Center for Spectrum Services

As a school dedicated to educating and supporting children with autism, we are committed to utilizing best practice teaching methods necessary to overcome complex obstacles to help our students understand their world and how we interact with it. The primary goal of our garden is to engage students in collaborative, hands-on, sustainable activities that connect them to the importance of our collective responsibility of taking care of the earth. Working with teachers, peers, volunteers, and community partners who supportively plan and complete gardening tasks with them, our students improve their social skills, learn problem solving, and acquire enhanced sensory understanding, all while learning these lifelong skills related to farming. The foods they produce allow them to experience new foods they would most likely never otherwise try. Welcoming volunteers and community partners to work alongside our special children gives our students the opportunity to be connected to our larger community, something they rarely have the opportunity to do in a way that is tied so closely to such universally important issues as healthy nutrition and properly cultivating the earth.

This program is supported by Spectrum Services Foundation.