Churchill Fellowship Destinations - Introducing Israel, Italy and the USA

Following on from my last blog, I would now like to introduce my three final destination countries - Israel, Italy and the USA.

In Israel, where care farming is a very new concept having only been introduced in 2020, I discovered how quickly it is possible to introduce relevant legalisation and how discussions are currently taking place with the government to fund and accredit two new care farms that were established that year.

In Italy, I learnt about the importance of community food growing post World War 2 as people struggled to feed themselves, and how that has become part of the culture in many Italian communities. I looked at the fundamentals behind care farming in the country and how social horticulture is being added to care farms to encourage members of the local community to get involved.

Finally, in the USA I was fascinated to hear from the Director of a care farm which focused on supporting those who have suffered bereavement including traumatic bereavement and how these clients travel from across the globe to access this service. I spoke with an established residential therapeutic care farm and a residential therapeutic school with care farm and discovered the differences between how they approach the use of animals, as either livestock or companion animals through animal assisted interventions and therapy. I also learnt about a group of newly established care farms in the community in Montana, and the academics from the University of Texas and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University that supported their creation.

In my next blog I will look at the current context within the UK.

Photograph reproduced with kind permission of Hopewell USA