A social farm can be defined as ‘a typical working farm where people in need of support can benefit from participation in the farm’s activities in a non-clinical environment. It also creates the opportunity to reconnect farmers with their local communities through the opening up of their farms as part of the social support system of the community” (Ru- ral Support, no date). The focus is not on agricultural production during the sessions for service users, but rather on the needs of participants. Varying from therapeutic, care, educational or vocational. It is essential for the farmers to effectively engage with participants and lead them through the activities at their own pace (Johnston, 2016). In oth- er words, the focus is on person-centred outcomes (Di Iacovo and O’Connor, 2009). In Ireland, there is a tendency for social farming to operate around a small number of participants per family farm, in many instances just one or two.

The establishment of support organisations and networks for care farming leads to increases in the number of care farmers. More broadly, support organisations help to stimulate government interest, connect the agricultural and healthcare sectors to increase mutual understanding, and promote, legitimise and professionalise care farming. Kerry Social Farming is an excellent example of a support organisation, which promotes a voluntary model of social farming, and its volunteer ethos is a core value.

Kerry Social Farming operates under the aegis of South Kerry Development Partnership (SKDP), a local development company. The Partnership has almost 30 years’ experience in rural development, and has deep-rooted networks and credibility with agencies and with local citizens. Specifically, SKDP has been working with the farming community over many years, and farmers have always been directly represented on its Board of Directors. In 2016 and 2017, Kerry Social Farming secured funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine through the CEDRA Fund to pilot a Social Farming Project in Kerry with national benefits. Through that funding, a full-time social farming fa- cilitator was hired to enhance the delivery, development and expansion of the project. Kerry Social Farming has also benefited from the government funded Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP).

Kerry Social Farming is governed through a working group and it is chaired by a representative of SKDP. It also in- cludes representatives of civil society organisations with experience of, and a vested interest in, supporting and empowering people with special needs; and farmers. The working group also includes representatives of support services, whose clients / participants are offered placements on the farms. In addition, a number of participants (farmers and individuals with intellectual disability / acquired brain injury) are also represented on the working group and can share their experiences and offer recommendations with respect to the implementation and delivery of social farming in Co. Kerry.

Farms in South Kerry and parts of North Kerry are more mixed and extensive, and are smaller in scale than is the case nationally. Pluriactivity is more prevalent. As a result, some farmers have greater capacity to devote time to mentoring social farming participants. Across the 14 social farm enterprises, no two farms are the same. There are suckler cows, sheep, dairy cows, fowl or pigs, and one also includes goats, horses and a donkey. Dogs and cats are common on the farms. Two enterprises are organic and a third is pesticide- and chemical-free. All farms include livestock apart from one that specialises in market gardening. One farm has forestry. Farm sizes range from less than 0.3ha (1 acre) with intensive horticultural production up to 45ha (111 acres) of extensive hill farming; land resources vary from wide to limited uses.

When a participant first attends a social farm, they are accompanied by a support worker from one of the service providers (agencies which support persons with an intellectual disability / acquired brain injury). Support workers are also known as job coaches and these care professionals work alongside the participant and the farmer, helping the participant to settle into their new environment and learning experience. Support workers provide advice to the farmers in how to communicate and work with people with a range of abilities and communication styles. While most participants go on to attend their social farm without the assistance of a support worker, a number of service users with higher levels of need require a job coach on a continuous basis. One of the unique features of Kerry Social Farming is that farmers are not paid for the time that they spend with social farming participants. In this way, it is classified as a voluntary model of social farming. The KSF model emerged out of its founding principles of equality, social inclusion, voluntary community development and collaboration. The KSF ethos is to support people with dis- abilities to achieve full and meaningful lives of their choosing within their own local communities. Similarly, partici- pants are not paid for their time on the farm. Thus, the focus of the initiative is to develop genuine relationships and promote social inclusion in ways that are not underpinned by any form of payment for services rendered by either the host farmer and their families or the social farming participant.

According to Crowley et al (2017), the key strengths associated with Kerry Social Farming approach include:

1. Person-centredness

2. Positive and targeted intervention

3. Realisation of farm family social capital

4. Partnership approach and collaboration

5. Innovation and potential to mainstream

6. Community integration

7. Social inclusion.

Furthermore, the facilitator for Kerry Social Farming has stated that the initiative has had positive benefits for both the participants and farmers:

‘’Participant: enhanced social inclusion in rural community via voluntary effort of farmers, also enhanced wellbeing and opportunity for new skills and training.

Farmer: enhanced social inclusion and community participation; opportunities for new skills training and knowledge transfer; excellent health and safety initiative on farm’.

Kerry Social farming offers benefits to the host farmers involved in the voluntary model of social farming. It gives host farmers the opportunity to deliver alternative services and new types of activities on their farms. For instance, Johnston (2016: 4) emphasised that “although Social Farming should provide benefits for the facilitators, it is pri- marily an altruistic venture, which is often a lifeline for the vulnerable adults who avail of their services.”