Methodology I., which is primarily intended for social service providers and which has the ambition to help all those interested in developing social farming in their services. The reader will be gradually acquainted with the term social farming, in which contexts it can be understood and why it can work for him/her, or what contribution social farming has on the users and the society. Furthermore, the reader will find out who is social farming intended for, i.e. who is the ideal person to be involved in it. At the same time, the methodology tries to describe all the areas that need to be considered when starting up social farming activities separately for integration employment, rehabilitation and therapy and educational activities. The methodology contains practical and specific recommendations on how to plan and implement social farming, funding possibilities and other links to important information. We would like the guide to be useful and, if possible, meet its goals. We wish you a valuable and inspirational reading.
Methodology I. was developed within the framework of the project Development of Social Farming in the Czech Republic, in order to create basic guidelines and support for social service providers, who want to enrich their organization with the agricultural component. This means using agricultural activities as a tool for alternative or new social services, education and activities, or using agriculture as another source of funding for its public benefit activities and orienting itself on social stakeholding. The project was financially supported by the European Social Fund Operational Programme Employment, registration number CZ.03.2.63/0.0/0.0/15_023/0001117.
The methodology was developed in co-operation with the expert platform of the project consisting of: Petra Francová (P3 – People, Planet, Profit, o.p.s.), Michaela Nosková (Kokoza, o.p.s.), Lenka Janková (Apolenka, z.s.) and Jaroslav Lenhart (Svobodný statek na soutoku, o.p.s.). This publication was regularly consulted with the expert platform, constructively criticised, edited and revised.
Four methodologies arose from this project, which mutually follow each other and form a comprehensive view on the concept of social farming especially for the social service providers. Methodology I. will guide the reader through the introduction of the social farming concept and its holistic action, the context of its origin and its history. In the other parts it focuses on agricultural, financial, personal, planning and analytical areas. Methodology II. puts more emphasis on the development of existing social farming practice in the organization and offers specific practical steps for this development. Methodology III. is devoted to social work in social farming, especially to accompanying the users of the most common target groups in agricultural operations. Methodology IV includes selected examples of good practice of social farming in social service providers, which should serve mainly as inspiration. We hope that the presented methodologies will be helpful, practical and beneficial for readers and project leaders.