East Central Region, $500,000 from the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and $403,901 in grants for capital costs and renovations to the property.
Healing Prairie Farm has received $41,980 in individual contributions toward farm operations and programming.
To request a placement assessment, call Your Life Iowa at (855) 581-8111 to express an interest in mobile crisis response to assess someone for placement at Healing Prairie Farm in Johnson County.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters