Meet the Staff: Gretchen Voight
Meet Gretchen Voight, the Transition Coordinator for Kindle Farm. She has been employed by HCRS for almost 4 years where she first started in the Adult Developmental Services division as a Direct Support Professional. This is her 3rd school year. She was a Classroom Assistant at both the Kindle Farm Central and Onyon Farm Campus prior to her new position.
My interest in working at Kindle Farm stemmed from my background in farming, community organizing and experience working with Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. I felt this school represented a culmination of my life's work and passions. While living in Maine, I worked for years as a DSP for a community day program called Momentum. It was a unique experience, as it was started by a Registered Maine Guide. We engaged our clients in outdoor adventure from backpacking to whitewater rafting, ice fishing, wilderness survival skills and camping. I also supported adults in their homes with gaining independent living skills and in work support settings focusing on interpersonal skill building, job modifications and career planning.
My teaching and leadership experience includes organizing for the Winter Cache Project, a food security group that trades work on a local farm in exchange for land use. Our group grew and preserved food for the Winter months, holding biweekly distributions from our community root cellar in Portland. As the cofounder of an experiential learning collaborative called Resilient Roots, I organized and instructed workshops. They ranged from fermentation, beehive plant polycultures to combat the use of medication to ward off pests, to analyzing self-seeding and perennial crops in season extension structures.
One of my favorite hobbies is collecting rare and unusual edible or medicinal perennials. I have been practicing Permaculture based design principles for over 17 years at home in my free time. Professionally, I worked for one of Maine’s most prominent Permaculture designers. We designed and implemented lawn to garden conversions, urban gardens that include vertical and rooftop locations, food forests, water catchment and retention systems as well as season extension construction.
When the opportunity came to take on Transition Coordination for Kindle Farm, I felt confident my prior experiences would be a strong foundation to foster a successful program. I am excited to support our students in achieving their goals and also hope to aid in expanding their world view, providing them with opportunities they may have never thought were possible. Becoming an adult and gaining independence is an exciting and potentially stressful time in everyone's lives. Transitional skill building before graduation will aid in making that major life change for our students easier allowing them to be better prepared for the real world.