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Please find below all the latest news from the outside of Jamie’s Farm looking in, from press clippings to features on Youtube, it’s all here!

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Showing posts for May 2009 - Show all posts

  • 30

    MAY
    2009

    Posted at 09:39

    And finally ... The farm harvesting wonders

    Bel Mooney: Daily Mail on 30th May

    Sometimes you have an experience you must share - that's why I'm shouting 'Jamie's Farm!' from the rooftops.

    I just went to the official launch of this new charity - and feel so uplifted. We hear so much that's bad about young people, but here's a genius scheme I'm supporting - with my heart, mind and cash.

    If an imaginative TV producer out there wants to get in first on this most brilliant reality project, now's your chance. Jamie Feilden is only 28, but started farming when he was a child, living with his family just outside Bath. (I've known them all for years.)

    He became a teacher, but working in a tough comprehensive in Croydon in South London and meeting challenging children who had never left the area, he dreamed of showing them country life.

    In a nutshell, he started to bring small groups of children to his farm for four or five days - and they were amazed.

    Welcomed into Jamie's family home, they had to get up at 7am and do farming tasks all day, share the cooking of proper meals to eat around the table together, and take part in sessions of serious talk with Jamie's mother Tish - psychotherapist, educationist and all-round amazing person.

    Can you imagine what it was like for these city kids? Well, see for yourself; Jamie's website - www.jamiesfarm.org.uk - has a film of them talking, and I defy you to watch without being deeply moved as well as entertained.

    Jamie and his young team have analysed the results of the work so far and they're mind-blowing.

    For example, 91 per cent of students have fewer behavioural problems on returning to school, 83 per cent have reduced truancy rates, and all of them show improvements in confidence, communication and empathy.

    This is what's called intervention -aiming to save us all the horrific long-term costs to society of permanent exclusion from school.

    Based on the success so far, Jamie's Farm aims to support 400 vulnerable young people in 2009/10 and build from there. 

    But they do need support in teaching city children there is so much more to life than police sirens and stress. And to show them they can be valued.  

  • 26

    MAY
    2009

    Posted at 10:24

    Freshfields trainee lends a hand to troubled teens - The Lawyer

    By Corinne McPartland

    This article was originally published on 18th May 2009 l2b.thelawyer.com/and the original article can be viewed here.

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer trainee solicitor Stephen Costello has helped troubled teenagers to swap their hoodies for wellies on a development programme, which sees youngsters spend a week living and working on a rural farm in Bath.

    Costello, who prior to joining Freshfields spent two years on the Teach First programme, initially got involved with Jamie’s Farm in 2007 when he took a group of difficult pupils to the take part in the programme.

    He said: “One of my pupils had been involved in a gang and we’d collected the toughest kids who’d been labelled by the school and society as being a bit of a pain. But after taking part in the programme you realised they were actually really nice kids who just needed a break.”

    The youngsters spent five-days living on the farm doing a range of tasks including feeding and caring for livestock as well as horticultural activities.

    But the youngsters were not expected to spend their entire time slogging it out, students also got a chance to take part in therapy sessions and even test out their culinary skills by helping to prepare their evening meals.

    After the trip Costello became a trustee of Jamie’s Farm and has used his legal knowledge to turn the venture into a company limited by guarantee as well as help it gain its charitable status.

    Freshfields has also given the programme a helping hand by donating a desk at its London headquarters for the charity to use rent-free.

    Jamie’s Farm was the brainchild of Jaime Feilden who was also a teacher on the Teach First programme.

    For more information visit www.jamiesfarm.org.uk.

     

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