Collaboration is a word that is often overused or misused. True collaboration eliminates the need for competition and leads to collective success. Great things happen when we work together.
As a small charity, we know our limits. As part of challenging and changing attitudes to, and behaviours around, mental wellbeing, we need to be raising awareness of the impacts of poor mental health on young farmers making their journey into the industry.
Over the past ten years, we have delivered our innovative farm safety training to nearly 29,000 young farmers at 44 land-based colleges and universities and through the young farmers clubs network but we are a team of four… we can not do this alone.
Knowing what we’d like to accomplish and utilising our resources to achieve this goal, collaboration is vital to our success.
To this end, this year we are launching a new pilot programme with our friends at RABI where students at five chosen land-based colleges and universities in England and Wales will not only have our Introduction to Farm Safety session delivered free of charge but also a brand new half-day Introduction to Minding Your Head session delivered by the Yellow Wellies team.
In addition, RABI will deliver their accredited mental health training to college staff at each of the pilot colleges. Students will also be given access to RABI’s Click & Chat, online wellbeing platform.
ALICIA CHIVERS, RABI
According to Alicia Chivers, RABI Chief Executive: “RABI is excited to be partnering with the Farm Safety Foundation to pilot the inclusion of RABI’s ‘click and chat’ wellbeing platform into the Foundation’s ground-breaking interactive farm safety and mental health training.
“Both RABI and the Farm Safety Foundation are committed to helping to break the cycle of poor mental health evidenced by too many farming people. Evidence from our Big Farming Survey tells us that almost a fifth of 16–24-year-olds do not confide in anyone and keep worries to themselves and one in ten reports feeling lonely often or always.”
“It is paramount that we work together to help everyone in our community to have better mental wellbeing. We see this pilot, to help highlight and educate younger farming people on the importance of good mental resilience, as a hopeful step towards this goal”.
RABI’s click and chat platform provides safe, anonymous, text-based counselling, peer-to-peer chat groups, and helpful articles on mental wellbeing. It’s monitored by professional counsellors, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for you to connect.
Following the pilot, it is hoped that the initiative will be rolled out across all land-based colleges.
