Oxfordshire charity FarmAbility has opened new headquarters on the Blenheim Estate in Woodstock to provide skills and practical work experience for people with learning disabilities and autism.
It will enable FarmAbility’s helpers, known as co-farmers, to work on projects across the estate ranging from livestock management, tree planting and gardening to painting, woodworking and fencing.
Oxfordshire charity FarmAbility runs a farm-based programme for adults with learning disabilities, based in Wytham.
FarmAbility Director, Sarah Giles, says she believes the link with the Blenheim Estate helped the charity to survive lockdown: “Quite simply, Blenheim saved our Covid bacon! By welcoming us two days a week both to Park Farm and the Pleasure Gardens, Blenheim has enabled us to restart FarmAbility, despite social distancing restrictions,” she says.
As part of the partnership, co-farmers will also look after their own vegetable bed and a safe area in one of Blenheim’s glasshouses for potting up and winter gardening activities.
“It is critical it is for people to have good and regular access to outdoor spaces for health and well-being, and even better if they have active and purposeful activities in those spaces. This is particularly important for people with learning disabilities who face systemic challenges to enjoying an outdoor, active life,” Sarah added.
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“Covid-19 and the period of lockdown has only highlighted this,” she explained.
Blenheim Estate’s Roy Cox says: “The co-farmers have such a positive impact on life at Blenheim and we are delighted to provide a permanent base for them, and hopefully others in future years here.
“Our relationship with FarmAbility has benefitted so many co-farmers already, and for every £1 invested into the programme, £4 of social return is generated,” he explained.
FarmAbility is one of a series of community-based charitable programmes supported by Blenheim Estate. As part of its ground-breaking land strategy, the Estate is also committed to sharing its land with a wider audience to promote the benefits both of exercise and interacting with the countryside for mental and physical wellbeing.
“The relationship between the FarmAbility team and co-farmers and the various Blenheim Estate teams is fundamental to what we’re working to achieve as an organisation – an inclusive and accepting environment where people with learning disabilities have a purposeful and engaging outdoor occupation, and where all that they can contribute to and enrich is recognised and valued,” Sarah agrees.
