Our Wellness Philosophy
Benevolence Farm views dignity as a human right. People returning from incarceration should not have to earn back said dignity, nor should they have lost it while experiencing arrest, jail, or prison in the first place. Formerly incarcerated people deserve material stability, meaningful relationships, life-affirming opportunities, and the decision-making power necessary to build their own lives filled with safety, autonomy, and belonging.
This belief system is at the heart of Benevolence Farm’s mission to cultivate leadership, promote sustainable livelihoods, and create structural change with people impacted by the criminal legal system across North Carolina.
For nearly two decades, Benevolence Farm has been redefining what a freedom practice can look like in rural communities. From our 13-acre property in Graham, North Carolina, we work alongside women and gender expansive people of all conviction types who come from towns, cities, and rural communities across the state.
Through a holistic model that integrates transitional housing, living-wage employment, mental and emotional wellbeing, family reunification, resource navigation, and advocacy, women and gender expansive people rebuild relational, practical, emotional, and political skills that carceral systems often damage or distort.
We view our space as a learning community. Together, residents are navigating how to share space, resolve conflict, tell their own story from a position that is reparative rather than punitive or shaming, ask for help, make decisions, build trust, and live without a mindset of surveillance, punishment, and scarcity. Because nearly every resident returns to a North Carolina community of their choice, the impact of our work extends far beyond Alamance County.
Peer Support
Benevolence Farm believes that people closest to the problem are closest to the solution. We prioritize hiring people with lived experience of incarceration, substance use recovery, and mental health recovery, meeting our community members where they are at in their reentry journey.
Formerly incarcerated people are not simply participants in Benevolence Farm’s work. They help lead it. Five women who completed our program have served on staff, including in senior leadership roles such as Reentry Wellness Director and Community Advocacy Director. Their experiences shape our programs, advocacy priorities, organizational decision-making, and the relationships we build with the women and gender expansive people we support.
Partnerships
Benevolence Farm believes lasting systems change is built through collaboration. No single organization can address the complex barriers women and gender expansive people face after incarceration, which is why we intentionally invest in partnerships that strengthen both our work and North Carolina’s broader reentry ecosystem.
At the regional level, we partner with organizations including RHA Behavioral Health, UNC STAR, In Her Vision, Wheels4Hope, and the Alamance County Health Department to connect residents and alumni to behavioral healthcare, recovery support, transportation, and other services that promote long-term stability. These partnerships expand the resources available to women and gender expansive people while allowing Benevolence Farm to remain focused on the holistic support that defines our model.