Kerry Social Farming Project – Helping the community
THE Kerry Social Farming Project is a success story that continues to exceed all expectations as it goes from strength to strength.
Established in 2013, the project has seen a steady rise in host farms which encourages activation and participation for people with disabilities as they work in a farming environment.
Social farming, and the Kerry Social Farming Project is no exception, has proven benefits for participants in terms of social inclusion, well-being, learning important life skills and improving confidence. The farmers too praise the benefit of social farming in that it helps them feel part of the community, tackles social isolation for farmers, and improved health and safety on the farm.
With an ever growing number of people who are interested in availing of social farming opportunities in the county, the Kerry Social Farming Project is constantly looking for host farms which, between established and newly signed up farms, now stands at 18 located in the north and south of the county, supporting over 30 people with disabilities (participants). In 2018 alone the project set up a further eight host farms in the county.
Kerry Social Farming operates as a voluntary model, whereby farmers offer their time on a voluntary basis to enable, typically one to two participants, attend their farm once a week for a few hours. In return the farmers and farm fully are fully supported to help get set up, particularly in relation to health and safety improvements on the farm, coordinated by the Kerry Social Farming Facilitator, who also provides ongoing support for farmers.
Kerry Social Farming operates as a shared service model, with our partners stemming from community, voluntary, farming, statutory, and non-statutory agencies. Partners include local service providers such as St John of God Kerry Services, Kerry Parents & Friends Association, Enable Ireland and groups such as Cunamh Iveragh and Down Syndrome Kerry.
These agencies and groups work very closely with Kerry Social Farming and local development companies SKDP and NEWKD to create a very cohesive, collaborative and community based approach to supporting people in the community. Support workers from the agencies also can provide on-site support to farmers and participants where required.
Given the rural nature of the project, transport is vital and this presents a great opportunity for people who want to get involved and who may feel they have something to offer. Kerry Social Farming works closely with Local Link Kerry to develop a social car, consisting of volunteer drivers (be it the host farmers themselves or a different community volunteer) assist with transporting participants to and from the farm. In turn volunteer drivers are reimbursed for their fuel and compensated for any additional cost to their insurance.