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 with a mental disease in need for a break from the system at home from people with a background in the mental health area or youth detention.

In these cases the social farms gave a normal, peaceful character with no big expectations from the fast dynamic municipality nowadays. No expectations, no big interaction, good structures and the urge to be needed gave constructive steps for the youngster to be able to step back in society or just to mean to something. Until some years ago the path to getting the indication to be able to take part on a social farm was in the hands of one general bureau in charge of assessing the case. In the last years the social system has changed from a big central organ (the government) who was in charge of arranging the system to the provinces/municipalities which are in charge of and the indication and the financial system behind it , so in general the diagnosis or target group is leading in which bureau handles your indication, mostly experienced as a difficult maze in which the path is not easy to follow if you’re not known to the system. Rules and regulations have become increasingly complicated.