NCFI Partners
The National Care Farming Initiative is a partnership of four organisations, each one bringing in their own expertise and networks.
Harper Adams University College
Harper Adams University College, in Shropshire, is the leading specialist provider of land-based higher education in the UK. It offers taught programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as research programmes leading to MPhil and PhD awards to more than two thousand students. It plays a leading role in the development of a sustainable UK food chain and rural economy and has extensive experience in managing successful projects and networks including Women in Rural Enterprise (WiRE) and the National Rural Knowledge Exchange (NRKE). It is currently the accountable body for the NCFI(UK) and provides its secretariat.
www.harper-adams.ac.uk
contact: Debbie Wilcox dwilcox@harper-adams.ac.uk 01952 815335
Arthur Rank Centre
The Arthur Rank Centre has had a key role in the development of NCFI(UK) since the very beginning in 2005. Its Director, Rev.Dr. Gordon Gatward OBE, chairs the Partnership. The Arthur Rank Centre is a subsidiary charity of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) and operates as a partnership between the RASE, the national churches and the Rank Foundation. It functions as the national rural resources for the churches and as part of the RASE's charitable activities.
www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk
contact: Gordon Gatward gordong@rase.org.uk 02476 853065
The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (FCFCG)
FCFCG brings its extensive experiences in supporting, representing and promoting community-managed farms, gardens, allotments and school farms, creating opportunities for communities to grow. FCFCG helps empower local people, often in deprived areas, to build closer, healthier and more integrated communities across the UK. It also provides the national face of the community farm and garden movement, working to raise its profile with policy-makers, funders and the public. FCFCG manages the database and website on behalf of NCFI(UK).
www.farmgarden.org.uk
contact: Ian Egginton-Metters ian@fcfcg.co.uk 01373 302204
Interdisciplinary Centre for Environment & Society, University of Essex
The iCES at the University of Essex brings its research expertise in green care and multifunctional agriculture to help support NCFI and conducted the first scoping study into the care farming sector in 2007. iCES is engaged in a wide range of basic, applied and action-oriented environmental research; capacity development, teaching and training; and outreach through workshops, publications, seminars and prizes and we are engaged in a wide range of cross-disciplinary environmental research.
www.essex.ac.uk/ces/
www.greenexercise.org/
contact: Rachel Hine rehine@essex.ac.uk 01206 872219