Back in 2007, Kevin
Yasnowski became the first farmer to receive a financial loan through the Pennsylvania
Assistive Technology Foundation (PATF). At
the time, Mr. Yasnowski was working at a Nike shoe outlet, but he didn’t want
to just sell shoes. He wanted to help with haying and raising heifers alongside
his father on their family’s farm. To do so Yasnowski, who has Down Syndrome,
needed safety equipment for a tractor. But because he was already employed, the
Penn. Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) turned down his request for
assistance. Indeed there was no program that could help with this equipment. That’s
when PATF stepped in.
“It’s
important to do what you love,” notes Executive Director Susan Tachau.
PATF learned
of Yasnowski through a partnership it had just launched with AgrAbility and Penn State
University. AgrAbility’s mission is to help farmers keep producing; the Pennsylvania AgrAbility program provides
outreach to farmers with disabilities, assessments for equipment needs, and
information and referral for funding. PATF, in turn, provides alternative
financing, case management, and advocacy.
In Mr. Yasnowski’s
case, PATF helped finance a seat belt to keep him in the operator’s chair and
the roll over protective structure (ROPS) for protection should the tractor
flip over. “What’s important about this story,” Tachau emphasizes, “is that no
other program could help him. But he paid off his loan in about a year.”
- Loans
to farmers are not particularly risky.
PATF’s
farmers have had a much higher debt to income ratio than its other loan
recipients, yet so far none have defaulted or even gone delinquent. “A farmer’s
debt to income looks higher because their assets are in the farm,” Tachau
explains. “But farmers are committed to their family farms. It’s more than a
job. We don’t put liens on cows to make these loans, and the farmers are paying
them off.”
- Farmers
want all resources to go to the farm.
“Because
farming is much more than a vocation, farmers put everything on the farm. So
when AgrAbility’s OT comes back to them recommending, among other things, an
ergonomic chair for the office, it’s a hard sell. Steps up to the tractor? Yes.
Help converting to another product that is physically easier to make?
Absolutely. The chair? Not so interested.”
- Vocational
Rehabilitation can’t cover everything.
At
the time Yasnowski’s loan was made, PATF assumed financing farm equipment would
prove to be unusual. AgrAbility would get the farm equipment from Vocational
Rehabilitation, and PATF would finance the farmer’s non-vocational needs (i.e.
home and vehicle modifications, hearing aids, and perhaps an ergonomic chair).
Now, looking back, of the ten AgrAbility loans they’ve helped finance, every
one has gone to purchase farm equipment.
- It
works best to complete a package for the farmer.
“Because
there is a limit to what OVR can cover, we find that we’re completing packages
for farmers. OVR will fund much of the adaptive equipment and we’ll try and finance
the rest, including the vehicles.” In 2009, PATF worked with OVR to help a
farmer with cervical and lumbar pain obtain new farm equipment that would
simply be easier on his body. The needs were significant: an Ag-bag machine, a
feeder wagon, a utility vehicle, an elevator lift system, upgrades to his
tractor (new suspension seating, adapted shifting mechanism to engage the
transmission and other gears), and a new truck that provides a smoother (and
less painful) ride. OVR paid for the new
farm equipment as well as $1,200 for the adaptations to the tractor. PATF guaranteed a loan for $19,300 (at 4.5%)
so the farmer could pay the difference between the old tractor and the new one
($4,800) and the truck ($14,500). Monthly loan payments:
$306.37. Repayment period: 6
years.
- Get
creative when considering income.
PATF
has learned that if anyone in the farm family is working off the farm, PATF may
not have to guarantee the loan, which makes available a lot more money to work
with to help a farmer.
- Help
OVR to “think outside the box” when it comes to AT.
As
the example above illustrates, AT for farmers is not always adaptive equipment;
sometimes it is just new or different farm equipment. “Of course we advocate
for the farmers to OVR,” emphasizes Tachau, “and partner to help make it
happen.”
- Get
to the policy table with multiple agencies.
An
AT program can provide far reaching impact for people with disabilities by creating
relationships with other state agencies, making sure AT is included in service
definitions, and preventing program asset limits that threaten to exclude farm
families and others from needed services. PATF is at the table with Medicaid as
they craft their home and community based waiver (HSBS) service definitions and
asset rules. It is also helping create the Pennsylvania State Plan for
Independent Living (SPIL). “Ultimately
we are looking to create opportunities,” Tachau says, “to complete more
packages for people with disabilities so they can get and afford the AT they
need. Not just with OVR.”
- Get
to the kitchen table with farmers.
Outreach
to farmers with disabilities is effective when the AgrAbility staff members are
farmers themselves (or have a strong farming background). “It’s fascinating to
me what we have learned, culturally,” Tachau muses. “Our AgrAbility people are
farmers. They talk the language. When they visit a farm they know what is a
priority and what is not a priority. I don’t step foot on a farm. I could, but
they would know I don’t come from a farming background and that does make a difference.”
Learn more
about creating an AgrAbility partnership; download this National Assistive Technology Technical
Assistance Partnership (NATTAP) publication (rtf).
Comments