Resilience is usually defined as positive adaptation despite adversity and, in this blog, the Royal Countryside Fund outline the activities and programmes they have introduced to build resilience in farming families and communities.
At the Royal Countryside Fund, we understand the immense uncertainty and current pressures facing family farms across the UK. From extreme weather events to the increased cost of production, it is essential now more than ever that we collectively support our farming and rural communities through these challenges. With this in mind, we are extremely proud to provide our support programmes to farmers who work tirelessly to produce the nation’s food and steward our precious countryside, and to be one of the very few charities to do so.
Last year, we ran our flagship Farm Resilience Programme (FRP) in 7 locations across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which included a variety of workshops focussed upon improving business skills, the environment and future succession planning. We were grateful to receive additional funding from NFU Mutual to run a new, one-off farm safety and mental health workshop for this cohort, ‘Get A Head In Farming’, delivered by Stephanie Berkeley from The Farm Safety Foundation.
Not only did the feedback from these sessions show us just how important the topic of farm safety is within the agricultural sector, but it also reinforced the overriding importance of farmers looking after their mental wellbeing as well as their physical. Though this was a difficult topic for many, it provided a positive spin on mental health training by allowing farmers to visualise themselves as their farm’s most valuable asset. This workshop was so well received across the groups that we decided to include this workshop in the FRP for another year and are delighted to be working with Stephanie and the Farm Safety Foundation again to deliver this.
Looking ahead to 2025, we are currently running our eighth and final cohort of the FRP across the nations before we launch our brand-new farming programme later this year.
Our new UK-wide grant programme for supporting rural communities is also now open for expressions of interest, which will help unlock the huge potential for positive change in the countryside, and support innovative solutions which will “power up, not prop up” rural communities.
To learn more visit www.royalcountrysidefund.org.uk/how-we-help/rural-communities
2025 also marks the RCF’s 15th anniversary of our launch by HM King Charles III in 2010, while he was Prince of Wales, and so we have a busy year ahead. Our small staff team is looking forward to meeting many of our farmers, rural community organisations and supporters over the coming months, and would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous 2025 and, of course please Mind Your Head.
