Local Living Lab in Ireland focuses on Social Farming

On Monday 24 February 2025 the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, along with stakeholders from Leitrim County Council and the Leitrim Development Company attended Tommy Earley’s Social Farm, located near Drumshanbo, County Leitrim.
 
Social Farming offers individuals who are socially, physically, mentally or intellectually disadvantaged the opportunity to spend time on a family farm in a healthy, supportive and inclusive environment. It offers users the opportunity for inclusion, to increase self-esteem and to improve their health and well-being, by taking part in day-to-day farm activities on the family farm. 

The farm visit featured a space where wheelchair users could utilize a machine to chop wood, alongside another area where Social Farming participants engaged in planting crops through sustainable, biodiversity-friendly above-ground methods. Additionally, there was a path constructed by participants in bogland, made from discarded sheep's wool that is not suitable for commercial sale.
 
The visit emphasized how the principles utilized in Social Farms to promote the health and well-being of participants could be integrated into the GREENHEALTH Project. Key insights and synergies for GREENHEALTH included the necessity for participants to have independent autonomy and the capability to measure improvements in individual health and well-being in quantifiable terms as a result of engaging in Social Farming.