Social Farming Offaly Open Day a great success

Social Farming Ireland held an open day on Catherine Molloy's Rathure Farm near Birr, on June 29 last.

Social Farmer Catherine and her husband Brian Dooley welcomed in excess of 80 people to their farm on the day; a mix of family and friends, social farming participants, other social farmers, potential social farmers, service staff and users, as well as staff from Offaly County Council, Offaly Local Development & the HSE.

Social Farming is “the practice of offering activity on family farms as a form of social support service.” There are currently four social farms in Offaly, and the social farming participants who avail of their services range from people experiencing mental health difficulties, people with disabilities (intellectual, physical, and sensory), young people in the care system, refugees and asylum seekers, people availing of drug/alcohol rehabilitation services, people with dementia, elder care sector and those in the justice system.

Catherine Molloy has been involved in Social Farming for a number of years now and has hosted participants from a number of Intellectual Disability services and young people under the care of Tusla. Catherine has said that she finds the Social Farming experience truly rewarding, and the participants have loved their time on her farm too.

The Open Day kicked off with tea, coffee and home-made baked goods. Catherine then spoke about the many benefits of Social Farming, putting particular emphasis on the opportunity it gives people to develop new social networks. She then led the group on a farm walk to see what is offered to participants. As well as the usual farm maintenance activities, there is the care of Catherine’s pedigree Hereford cattle and tending to the vegetables.

Social Farming participant Dessie, who attends St Cronan’s, had no hesitation recommending Social Farming and spoke about all the activities he enjoyed on Catherine’s farm; feeding the cattle, cooking, and even weeding!

Enda, from St Anne’s, and his support worker Paula spoke about how Enda had really enjoyed a tour of the mill at Grennan’s Agricultural Store. Paula spoke of the difference Social Farming has made to their service-users. She noted the particular value of the routine and of the everyday physical activity which farming involves. Paula notes that this aspect of social farming, of having something to talk about, to look forward, to plan for, is really important. She also spoke about one former participant who staff in the service noticed really “came out of himself” as a result of engaging in Social Farming.

Over almost a decade of experience, Social Farming Ireland have gathered a wealth of evidence on the benefits of Social Farming, echoed again on the Open Day on Catherine’s farm. A big part of the day is just sitting down and having a cup of tea and a chat with new people. That social connection is hugely important and it gives people taking part an opportunity to make new friends and to expand their social circle. At the same time, the mental health benefits include confidence building and growth in self-esteem. There are lots of different activities you can do on a farm so these visits are engaging and also, very importantly, a lot of fun.

Farming is a very physical job, but that physical activity has many other benefits such as improved sleep patterns, reduced anxiety or improved fitness by getting exercise that is not labelled as exercise. Knowledge and skills are gained or renewed as people have the opportunity to learn about where our food comes from, about the environment and nature and about how a farm works. They gain or improve their skills in any one of the many tasks that typically happen on farms, in areas as diverse as animal husbandry, gardening, maintenance work, working with wood, preparing meals or cooking in the farm kitchen.

These assets of both the farms and the farmers are present in every corner of Ireland and with training, development and support, many farmers can offer a really valuable experience to people on their ordinary farm. Social Farming Ireland would love to hear from any farmers interested in getting involved. For more information go to socialfarmingireland.ie where you can complete a registration of your interest as a farmer or request information as a participant or someone supporting a possible participant. Or simply call the Social Farming Ireland National Office at Leitrim Development Co. in Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim on (071) 9641772 to find out more.