SoFarTEAM-project (Social Work in Farming)

The number of social farms is increasing in Europe. This is also the case in the Netherlands, where there are already 1,350 social farms offering meaningful day care or sheltered work to more than 40,000 participants a year. Social farms are farms that open their location to people with disabilities or who are temporarily out of regular employment. These target groups include people with learning difficulties, people with a mental-ill health or elderly with dementia.

Social farms bring different sectors together and are innovative. Because this is a relatively new field, the corresponding knowledge is hardly reflected in educational or training material.

Various outputs have been developed in the SoFarTEAM project. First of all, research was conducted into which elements on the farm are important for different target groups. The effects of working on social farms for different target groups were also examined. These results are presented in the first output. In addition, the results of this output and other research have been incorporated into a textbook for education. In this textbook, students can get an overview of the developments in the social farming sector, which theories explain how care farms work, which qualities and effects social farms have on participants, and in addition, chapters are dedicated to specific target groups. These describe what the characteristics of these target groups are, what elements on the farm are important for them and what aspects you should think about as a farmer or social worker when working with this target group on the farm. Finally, short brochures have been written about each target group, giving farmers and social workers an introduction to working with this target group on a farm.