Best Practice

How city farm boosts confidence

1 min read Participation Youth volunteering
Project improves confidence and social skills and increases community participation and employability among 13- to 18-year-olds.

PROJECT

Gorgie City Farm Youth Project

FUNDING

Around £55,000 annually from funders including Big Lottery Fund, Edinburgh Council and The Robertson Trust, with additional income from the farm's social enterprises. These include pet boarding facilities, which received £11,000 in 2016 from Aberdeen Asset Management

BACKGROUND

Since opening in 1982, Gorgie City Farm in Edinburgh has been a magnet for volunteers, including teenagers referred by agencies such as mental health services. "Many of our young volunteers would work quite freely, unsupervised, but we realised they needed a greater level of support," says the farm's development and fundraising manager, Sarah Campbell. So the organisation sought funding for a targeted, supported volunteering programme for young people with challenges in their lives. It launched in 2002.

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