A program that helps Hartford students build new friendships and new skills on a farm in the Litchfield Hills is in danger of folding due to a lack of funding.
The program, called City Slickers, takes 15 students from Bulkeley High School to the Lazy D Ranch in Harwinton twice per week. Once there, they work hand in hand with job coaches and their peers for almost two hours. The outcome has been incredible.
“We’ve evolved into a program that provides students who are new arrivals to the country, special needs students and regular mainstream students the opportunity to work on the farm,” said City Slickers Coordinator Gretchen Levitz.
According to Levitz, the day is designed to promote job skills, teamwork and acceptance among all those who participate. They do everything from cleaning to light construction and grounds keeping. It is an opportunity that is not lost on students like Eh Kaw Ku, who moved to the United States from Thailand in 2011.
“We came here for a better life,” said Ku. “Here we learn a lot of things.”
Ku’s story is similar to many other in the program. It has been difficult for Shafida Rajakamal to make friends since she and her family left Malaysia. With the encouragement of Levitz, Rajakamal joined the City Slickers and found the welcome she had been waiting for.
“I feel like I am working so hard and I love it,” Rajakamal said.
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For their hard work, the students get a small stipend in return. For some, it helps provide food for their families, for others it helps with necessities for themselves.
"I buy school clothes and now it is going to snow. My grandma tells me I need to buy a snow jacket," Andrew Persaud said.
In addition to the money, Levitz says the unique environment helps students look past their differences and form friendships they may have never had the chance to make in the confines of a traditional classroom.
“The horses, we discovered, don’t respond to a certain language other than the language of love,” said Levitz. “It is kind of an equal playing field for all the students.”
Very soon, however, the game could all change. According to Levitz, one of the City Slickers' largest grants was recently discontinued. She says the program has already been paired down to the bare minimum, three days to two, but even that is not enough.
“We are facing a real financial crunch,” said Levitz.
Levitz has set up a Go Fund Me page and now she and the students are just hoping for a miracle.
“This is a family. It is like taking a family away from them. It is their world and I don’t want to be the one that has to tell them it can’t continue.”
To learn more about the City Slickers or to donate, click here.
