Social farming (SF) is a way of inclusion within a green environment. Social farmers are farmers that open their farms for vulnerable people. Depending on the client group (CG) social farms can offer work places where people can find a useful day-activity, work rehabilitation and training or place to be in a pleasant green environment. Therefore “Social Farming is an innovative approach that brings together two concepts: multipurpose farming and social services/health care at local level. It makes a contribution in the ambit of agricultural production to the well-being and the social integration of people with particular needs.” (EESC 2012) The way SF is implemented depends mainly on the CG. For instance, older people with dementia will generally be coming to the farm to have a pleasant day activity and the goals may include an improved sense of well-being and quality of life. Meanwhile young people with behavioral problems are possibly looking for possibilities to learn new skills and for experience of being in a pro-social and nurturing environment. People with mental health difficulties or intellectual disabilities might either look for possibilities of doing a meaningful job or alternative forms of therapy available within the farm environment. A refugee might look for work experience and a paid job that he/she is able to do, even if there is a language barrier. Consequently, best practice in including and supporting people in SF varies strongly depending on the CG. SF also brings together disciplines and professions that normally have little in common: agriculture, horticulture, forestry on one side, social work and pedagogy on the other side. This project considers higher education (HE) as a tool for improving SF and thereby empowering rural areas and including people with special needs all over Europe. While a growing number of the HE Institutions throughout Europe have discovered SF as a concept and a valuable initiative, no teaching material about CG specific knowledge in SF is currently available. This project wants to fill this gap and aims to further develop and deepen HE about SF by focusing on CGs, their needs and the way of knowledge transfer to future social farmers. What are the needs of CGs like the elderly, refugees, youth with special needs, people suffering from addiction and other mental health issues, offenders or a person with an intellectual disability? How can a farm and farming activities be helpful in meeting various needs? What do farmers, social workers/pedagogues, case managers and other stakeholders need to pay attention to? How can farmers use the farm environment in the optimal way to stimulate the development of CGs? To answer these questions and to implement them into teaching material for HE, is the core mission of this project. To realize this task, interviews with representatives of all CGs will be conducted. From within the countries involved, key services will be asked to contribute with their knowledge and experience, including: services who work with people with intellectual disabilities or with mental health difficulties; youth services; associations of senior citizens or services working with older people; other relevant social service providers; and experienced social farmers. In addition to this, members of the consortium will undertake participatory observation at social farms. Therefore, the development of teaching material will be based on practical experience from working on the farm together with the farmer and people with special needs. The teaching material will give an overview on the most important CGs in SF and describe how SF can support each group in a more nuanced and targeted way than has been available heretofore. Methods of social work and social pedagogy will be further developed to methods usable in farming. Vice versa farming activities will be transferred to client appropriate activities. In addition, this project wants to go one step further by “translating” this academic material into a simpler handbook and online tool for farmers who would like to make their farm a place of inclusion or for social workers who are looking for ways of using farming as a tool of social work or pedagogy. These materials will not use academic language, but will instead use everyday language and provide short and easy to use guides which can act as an ongoing and accessible resource for practitioners - farmers and social workers. A mixed partnership is the recipe for connecting higher education with consultation of practitioners. In this project, HE institutions (coming either from the field of agriculture or social work) and SF associations (that take a stand for SF as well as the demands of farmers and people with special needs) have teamed up: Thüringer Ökoherz e.V., coordinator (DE) University of Applied Science Neubrandenburg (DE) University of South Bohemia (CZ) Jabok Academy (CZ) Social Farming Ireland (IE) Dutch Federation of Care Farmers (NL)
In social farming, farming is seen as a tool for including, supporting groups like youth, refugees, and people with mental or physical diseases. Depending on the model, it is designed in a way that farming is not only supporting people with disabilities or disadvantaged people but also vice versa, the people with disabilities do support the farm by being helpful hands. Based on this idea, the project aimed at the following outcome: - Improvement of the quality of social farming in Europe, esp. the well-being of the social farming client/target groups - Improvement of the socio-pedagogical teaching/learning in the field of social farming - Empowering the rural areas by increasing the quality and quantity of social farming all over Europe It was an important goal of the project to produce material that could be directly used by the partners involved. It was also intended that HEIs and other organizations involved in social farming education, beyond the project, could benefit from the project results. The project also aimed at raising further awareness of social farming and its potential for rural areas. The academic world, but also policymakers, shall learn about the potential of farming to support people with disabilities.
There is a high demand for scientific research as well as educational innovations supporting social farming. In general, there were no existing teaching materials dedicated to social work in farming, and not at all in countries where social farming is rather a new topic. Before the SoFarTEAM project, there were no existing materials including the educational contents focused on the work with specific target groups in day activities considering a specific farm environment. Only a few educational institutions in Europe already offer social farming courses. Nevertheless, they strive to deepen and enhance their range of studies. At the same time, the number of potential clients/people with disabilities/disadvantaged people, which can profit from social farming is still growing. Also, the diversity of the target groups is increasing. Besides typical client groups, there are relatively new groups (e.g. migrants, refugees, people with burn-out syndrome and other civilization diseases, seniors) of which inclusion can be significantly improved through social farming. Comprehensive studies (realized within the project) were needed to develop teaching materials focused on various target groups, their needs and feasible farm activities.