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PROFARM Scales-up all over Europe!

Three final events in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands for celebrating the closure of the PROFARM project.

After three years spent in researching, networking and experimenting, the International partners of the PROFARM project have celebrated the sucessful results achieved by organizing a national scale-up event in each partner country!

The kickstarters were the Dutch partners from Zone.college (fomer Groenewelle) and the Duth Foundation of Innovation Welfare to Work that have organized an event in Mastenbroek on the 18th of OctoberThe event started with a presentation from Henk and...

PROFARM eBook V.3

The Model for work-based learning of students with special needs in Social Farming

With the third and last volume of the PROFARM eBook we resent the evaluation results of the model or work-based learning of students with special needs in Social Farming. The volume has been realized in collaboration with Dr. Maco Ruffino, external evaluator, and it includes a very detailed assessment of the implemented experimentations, as well as the evaluation framework and the tools’ templates. 

 

PROFARM eBook V.2

The ‘PROFARM’ Social Network: strategic planning and social marketing

The second volume of the PROFARM eBook is focused on the establishment, management and operability of a network that involves all the relevant actors for the successful planning and implementation of work-based learning experiences in Social Farming. The eBook includes an updated overview on Social Farming in Europe, a focus on the PROFARM partner countries, guidelines and tools, as well as numerous multimedia contents to showcase the activities carried out during the project.

 

PROFARM eBook V.1

Methodological and technical framework for a social policy innovation model

In the first volume of the PROFARM eBook, we present the methodological and technical framework developed by the project partners for implementing a social policy innovation model focused on personal and professional empowerment in Social Farming. The eBook includes the reports produced thanks to the research activities implemented during the first year of the project and it integrates audio and video contents that facilitate and improve the reading experience.

 

Project Handout #9

Policy Recommendations

Here you will find 5 policy recommendations elaborated according to the main findings and results obtained with the experimentation of 30 cases (10 per Country).

Project Handout #8

Project results in the Netherlands

ProFarm has contributed to the improvement of good practices in the way that the amount of organizations that are aware of ProFarm, have increased. Although it’s still a challenge to improve this even more, especially on local, regional en national government levels.

The ProFarm project has contributed by developing an excellent matrix to select students for the ProFarm pilot. This matrix is very suitable to compare cases with the rubrics of the matrix. It paves the way at the start of...

Project Handout #7

Project results in Germany

The case management approach could fill the gap in the new law on inclusion by supporting both farmers as well as people with special needs on farms to optimize their working process. 

An important step was the implementation of guided internships during the project. Farmers and social workers became aware of the potential of the case management approach for the improvement of social work on farms in the future.

 

Project Handout #6

Project results in Italy

PROFARM has helped to raise awareness on the issue of Social Farming. The first steps were taken by activating a dense network of meetings in collaboration with the economic, social and institutional players of the territory (in total almost 100 stakeholders). When it started to run with youths, round tables were never missing. Thus the comparison on PROFARM has always remained alive.

In terms of programming and local political intervention, PROFARM has helped to make the public...

Workshop finale del progetto PROFARM

L’empowerment dell’individuo con disabilità in Agricoltura Sociale... resconto di tre anni di sperimentazione su tutto il territorio regionale!

A tre anni dall'avvio del progetto Erasmus+ KA3 "PROFARM - Rafforzamento del profilo personale e professionale in Agricotura Sociale", la Regione Umbria, capofila del partenariato internazionale, insieme al Centro Studi Città di Foligno, secondo attore della compagine italiana, hanno il piacere di presentare i risultati ottenuti grazie alle numerose sperimentazioni attivate su tutto il territorio regionale.

Il workshop è rivolto principalmente a tutti gli attori...

Project Handout #5

Professional and personal development plans

After 2 years of preparation, the experimental phase of the project started in April 2018. About 30 participants began their vocational training at our partner farms and gardens with a duration of 60 days. In this 5th handout we would like to present an overview on our partner farms as well as an inside look into who is attending the training. We would also like to highlight the different national systems based on which the vocational plans were created.

 

Project Handout #4

Conclusions of the meeting in Zwolle, the Netherlands

With the 4th thematic handout of the PROFARM project we would like to resume the main conclusions gathered from the 4th international PROFARM meeting together with the 2nd peer-review event which took place in Zwolle, the Netherlands from the 23rd to the 25th of April 2018.

  

SECOND INTERNATIONAL PEER-REVIEW EVENT FOR THE PROFARM PROJECT

30 peers from all over Europe gathered to discuss on the added value of the PROFARM project and to validate the project's deliverables

The fourth transnational meeting of the PROFARM project was held from the 23rd to the 25th of April in Zwolle (the Netherlands). The first day was dedicated to the internal partnership meeting of the project and was arranged at Groene Welle premises. Whereas, the following two days the 2nd international peer-review event took place and was attended by 30 experts from different European countries. The peer-review event was held at several premises, as many technical...

#PROFARMVIDEOCONTEST

Shoot a video on PROFARM and win a trip to Italy!

Starting from the 3rd of April 2018, a new amazing initiative for the promotion of social farming in Europe will be launched by the partner organisations of the PROFARM project. If you are between 16 and 30 years old and you live or work in Italy, Germany or the Netherlands, you will have the chance to show your talent in making digital videos and participate at a contest to attend the final international event of PROFARM in Italy next November 2018!  

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Project Handout #3

The identification of the cases with the PROFARM model

The 3rd thematic handout of the PROFARM-project is about the selection of cases to be used as pilots within the project. The following text describes how this identification of students has taken place in the three countries involved.

  

Dutch national network ProFarm

Recently Groene Welle has started the first ProFarm network in the Netherlands in ‘Het Vechtdal’, we have made contact with a lot of social farmers in that area. We invited a total of 10 social farmers for our first meeting in January 2017. We also invited care professionals, people from school and the local government. While building up the network, we have made use of the profession and knowledge of the cooperation Landbouw en Zorg Overijssel.

From that time on we have continued...

Transition from school to work for people with disabilities in Germany

based on a compilation by Sina-Sophie Stern, Anthropoi, extended by Gerhard Herz, Anthropoi and adapted by Lena Hüttmann, PETRARCA

The transition from school to the work environment represents an important step for all young people in their life. The German case shows a wide spectrum of measures for young people with different skills and disabilities. In fact, there are legal requirements for certain measures, depending on personal circumstances.
The transition school-occupation can be represented in four fields of action:
A)    Vocational Orientation,
B)    Career preparation,
...

Project Handout #2

Opportunities and obstacles for the PROFARM local networks

Welcome to the 2nd thematic handout of the PROFARM-project. In this second edition, we would like to give you inside information on how the local networks within the project have been created and in which way they contribute to the overall quality of the project. Nonetheless we won’t exclude the challenges and difficulties we faced while creating our networks and which provided us with relevant information on how and where we can evaluate and readjust in order to ensure the highest...

Project Handout #1

PROFARM, an interim balance

With this first edition of a series of regular thematic handouts we would like to give an overview on the activities and goals so far achieved by the PROFARM team – pointing out that the project’s activities have already been under implementation for 18 months and, therefore, the project has completed its first half. We would mainly like to focus on the development of the profile of the Case Manager, as this is one of the most important milestones reached by the project within the...

Participate as a piloting farm in PROFARM

The questionnaire for the detection of farms to be involved in the PROFARM experimentation is online

The form for the assessment of the farms, which could fit in the PROFARM experimentation, has been officially published online. The questionnaire is available in 4 different languages, English, Italian, German and Dutch, and will serve as a useful means to proceed towards the next phase of the project.

The goal of this assessment is to find fitting farms, which would like to be active partners of the PROFARM project and will be able to host avocational training for students with special...

First international peer review event for the PROFARM project

18 peers from all over Europe for the validation of the methdological framework

Group photo of international peersThe 3nd partnership meeting of the PROFARM project took place last 13-16 March 2017 in Deckenpfronn, Germany, at the premises of the living and working community of Tennental, one the social farms in the network of the German partner Anthropoi. The internal meeting was scheduled for Monday 13 March, while on the following two days all the partners contributed at the organization of the 1st international peer-review event, which was attended by 18 experts from different European countries....

PROFARM Influence Policy Plan in the Netherlands

Developing a different learning pathway in a different physical environment that is appropriate to the disabilities of the student.

What is your main goal in terms of policy innovation in the fields covered by the project? How do you think that present practices and procedures could improve thanks to the PROFARM project?

Innovative Learning Pathway (work based)

The major objective is to innovate the framework of secondary vocational educational training (MBO), maybe so at all levels on the location of a care farm in such a manner that students with a disability can acquire knowledge, skills and competences in order to be...

PROFARM Influence Policy Plan in Germany

Involving young persons with disabilities into vocational training on social farms in order to increase/improve their future chances on the labour market.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CPRD) claims the „right of persons with disabilities to work on an equal basis with others“. In the field of vocational guidance programmes persons with disabilities should be enabled „to have effective access” (Art. 27 1. and 1.(d)).

The German labour market is far from being inclusive. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities criticised this in its Concluding Observations on the...

Social Farming in the Netherlands

The research of a more structured follow-up strategy

The Netherlands has been an agricultural country for a very long time. People from the Netherlands even emigrated to other countries to have the foreign farming experience but also start their own farms (e.g. Canada). The social welfare system - we are from nature a caring country with many facilities for people who need any form of help either due to circumstances or due to a handicap or due to sickness… Social farming has been known since about 1960. At first started for youngsters...

Social Farming in Germany

A lack of cooperation between agriculture and healthcare

The SF sector in Germany is developing quickly, but there are still fewer farms practicing SF than in other European countries. Most SF farms are actually ‘sheltered workshops’ (Werkstätten für behinderte Menschen – WfbM) which offer jobs in the ‘green area’, rather than productive farms that offer jobs for people with special needs. There are farms that practice SF which are connected to a full-stationary institution (for people with special needs) and...

Social Farming in Italy

The multifunctionality of agricultural enterprises

Social Agriculture has developed in many fields in Italy, nowadays including a plurality of experiences, not attributable to a unitary model, which are different from each other in performed activity, organization, source of funding and targets. Intervention fields are broadly: education, training and job inclusion of low contractuality subjects, recreation and quality of life, everyday life services and therapeutic use. During the interviews it’s been possible to listen and meet some...

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