Ypsi organization creates calming mobile environment for people with special needs

The Ypsilanti-based nonprofit Feed the Need Sensory Zone recently launched Michigan's first and only sensory trailer, a mobile retreat designed to create a calm environment for people with special needs. Additionally, a new partnership has led Feed the Need to co-create the Sensory Den, a fully customizable space that provides much-needed support for individuals with sensory needs in churches, classrooms, and community centers.

"We appreciate larger organizations putting sensory rooms in these large spaces like stadiums, but we’re thinking about where people go every day," says Feed the Need founder Tiana Haygood. "When there are more spaces that feel accessible, there’s more community engagement and people feeling able to embrace their communities."

The idea for the sensory trailer came from another Feed the Need goal – a mobile sensory room built from a decommissioned school bus – but a trailer was a more sustainable option that Haygood and the Feed the Need team could create sooner. The six-foot-by-10-foot trailer is fitted with lights, comfortable seating, and a variety of sensory and fidget toys. Feed the Need has taken it to playgrounds and events at churches and schools to provide a sensory experience and a sense of security and community for neurodivergent individuals.

"The idea for a sensory trailer exists, but it doesn’t exist in this area, so we wanted to raise awareness," Haygood says. "We’re trying to get back outside and into the community after Covid, and it makes people feel more confident knowing that there's accommodations for them if they need it."

Feed the Need has also partnered with a Southfield organization called Audapt to introduce the Sensory Den, a customizable space similar to the trailer, which can be a permanent installation in a school, church, or community center. Haygood explains that sensory room consultation, design, and construction is often very expensive and not accessible to most people, so this partnership has allowed Feed the Need to provide these services at cost. She says Feed the Need is currently developing a mobile sensory den to bring to events and raise more awareness on the affordability of such accommodations. 

Feed the Need Sensory ZoneThe Sensory Den.
"We have some big goals," Haygood says. "We’ll go wherever is needed, and as we build the team, the more places we can go."

Haygood, an Ypsi resident, wants to ensure that Feed The Need stays rooted in Washtenaw County even as it expands and takes its services outside the county. She says her goal for the organization is to not only craft sensory-friendly spaces for others at low or no cost, but to provide the tools and knowledge for others to build sensory spaces that best meet their needs. 

"We’re not gatekeeping. We don’t have any secrets. We’re trying to build community," Haygood says. "We want to provide these accommodations so everyone can feel like they belong somewhere."

To learn more about Feed the Need Sensory Zone, visit its website. More information about upcoming events and where to find the Sensory Trailer next is available here. 

"We want Feed the Need to last and make an impact," Haygood says. "But we want it to make the type of impact that shows we’re here for the Ypsi community and we always will be."

Rylee Barnsdale is a Michigan native and longtime Washtenaw County resident. She wants to use her journalistic experience from her time at Eastern Michigan University writing for the Eastern Echo to tell the stories of Washtenaw County residents that need to be heard.

Sensory trailer and sensory den photos courtesy of Feed the Need Sensory Zone. Tiana Haygood photo by Doug Coombe.