Social Work in Farming – Teaching material about client groups and their involvement in social farming Erasmus Project

Project Title

Social Work in Farming – Teaching material about client groups and their involvement in social farming

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Pedagogy and didactics; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

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)

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 415447 Eur

Project Coordinator

Thüringer Ökoherz e.V. & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Jabok – Vyssi odborna skola socialne pedagogicka a teologicka
• JIHOCESKA UNIVERZITA V CESKYCH BUDEJOVICICH
• Federatie Landbouw en Zorg Nederland
• HOCHSCHULE NEUBRANDENBURG
• Leitrim Integrated Development Company Company Limited by Guarantee
• STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCH