In February 2020 I was lucky enough to be awarded one of the 2020 Churchill Fellowships but the journey to this fellowship began much earlier back in March 2018.
My background is in teaching, special education, policy and research and I'd been working with a young person at risk of exclusion from school. The only thing they were interested in was animals and after asking around I found a care farm near by and arranged a visit.
I was immediately hooked by the idea that vulnerable young people could learn new skills in an outdoor environment with a supportive mentor and decided to research the topic in more depth. Fast forward fifteen months and over 150 academic books and articles later and I found myself asking 'why don't more farmers set up care farms?'
Around this time I saw that the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust in partnership with The Prince's Countryside Fund was offering research fellowships in rural living so I applied to research 'care farming and the benefits for farmers and the rural community'.
This blog will follow my journey as I meet farmers and academics in Italy, Ireland and Norway and look at the local green care projects keeping me busy during Covid.
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