BENTONVILLE, Ark. — True Colors Farm, Northwest Arkansas' only non-profit tulip farm, is supporting and empowering neurodiverse adults this spring.
PerspectAbility is a nonprofit organization that serves local, neurodiverse adults by creating an inclusive space for them in Northwest Arkansas to live independently.
"Continuing education, housing, employable skills, anything that we can do to make others more successful for the future that they choose," PerspectAbility's co-founder Kelli Jensen said.
Jensen says this is one of the biggest seasons of the year. Although the tulip farm teaches the adults how to hone their employable skills, Jenson says that’s not her main goal.
"The main mission of the tulip farm is to not only bring awareness to the barriers that neurodivergent adults face but also to teach the community how to be more inclusive," she said. "We don't always want to be known as the farm that hires inclusively. We want to be the farm that teaches the community how to hire and embrace inclusively."
Since 2019, they’ve ordered tulips straight from the Netherlands every season and planted 100,000 tulips at their farm, but Jensen says these tulips are just a vehicle for something more.
"We knew we needed a vehicle to bring awareness to the barriers and also find a way to fund our mission," Jensen said. "So we were coming in on a pandemic, we weren't exactly sure what the future was going to look like. So having access to something outside that is beautiful and fun. There wasn't a tulip farm."
Every tulip sold is one step closer to their mission.
"Every dollar spent at True Colors Farm goes to support the neurodiverse community in Northwest Arkansas and goes to fund PerspectAbility’s vision for inclusion," she said.
But most importantly, the employees love working at the farm.
"We either get treated as lesser than or as an inconvenience in the workplace," Olivia Jordan said. "Working here is kind of a break from all that. It's really nice to be in a different, supportive environment rather than one that's trying to bring you down."
For other employees, it is giving them a new sense of freedom.
"It really helps me as someone who's neurodivergent to learn job skills, keep a job, and to be able to just create my own bank account and build myself up," Hallie Hodrick said.
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