FARMABILITY 

The funding will support 54 learning disabled and autistic adults in Oxfordshire to become co-farmers at working farms. The project aims to develop skills reduce loneliness and improve health.

The Garden Programme Leader plans and leads gardening activities each day for groups of co-farmers (people with learning disabilities, many also with autism) through the seasons of the year in ....more

The Garden Programme Leader plans and leads gardening activities each day for groups of co-farmers (people with learning disabilities, many also with autism) through the seasons of the year in gardens and orchards. FarmAbility offers a total of 60 session per week – or just under 3,000 per year. Our most treasured garden is at FAI Farm, Wytham. It is a garden that has been established for many years, as until recently FAI Farm was the full-time, permanent location for FarmAbility. Since the beginning of 2021 however, we have moved our base from the farm and now operate on an outreach basis. However, we still run FarmAbility from FAI on Monday and Wednesday every week, so this garden is very important to us and the co-farmers. In this garden we mainly grow food. Activities include planning, planting seeds, potting up seedlings, watering, weeding, looking after plants, harvesting, tidying, digging in manure, making compost, maintaining paths and raised beds, pruning orchard trees and soft fruit bushes. Due to the age of the garden, and some neglect during the lockdowns of 2020/21, it is now very much in need of a makeover, to make it safe and effective for co-farmers. We will be rebuilding the raised beds which are severely dilapidated; mending paths; renewing the polytunnel cover; adding more potting benches and undertaking some redesign to ensure that areas are accessible to those with less mobility. The funding will contribute to both the cost of materials; plants, seeds and compost; the salary of FarmAbility’s Garden Programme Leader and a supporting Programme Leader. Materials will include timber, preservative, bolts and lining for building new raised beds and polytunnel covering.

The funding will be used to recruit a new Programme Leader to increase opportunities for adults with learning disabilities to participate in farming activities. The project aims to provide access to ....more

The funding will be used to recruit a new Programme Leader to increase opportunities for adults with learning disabilities to participate in farming activities. The project aims to provide access to meaningful outdoor activities that will improve physical and emotional wellbeing of all participants.

Grant to Farm Ability

The project aims to deliver outdoor activities for people with learning difficulties. Funding for the group will enable them to resume its pre-COVID activities that also included older people with ....more

The project aims to deliver outdoor activities for people with learning difficulties. Funding for the group will enable them to resume its pre-COVID activities that also included older people with dementia and school students with learning disabilities and autism.

The Garden Programme Leader plans and leads gardening activities each day for groups of co-farmers (people with learning disabilities, many also with autism) through the seasons of the year in ....more

The Garden Programme Leader plans and leads gardening activities each day for groups of co-farmers (people with learning disabilities, many also with autism) through the seasons of the year in gardens and orchards.

The Garden Programme Leader plans and leads gardening activities each day for groups of co-farmers (people with learning disabilities, often also with autism) throughout the year in our two gardens ....more

The Garden Programme Leader plans and leads gardening activities each day for groups of co-farmers (people with learning disabilities, often also with autism) throughout the year in our two gardens and two orchards. FarmAbility provides 40 co-farmer garden sessions each week, each lasting around 1.5 hours, which represents 2,000 garden sessions and 3,000 hours of gardening each year. Activities follow the growing seasons and include planning the gardens, planting seeds, potting up seedlings, watering, weeding, looking after plants, harvesting, tidying the garden, digging in manure, making compost, maintaining the paths and raised beds, pruning the orchard trees and soft fruit bushes. In order to provide more varied activities partly in the winter (pruning and maintaining fruit bushes), and partly in the summer (picking and weighing soft fruit for sale), we plan to extend the range of soft fruit we grow and hope to be able to sell the excess to the local Veg Box scheme run by Cultivate, with whom we already have a partnership. The funding we request will contribute to the annual salary of FarmAbility’s Garden Programme Leader who plans and delivers leads gardening activities with co-farmers and manages the gardens and orchards. We also need funding to buy seeds for our annual growing programme which provides vegetables for daily co-farmer lunches, and gardening material such as chicken wire to create a fruit cage enabling us to grow soft fruit to extend our range of fruit growing. We also want to buy some soft fruit bushes, for example thorn-free gooseberries, red currants and loganberries. Periodically we need to replace or buy new gardening equipment (gloves, trowels, shovels), although we source as much as we can second-hand or through donations.

The organisation will support co-farmers with disabilities, and people those who care for them with the skills and awareness of self-advocacy to improve their communication skills. This will give ....more

The organisation will support co-farmers with disabilities, and people those who care for them with the skills and awareness of self-advocacy to improve their communication skills. This will give them a voice and improve relationships within their work and personal life.

We want to increase access to regular meaningful occupations (paid work, positions that will lead to paid work, volunteering or traineeships) for people with learning disabilities and autism.

FarmAbility: Doing, Belonging, Becoming

FarmAbility runs an outdoor, practical and learning programme on a working farm delivering health and quality of life outcomes, for adults (+16) with autism and learning disabilities