Clinton Township — Nathan Young used to board a bus to Rochester Hills to attend Dutton Farm’s art program. Soon, the 27-year-old Fraser resident will be able to paint much closer to home.
Young is among dozens of participants benefiting from Dutton Farm’s recent move from Sterling Heights to a larger facility in Clinton Township, where the nonprofit provides employment training, life skills and community programs for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The 16,000-square-foot building at 43785 N. Gratiot Ave. includes space for an art studio, allowing the nonprofit to offer its Art Without Limits program locally instead of requiring some participants to travel outside of the county. Through the program, participants create artwork that is sold, with a portion of the proceeds going back to the artists.
“Hopefully, having an art studio here for the art program, I won’t have to rely on going to the other location to do the art program twice a week,” Young said. The move also allows Dutton Farm to serve about twice as many people.
The expansion comes as Michigan continues to face a significant employment gap for people with disabilities. According to Cornell University’s Disability Statistics resource, about 42% of working-age people with disabilities in Michigan are employed, placing the state among those with lower disability employment rates nationally.
Sriram Narayanan, a professor at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business, said people with disabilities continue to face significant barriers in the workforce, with labor force participation rates about half those of people without disabilities and unemployment rates roughly twice as high. He said some of the biggest challenges are bias, lack of awareness and misconceptions about what it takes to support employees with disabilities.
“One of the biggest barriers is bias,” Narayanan said. “The second thing is awareness. When we combine awareness and bias removal, we already are going to be a long way ahead.”
‘The need was great’
Dutton Farm was founded in 2010 by CEO Jenny Brown’s parents, who sought better opportunities for her sister, Rebecca “Becca” Smither, who has Down syndrome. While Brown had many options after graduating from high school, she said her sister had few. That prompted the family to create a nonprofit focused on meaningful opportunities for adults with disabilities.
Dutton Farm has grown to serve more than 180 adults across Oakland and Macomb counties. It operates its original Rochester Hills location, a job readiness and digital literacy site at Oakland University in Auburn Hills and a Pontiac campus that includes a coffee shop.
Brown said expanding into Macomb County was important because families from the area were already traveling to Dutton Farm’s Rochester Hills location for services. The organization first landed in Sterling Heights while its leaders assessed what clients in the county needed.
“I knew the need was great because people from Macomb County were coming to our Rochester location, so I just needed to start somewhere, and then kind of listen to the community, listen to the families, listen to those that we were serving to figure out what we needed to be in Macomb County to serve those families,” she said.
Dutton Farm leaders say the larger facility in Clinton Township will help create more opportunities for participants to develop skills, build confidence and become more independent.
Brown said they’re excited about the opportunity to add culinary and art programs, and equine, gardening, horticulture and animal care — all of these things that Dutton Farm wasn’t able to provide in Sterling Heights.
“The goal is to give participants with disabilities options,” she said. “Instead of just giving them one or two things that they are able to do, we’re able to give them just a myriad of different options, so that they can choose the things that they like to do.”
Narayanan said organizations like Dutton Farm are important because they provide a supportive environment where people with disabilities can develop skills, identify their strengths and build pathways toward employment.
“They are talking about not just employment alone,” he said. “They are talking about life skills. This idea of providing independence to individuals, economic independence, I think that’s very critical.”
Room to grow
Dutton Farm expanded into Sterling Heights two years ago but quickly outgrew that space.
The organization began searching for a larger place in the fall, found the Clinton Township property in October and closed on it in April. The 4.5-acre site stands out along Gratiot — it’s a former German restaurant with a castle-like facade that has had other uses over the years, including as a church.
The site includes room for horticulture programming, a future chicken coop, a dedicated art studio and a commercial kitchen that could eventually support culinary and hospitality job training. Brown said the nonprofit is pursuing grants and private donations from longtime supporters, with a goal of launching the program in the fourth quarter of 2027.
“This property is amazing,” Brown said. “It’s just unique, and really, that’s … the kind of organization we are. We’re very just out of the box and unique.”
Earlier this month, about 20 participants used the new space for their Olympics competition, complete with an opening ceremony and games including a modified shot put. When extreme heat forced the event indoors, the larger facility allowed the competition to continue, something that would not have been possible in the organization’s former space.
Nathan Young was among the competitors, joining his peers in an event that was a mix of friendly competition and collaboration as they worked to toss bean bags into a hoop.
“The people here are very nice and friendly,” he said. “The staff are nice and friendly. And all the participants and my friends I have made here are very friendly.”
‘This will be very nice’
Michele Bachler, Macomb County program manager for Dutton Farm, said the new facility has generated excitement among participants and families.
“Oh my goodness, the smiles are wonderful,” she said. “The excitement is just contagious here in Macomb. When they walk in the door, they are so excited to be in the new space to have the extra room, but more than the physical space, it’s about the programs that we will be rolling out over the next couple, several months.”
Programming on the way includes All the World’s A Stage, a nonprofit that provides soft skill training through theater.
Bachler can’t keep up with the phone calls and emails from families seeking information. About 40 participants take part in the program, with another 35 to 40 expected to join because of the larger facility.
“This type of programming has been sought-after for so long by the community, and it is just the outpouring of support and interest has been a wonderful, overwhelming surprise to us,” she said.
Michael Murray, communications director for Michigan Rehabilitation Services, said the need to support adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities is significant, with more than 732,000 working-age Michigan residents living with a disability.
He said MRS relies on partnerships with community organizations across the state to help individuals access employment services, training opportunities and other supports that can lead to greater independence.
“We’re proud of the role we and our partners play in this work,” Murray said. “MRS is fortunate to have many great partnerships throughout the state that benefit the individuals we serve.”
Kenny Casbar, 52, of St. Clair Shores, has been part of the program for about a year and a half. He said his mother encouraged him to participate because she wanted him to have friends and a place to go each day.
“It’s nice,” he said, adding that he prefers the new location because it’s roomier for him to move around with his walker.
As for Young, he participates in Dutton Farm’s Art Without Limits program twice a week and enjoys community outings that take participants to coffee shops, bowling alleys, gyms and other destinations. Young earns money for the art that he sells through the program.
He said he’s enjoying the organization’s new Clinton Township facility: “I like the new space because it’s a lot bigger than the old location, so they can do a lot more. Before, with the art program, I had to go to the other location to do it, but here it’s enough for everything to be still here, so I don’t have to go to that location. This will be very nice.”
cwilliams@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Dutton Farm expands services for adults with disabilities at new site
Reporting by Candice Williams, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Candice Williams, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
