Adults with developmental disabilities thriving at A New Leaf’s new Owasso ‘agrihood,’ The Village

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Owasso Reporter Editor Art Haddaway

For Judy Knott, moving into a new independent-living apartment complex as an adult with a developmental disability meant she would have a place of her own to call home.

“I like it … it’s big,” said Knott, who recently took up residence at A New Leaf’s newly constructed Owasso farmstead, The Village, on the west side of town. “I love the washer and dryer; I like the dishwasher, stove; and I got Wi-Fi now.”

Knott joins other residents like Ashley Neff at the 50-acre, $20 million agricultural community, or “agrihood,” located off of 86th Street North and Memorial Drive.

“It’s helping really good,” said Neff, who lives a few doors down from Knott. “I’ve been decorating my apartment, and I like to hang out with friends.”

Knott and Neff are among the first clients at The Village, a five-year project built as an extension of A New Leaf’s Broken Arrow headquarters, where staff is devoted to helping improve the lives of adults with developmental disabilities and autism.

Established in 1979, A New Leaf provides its clients with critical life skills and job training through horticultural therapy, as well as community-based vocational placement and residential services.

The Village, which broke ground in the fall of 2020, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Owasso Chamber on Tuesday, June 21.

“This is a big, grand event in Owasso,” Chamber President Chelsea Feary said at the ceremony. “We’re very excited just to have this as an asset in our community … to be a place where we are able to blend agriculture and living, and therapy and wellness.”

Feary and several other Chamber and community guests were given a tour of the premises, which features eight different low-income housing units and a 1-acre farm, along with a cafeteria, recreational center, administrative quarters, maintenance facility and a number of conservatories to cultivate vegetation.

The Village’s amenities will give newcomers like Knott and Neff an opportunity to learn six critical life skills, which include: finances (basic budget, grocery shopping); home safety (emergency numbers, weather drills); housework/cleaning (laundry, dishes); cooking/kitchen safety (appliance usage, meal prep); personal care (hygiene, mind/body health,); and self-advocacy (medication and doctor visits).

These offerings will help cut the 63% unemployment rate among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including the roughly 60,000 who live in Oklahoma, A New Leaf President and CEO Mary Ogle said.

“They need support,” Ogle said. “They’re often living below the poverty level, so we have to offer them opportunities to live on their own. This (agrihood) gives them the chance to determine their own life choices — where they want to work, where they want to live, who they want to live with.”

The Village will provide housing for more than 60 clients, and plans to expand the property with additional units as part of Phase II going into 2023 to accommodate more residents, including the 150 people currently on the waiting list.

Over the last several years, A New Leaf has made Owasso a hub for its outreach services through horticulture programs like the nonprofit’s pop-up outside BattleCreek Church on 86th Street, and educational initiatives that teach pre-vocational skills to autistic Owasso High School students.

“When I saw that our town of Owasso would be compassionate and have endurance and have kindness, I thought, ‘Well that is the community that will support our clients and help them live their best life,’” Ogle said in reference to the organization’s decision to build The Village in Owasso.

When asked what it means to see the project come to fruition, Ogle replied, “I think all of us are kind of shocked that it’s actually here and it’s opening, and we’re just so excited about it.”