OUR STORY
Vision and Background to the Project
Hello, I'm Sarah and setting up The Hope Farm Project is the fulfillment of a long-held dream for me.
I am a qualified High School teacher with over 20 years experience working with children and young people in a variety of settings including teaching, youth work and mentoring. I have worked in Pupil Referral Units and other specialist centres, supporting students who have struggled in mainstream education for a whole variety of reasons including behaviour, mental health, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, autism, elective mutism, OCD etc. I passionately believe that being outdoors and working alongside plants and animals can be a really powerful and positive experience for people with a wide range of needs and struggles.
The vision for the Project began back in 2011 when I was teaching at an Education Centre in Exeter. There were two fifteen year old students that I was working with who both really wanted to be farmers, but there just wasn’t any provision available to help make that dream a reality for them, as part of their weekly timetable. I felt so frustrated that these two lads - who didn’t enjoy school and had really struggled with all sorts of issues both in education and in their home lives - were unable to be given the opportunity to try their hand at some of the skills they so desperately wanted to learn.
This moment started me on a journey that has brought me - through a series of twists and turns - to the formation of The Hope Farm Project. Whilst it may have come too late for those two young men, it is my great hope that THFP might become part of a journey towards hope for the future of many others like them, over the next few years.
UPDATE: March 2024
Having spent the last 4 years establishing ourselves, we were offered the opportunity to relocate from our borrowed land in Halberton to a farm tenancy near the centre of Tiverton. So in the Easter break of 2024, we relocated our home, family, equipment and animals and embarked upon the next chapter of the story.
There is a lot of work to be done in restoring and improving the land and buildings here, but it is an absolutely beautiful place, with huge potential, and we are so excited about the possibilities to expand and improve the opportunities we are able to offer to local young people over the next few years.