Section:GDN 1N PaGe:30 Edition Date:190807 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/8/2019 18:26 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
- The Guardian Wednesday 7 August 2019
30
SocietyCity farms
‘If I hadn’t come
here, I would
be in a jail cell’
Mattha BusbyC
ity and community
farms across the
country are being
threatened with closure
due to local authority
cuts and increased
competition for funding, leading
to reduced opening hours and
scaled back services. However, for
many troubled teenagers the farms
provide a vital lifeline.
“These places give kids an
opportunity in life,” says Ryan
Clements, an 18-year-old apprentice
at Greenmeadow community farm inCwmbran, south Wales. “If I hadn’t
come here then I’d probably be sat in
a jail cell somewhere. I would start
fi ghts with people at school for no
apparent reason.”
Clements was excluded from
school at the age of 15. While
evidently intelligent, he felt stifl ed
in classrooms – but he says working
on the farm has allowed him to
overcome his anger issues.
He is now studying for his second
animal care qualifi cation and would
like to be a sheep farmer on his own
farm. His colleagues attest to his
transformation from a “naughty,
obnoxious teenager” to a widely
respected man who leads activities.
“Bore da [good morning],”
Clements says enthusiastically to a
group of about 100 schoolchildren,
demonstrating how to milk a
cow. Two young people who have
recently been barred from school
help to muck out nearby, preparing
to potentially follow in Clement’s
footsteps.Despite the important work
it does, Greenmeadow is facing
a £200,000 subsidy cut – just
under a third of its budget – from
Torfaen county borough council,
which funds the farm. “Everybody
knows the value the farm has to
the community,” says a council
spokesman. “No one wants it to
close by any means. We’re not under
any illusions about the challenge
this service faces.”
The council’s budget has been
cut by £60m since 2010 and it has
to save an additional £25m before- It is encouraging the farm to
generate more income from the
resources it has, but acknowledges
that one of the farm’s main sources
of income, school courses, are no
longer in demand – due to education
funding reductions – and there are
no block bookings yet for next year.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” the council
spokesman concedes.
The Well-being of Future
Generations Act came into force
across Wales in 2016, putting the
onus on public organisations
to account for the impact their
decisions have on economic,
social, environmental and cultural
wellbeing in their area. However,
deep funding cuts have hampered
attempts to uphold those principles.
In nearby Swansea, the
community farm has had several
serious funding crises that forced it
to reduce staff and cut its opening
hours from up to six days a week to
just three. Kate Gibbs, its volunteer
and training manager, laments the
closure of the EU’s Communities
First programme in Wales last year ,
which paid for its cookery and
gardening training.
“The competition for funding has
intensifi ed, not because there are
more charities – it feels like there is
less money out there than before as
a result of austerity,” says Gibbs. “Yet
demand for our services is rising
because of the eff ects of austerity on
the most vulnerable people .”
A diverse group of volunteers- asylum seekers from Namibia to
Venezuela, people aged eight to 82,
with conditions including psychosis,
autism, PTSD, as well as long-term
unemployed people – help raise
animals, grow food, prepare meals
with local ingredients and run the
farm, which is visited by children
from a local pupil referral unit
once a week.
Strolling around the farm on the
outskirts of the Welsh coastal city –
leased from the local authority for a
peppercorn rent – piglets suck milk
from their mother, turkeys prowl
and goats charge across a fi eld.
Just like in Cwmbran, the farm is a
picture of serene, pastoral calm, and
there is a quiet buzz of contentment
and happiness around the place.
“I thought community was just
something that happened on TV or
in books until I came here,” Gibbs
says. “City farms are absolutely
essential. They empower vulnerable
people to get outside, change their
own lives and improve and manage
their health better.
“What we hear over and over
again is that it is the chance to give
back to their community, rather than
passively receiving treatment, which
has the biggest impact on confi dence
and self-esteem .”
A study by the charity Mind
suggests that the cost-benefi t of
people at risk of mental health
interventions volunteering on farms
far outweighs the investment in
their support.
There are some 200 city,
community and school farms
across the UK, helping thousands of
people. According to Social Farms &
Gardens , an umbrella organisation
for city and community farms, the
Welsh farms are not alone in feeling
the pinch. Two farms in Scotland
have been forced to close since
2010, while Balsall Heath city farm
in Birmingham – which sits in a
particularly deprived area – has been
forced to cut a number of services,
and other farms have had to scale
back what they off er to remain open.
In north London, staff at the
Kentish Town city farm had until
recently faced redundancies to
bridge a disputed budget defi cit
that would have seen a number of
services cut, following a reduction of
the local authority grant.
The city farm, which has been
operating for 47 years, off ers a host
of community services, from a pony
club for disadvantaged children
to supported volunteering for
adults with mental health issues,
to providing a place to work for
children excluded from school.
“Children go through phases of
anger and potentially getting into
the wrong crowd, but by looking
after animals at the farm they learn
to be responsible, and to respect
people’s methods and beliefs,” says
farm manager Melanie Roberts.
She warns against cutting places
for children to socialise, amid a rise
in violent knife crime in London.
“The farm changes them and puts
them on the right path when they
could steer off it,” she explains.
Following the Kentish Town
board of trustees standing down,
the staff are determined to keep the
farm going and plan to use more
volunteers to save money while
rebooting fundraising eff orts.
Fundraising might be the only
option, too, for the farm workers
in Cwmbran. But you can’t put a
price on the eff ect the farm has
on youngsters like Clements. He
says: “I’ll always be so thankful to
everyone here for helping me to
grow up and fi nd out what I actually
want to do in life.”▲ Ryan Clements, an 18-year-
old apprentice at Greenmeadow
community farm in south Wales
PHOTOGRAPH: NAME NAME/AGENCYCommunity facilities
that provide a lifeline
to many vulnerable
people are under threat‘They are absolutely
essential, and enable
people to get outside,
change their lives
and improve and
manage their health’Kate Gibbs
Swansea community farm200
The number of city, community and
school farms across the UK. Many
are facing cuts and closure£200k
The amount of council funding cut
from Greenmeadow farm
in Cwmbran, south WalesРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS