Care Farming visits
Central to our environmental projects is our work with the whole range of care-farming participants – adults with learning disabilities and autism, teenagers excluded from schools, young people and adults with mental health issues, children in special schools. Long Mead is a small, intimate and safe space with an unusually varied range of habitats but without the dangers of large animals, farm machinery or cars. We offer an array of different sensory experiences to be had and gentle activities that can be tailored to individual needs and capacities.
By including our care-farming participants in ground-breaking environmental projects, we hope to play a role in bringing them back into the centre of the community. We have already shown that they can play a valuable role in the Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project by collecting wildflower and tree seeds from Long Mead Local Wildlife Site and sowing them, potting them on and tending them until they are planted out on restoration sites alongside our environmental volunteers. The nature of this work is such that our care-farming participants can work as equals with our environmental volunteers, creating new plants for restoring meadows just as successfully as the volunteers. We also work with them on meadow restoration sites with environmental volunteers, helping the landowners with weed maintenance. In these situations, our care-farming participants work alongside our environmental volunteers who are also learning skills for the first time.
The importance of this work, is not simply that the care-farming participants can make new social relationships in the community but that the conventional relationship of ‘carer’ and ‘cared for’ which dominates their lives is removed. Working along side other volunteers as equals doing the same job and learning the same skills has a hugely beneficial effect on their confidence and self-esteem.
Now, we are also planning to explore how, working alongside our environmental volunteers, they can play an important role in helping other vulnerable people in the local community through the Nature Recovery Network. This will include helping elderly members of the network manage their gardens, engaging with elderly people on Long Mead and other protected outdoor sites in the community.
The project is a unique combination of two ground-breaking initiatives that will generate significant benefit, both for the natural environment and for the well-being of people with a wide range of therapeutic needs. The project is a new model of care-farming where, for the first time, the practice and involvement of the care-farming participants takes place in the heart of the community.
Our vision is to foster more collaborative initiatives across a sector which is still relatively disconnected, despite the growing interest in outdoor therapeutic programmes. It creates a model that can be replicated by similar social/nature based projects.
Recommendations for Long Mead’s Care-Farming Programme
“It was great to see one of your Care Farming visits in action; they were obviously gaining great enjoyment and benefit from being out in the natural environment and fresh air. So another big well done for everything you do in this regard.” Anne Cotton, Natural England - Oxfordshire Team, 21 May, 2018
“For the past 5 years, we have been taking groups of co-farmers to Long Mead Local Wildlife Site where they’ve engaged in a rich range of traditional rural and conservation activities, depending on the season. Catriona has a wealth of knowledge and understanding of practical conservation that she is able to share with co-farmers in an accessible and engaging way.” Sarah Giles, Director, FarmAbility, 1st April 2019
“The New Art Studio is a therapeutic art studio for asylum seekers and refugees (www.newartstudio.org.uk). We are lucky to have spent five glorious visits on Long Mead hosted, over a period of seven years. All members of the New Art Studio are asylum seekers and refugees. We have embarked on various activities from making charcoal from willow branches, to taking little canoes out for mini trips on the river. Being in nature has a profound effect on everybody’s emotional spiritual and mental well being and this group needs and appreciates the experience more than most.” Tania Kaczynski. (co-founder of The New Art Studio). August 2018
“Bridewell Gardens, a local charity for those suffering from a range of mental health issues, have visited Long Mead on several occasions. As a charity sourcing local authority health funding and a "Recovery Service", it is one of our aims to introduce our clients to new experiences and local contact. Clients, staff and volunteers have enjoyed Long Mead's unique setting, flora and fauna. Such a joy to find an unspoilt river meadow not radically changed by modern farming. We have taken part in some basic environmental checks, hay raking and bird surveys. However, it is just as refreshing to hear Catriona's enthusiasm for the place and share some of that whilst there.” Ian Gourlay, Horticultural Therapeutic Practitioner. Bridewell Gardens, Mental Health Recovery, 26 August 2018
“Mabel Prichard Special School has visited Long Mead on several occasions since 2018. The visits have been most useful - the environment is so therapeutic and provides a rich variety of learning opportunities. Our most recent visit focused on looking after and caring for plants which involved our students undertaking a range of practical tasks. The opportunity to visit contrasting environments, mix with different adults and develop their vocational skills is so beneficial.” Kevin Larsen B. Ed, M.A. Mabel Prichard School, 10 May 2019.
By including our care-farming participants in ground-breaking environmental projects, we hope to play a role in bringing them back into the centre of the community. We have already shown that they can play a valuable role in the Thames Valley Wildflower Meadow Restoration Project by collecting wildflower and tree seeds from Long Mead Local Wildlife Site and sowing them, potting them on and tending them until they are planted out on restoration sites alongside our environmental volunteers. The nature of this work is such that our care-farming participants can work as equals with our environmental volunteers, creating new plants for restoring meadows just as successfully as the volunteers. We also work with them on meadow restoration sites with environmental volunteers, helping the landowners with weed maintenance. In these situations, our care-farming participants work alongside our environmental volunteers who are also learning skills for the first time.
The importance of this work, is not simply that the care-farming participants can make new social relationships in the community but that the conventional relationship of ‘carer’ and ‘cared for’ which dominates their lives is removed. Working along side other volunteers as equals doing the same job and learning the same skills has a hugely beneficial effect on their confidence and self-esteem.
Now, we are also planning to explore how, working alongside our environmental volunteers, they can play an important role in helping other vulnerable people in the local community through the Nature Recovery Network. This will include helping elderly members of the network manage their gardens, engaging with elderly people on Long Mead and other protected outdoor sites in the community.
The project is a unique combination of two ground-breaking initiatives that will generate significant benefit, both for the natural environment and for the well-being of people with a wide range of therapeutic needs. The project is a new model of care-farming where, for the first time, the practice and involvement of the care-farming participants takes place in the heart of the community.
Our vision is to foster more collaborative initiatives across a sector which is still relatively disconnected, despite the growing interest in outdoor therapeutic programmes. It creates a model that can be replicated by similar social/nature based projects.
Recommendations for Long Mead’s Care-Farming Programme
“It was great to see one of your Care Farming visits in action; they were obviously gaining great enjoyment and benefit from being out in the natural environment and fresh air. So another big well done for everything you do in this regard.” Anne Cotton, Natural England - Oxfordshire Team, 21 May, 2018
“For the past 5 years, we have been taking groups of co-farmers to Long Mead Local Wildlife Site where they’ve engaged in a rich range of traditional rural and conservation activities, depending on the season. Catriona has a wealth of knowledge and understanding of practical conservation that she is able to share with co-farmers in an accessible and engaging way.” Sarah Giles, Director, FarmAbility, 1st April 2019
“The New Art Studio is a therapeutic art studio for asylum seekers and refugees (www.newartstudio.org.uk). We are lucky to have spent five glorious visits on Long Mead hosted, over a period of seven years. All members of the New Art Studio are asylum seekers and refugees. We have embarked on various activities from making charcoal from willow branches, to taking little canoes out for mini trips on the river. Being in nature has a profound effect on everybody’s emotional spiritual and mental well being and this group needs and appreciates the experience more than most.” Tania Kaczynski. (co-founder of The New Art Studio). August 2018
“Bridewell Gardens, a local charity for those suffering from a range of mental health issues, have visited Long Mead on several occasions. As a charity sourcing local authority health funding and a "Recovery Service", it is one of our aims to introduce our clients to new experiences and local contact. Clients, staff and volunteers have enjoyed Long Mead's unique setting, flora and fauna. Such a joy to find an unspoilt river meadow not radically changed by modern farming. We have taken part in some basic environmental checks, hay raking and bird surveys. However, it is just as refreshing to hear Catriona's enthusiasm for the place and share some of that whilst there.” Ian Gourlay, Horticultural Therapeutic Practitioner. Bridewell Gardens, Mental Health Recovery, 26 August 2018
“Mabel Prichard Special School has visited Long Mead on several occasions since 2018. The visits have been most useful - the environment is so therapeutic and provides a rich variety of learning opportunities. Our most recent visit focused on looking after and caring for plants which involved our students undertaking a range of practical tasks. The opportunity to visit contrasting environments, mix with different adults and develop their vocational skills is so beneficial.” Kevin Larsen B. Ed, M.A. Mabel Prichard School, 10 May 2019.
