Latest News Social farming at Casa Cares

Casa Cares is surrounded by terraced fields planted with olive trees. It has a vegetable garden, a small orchard, and a forest. Agriculturally it is very small but careful – organic methods, farming from terraces, ancient fruits, fine varieties of oil. For the past few years Casa Cares has opened its doors to the implementation of Social Farming projects aimed at young people and adults in need. We tell you how it went.

The first project: The Fruitful

Between June 2020 and April 2021, we hosted the project La Fruttosa coordinated by Coop.21 and funded by theOtto per Mille Valdese.

The project was aimed at offering new opportunities for social inclusion, for finding relational and personal balance, to people who were going through longer or shorter periods of social, work or addiction-related difficulties.

The project has seen three small groups follow one another with the hours being carried out in a concentrated manner in one residential week or in longer, extended cycles of up to three months and has accommodated some 15 people between the ages of 17 and 36.

Social farming has been an opportunity for many people to find their way again, to become aware of their needs-sometimes even to accept that they need help; it has been a chance to learn how to work in a group and, later, to find a job in other fields as well or to start training in agriculture.

A valuable testimony

I decided to participate in the Casa Cares social farming project because I had a very long period of discomfort related to anxiety and depression, and it was an important opportunity to get back into the game in a “gentler” way than immediately facing a work reality unfamiliar to me, which frightened me.

This project had many positives: it kept me busy for over two months 3 days a week, finally made me feel useful in the outside world, and helped me find motivation to “get my foot out of bed.”

The staff of Casa Cares is very welcoming, familiar, helpful and responsive. It was like being in a “second home.” At the end of the project I noticed that I was much more willing to face new situations. In fact, a few months later I was confronted with a new work reality in a factory.

In “The Fruitful” project, I found only one thing to improve: the duration of the project, in my opinion too short. Otherwise impeccable! I recommend it to anyone who is going through periods of hardship in order to reintegrate more easily into the working and social world”-Testimony of S., user of the project

The second project: Agrilavoro

The second project hosted during 2022 (April) was also implemented by Coop.21 with funding from the CR Florence Foundation. The project Agrilavoro was aimed at agricultural training for young Neet [Not (active) in education, employment or training.” Source: Wikipedia]. The 10 young trainees were from centers for the reception of migrant foreigners or from sheltered facilities that take in young people facing restrictive sentences by the court. The course included 200 total hours of which 60 hours were internships. The first hours of the course were held at Casa Cares in a residential weekend in which hours of training and residential practice alternated. It was also an opportunity for the group to get to know each other and train.

“We developed this activity early in the course. This experience and its timing facilitated good cohesion of the class group. In fact, during that time, the trainees were able to deepen their knowledge by comparing and working together. They experimented in a new place independently, a factor not at all taken for granted by some of them. The unorganized moments were extremely educational and socializing. The children were continuously supervised by the teacher, the facility staff and the mentor of reference. An experience rich not only in educational moments but also in community and exchange.” – Testimony of A., trainer of Coop.21

Future Projects

In 2023, the collaboration with Coop.21 to implement other agricultural training and learning projects that will give us the opportunity, once again, to make the land and our skills available to provide opportunities for young women and men to grow. We will update you later!

If you would like to contribute a small donation, please write to info@casacares.it. We will be grateful!