Clynfyw
Care
Farm
Mae Ffarm Ofal Clynfyw’n gwmni cymunedol sydd yn cynnal a chefnogi pobl anabl a bregus trwy sawl prosiect dysgu
Clynfyw Care Farm is a Community Interest Company.
We call ourselves a Care Farm, supporting adults with learning disabilities and those in recovery from mental unwellness. We also recognise our wider remit; supporting community regeneration with a focus on resilience in the face of the climate catastrophe.
Vulnerable people have always been marginalised, and the challenges ahead make it all the more important that we prepare now to ensure they don’t in the future.
It’s not all about prizes, but we won the Queens Award for Enterprise (sustainable development) in 2020 and the Best Rural Diversification Project (Wales/NI) in the Rural Business Awards 2019!!!
Hooray for us and for care farming everywhere!
Community Interest Company
Clynfyw Care Farm
Clynfyw Care Farm is a Community Interest Company. We use meaningful projects as tools for learning, engagement, contribution and fun through our farm based Day Service and supporting people living in the Clynfyw Farm Cottages. We also manage the Kinora mental health recovery centre in Cardigan.
We care about our local community, working alongside many community-based groups and statutory organisations to help create a more inclusive region. As of 1st November 2021 Clynfyw is home to ten people living in supported tenancy and provides inspiring opportunities for 45 different vulnerable people many times each week, and secure, enjoyable employment for 42 paid staff and volunteers. Clynfyw is a ‘significant local employer’!
We want to help other people set up care farms and to improve community-focused social care. To this end we wrote a book—‘Care Farming for Beginners—a how to guide’, to help others to develop their land for social and therapeutic purposes. We often give talks here and elsewhere and welcome people to visit (by arrangement) and to steal our ideas!
We are writing another book helping community groups and individuals set up microenterprises. All being well this will be completed by the end of 2023.
We hope you will enjoy our website, but please note it is just an introduction to our work. Please get in touch if you would like more information about anything we mention. Thank you.
History – The Evolution of Clynfyw Care Farm
Clynfyw Farm is a 395 acre organic farm and woodland in North Pembrokeshire that has been farmed by the Lewis-Bowen family since the 1750s. Since 1985 it has offered high-quality accessible accommodation in converted Victorian farm buildings.
Trading under the company name Clynfyw Countryside Centre Ltd (Clynfyw CC) since 1999, we expanded on the holidays to include weddings, conferences and a variety of courses based around the environment, disability access and sustainability. In 2009 the Clynfyw CC Directors decided to refocus our efforts, concentrating on our strengths – disability access around the farm, inclusive holiday provision and the knowledge we have gained of the needs of the disabled community locally and further afield.
In 2011 Clynfyw Community Interest Company (CIC) was constituted to run day care services and related activities on a Care Farm. Clynfyw CC still exists managing the holiday cottages, while Clynfyw CIC runs as a Care Farm which is open to everyone, but with a focus on supporting ‘vulnerable people’ in general.
Clynfyw Farm is owned by Tom Lewis-Bowen and leased to Jim Lewis-Bowen under a farm business tenancy agreement. The buildings were leased to Clynfyw CC in 1998, and Clynfyw CIC has a further lease of the buildings and surrounds.The majority of the land is presently rented out to a super organic farmer, Hefyn Evans, and we use around a dozen acres for our care farming work.
Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) has been using Clynfyw CC’s cottages for respite stays for its Learning Disability team since 2009, with care support provided by a number of different registered domiciliary care providers (commissioned directly by PCC).
We were already providing many of the services highlighted as good practice when the Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act came in in 2015, and Clynfyw has been mentioned in the Senedd as a centre of good practice.
We have built a stable foundation and are excited about the years ahead…
Environmental Policy
The long term health the environment is important to us. We won a Green Tourism Gold Award in 2017 for our environmental practices and bought a Nissan Leaf electric car early in 2018, and a minibus that runs on recycled vegetable oil in 2019 to further reduce our carbon footprint. In 2020 we won the Queens Award for Enterprise (sustainable development)-the most prestigious business awards in the UK, so we must be doing something right!
Environmental Policy March 2022
Clynfyw Community Interest Company (Clynfyw CIC) offers therapeutic day services to marginalised people including people with learning disabilities, people experiencing mental health issues, women experiencing domestic abuse, veterans struggling with life after being in the forces and other excluded groups.
We recognise that our activities have an impact on the environment in terms of the use of raw materials, emissions to air and waste generation and we seek to minimise this as far as is reasonably practicable.
Clynfyw CIC is committed to:
-
Continual improvement in its environmental performance
-
Preventing pollution
-
Compliance with all environmental legislation, regulations and codes of practice relevant to the sector in which it operates.
-
It is the policy of Clynfyw CIC to:
-
Make efficient use of natural resources by conserving energy and water, minimising waste and recycling where possible
-
Use recycled materials whenever practicable
-
Keep transport use to a minimum and promote car sharing where practicable
-
Actively promote the use of recycled materials
-
Liaise with the local community to minimise disruption to the local environment
-
Encourage members of staff to feedback to management about the company’s environmental performance
-
Use Fair Traded goods wherever practicable
-
Promote the environmental practices carried out by Clynfyw CIC to other community groups.
We will communicate this policy to all our employees and ensure that they are given appropriate training to raise awareness of environmental issues.
Clynfyw CIC will review this policy on an annual basis, taking account of any changes within legislation and our organisation, and any other factors.
In March 2020 we helped to instigate an open meeting for Manordeifi, Clydau, Boncath and Cilgerran parishes to discuss the climate crisis and the set up a North East Pembrokeshire Climate Emergency Action Planning Team to prepare ourselves for the challenges of the future.
We are getting ‘once in a generation’ floods several times a year now and all indication is that it’s only going to get worse. Climate scientists predict food shortages and a fracturing in our society.
It is easy to say we are too small and ‘what difference does it make when China, the USA etc… don’t change’, but doing nothing now won’t help us in the future. We have flooded fields and homes, bridges out, roads blocked by fallen trees and lorries blown into ditches. We need to talk and plan and prepare now. This meeting led to the creation of Ffynonne Community Resilience, working together to prepare for challenges to come.
So this is what we are doing. If you would like to get involved, please get in touch. All constructive contribution is most welcome.
Clynfyw is a BIHR Champion of Human Rights
The Human Rights Act is often misrepresented by those with vested interests. It is a vital tool that protects us all, particularly the most vulnerable in our society. Clynfyw has been recognised by the British Institute of Human Rights as a Champion of Human Rights for our campaigning work over the past few years.
Our Campaigning Team promotes the interests of the disabled and vulnerable community. It is led by our Participant Forum which meets monthly to plan campaigns. Campaigns to date include election-based endeavours, working with the British Institute of Human Rights to promote the importance of the Human Rights Act, and taking part in Disabled Access Day, campaigning for a more inclusive, equitable Wales. We also promote the work of Anaya Aid, Swansea Humanitarian Aid Relief Project (SHARP) and other groups with whom we are affiliated. The work is rewarding, and vitally important.
We are audited annually by Pembrokeshire People First to help ensure we are truly Participant lead and doing all we can to provide opportunity and advocate for everyone involved at Clynfyw.
Behind the Scenes
People – our greatest Asset
The current Clynfyw Team are an inspiring group of individuals. They are truly person focussed and a massive credit to the organisation as a whole. Their dedication, commitment and compassion are a recognised asset. They are also a great pleasure to be around.
On-going investment in our Team is a key part of our work and we offer in-house training as well as accessing Pembrokeshire County Council’s SCWDP training regularly. We have a paid staff team and volunteers of over 40, and we focus on investing in staff.
We have an independent Board of six people who help shape the direction of the organisation as well as supporting the Management Team in the day to day running of the Care Farm. We aim over the next few years to change our structure, reducing the hierarchy and making the running, development and planning more equitable.
To ensure good communication throughout the organisation, we hold regular Staff Team meetings and Participants Forums and have elected representatives from the Staff Team and Participants which enable everyone to have a say in what goes on at Clynfyw. The Staff Representatives meet with the Managing Director, Jim, regularly to ensure communication is as good as it can be. Our Visioning 2020-2030 plan relates to the climate crisis and how we can develop and adapt what we do to be best positioned to contribute to community resilience and help to establish a restorative culture to which will be increasingly needed in the years to come.
The following people worked for and represented Clynfyw CIC as of the 3rd November 2022.
Our Board includes: Sue Lewis, Katie Barnett-Hammond, Pam Dentton, Ann Jay, Peter Thomas and Jim Bowen
Management Team include: Jim, Sheila, Louise, Gary, Cerys and Paul
And our staff team include: Adam, Abby, Alice, Anna, Charlie, Christine, Claire, Gill, Hannah, Hugh, Jake, Jodie, Kirsten, Kay, Ffion, Naomi, Robyn, Kevin, Layla, Leila, Liz, Matt H, Meg, Michael, Nick, Philip, Rowena, Seren, Seth, and Tristan
And our volunteers include: Jill, Tink, Matt, John, Tom, Gil, Alan, Elaine…
Virtual Cycling to Kenya
We’re raising £5,000.
The Clynfyw Team aim to cycle 5800 miles on 4 exercise bikes at Clynfyw, to pay for a load of donated wheelchairs and mobility aids get to vulnerable people in Kenya.
2931 miles – 09/09/2022
We are now nearly half way through Syria at the city of Hamah, or Hama. Hama is a city on the banks of the Orontes River in west-central Syria. It is located 213 km north of Damascus and 46 kilometres north of Homs. It is the provincial capital of the Hama Governorate. With a population of 854,000, Hama is the fourth-largest city in Syria after Damascus, Aleppo and Homs
Ḥamāh, also spelled Hama, city, central Syria, on the banks of the Orontes River. It was an important prehistoric settlement, becoming the kingdom of Hamath under the Aramaeans in the 11th century bc. It fell under Assyrian control in the 9th century bce and later passed under Persian, Macedonian, and Seleucid rule, the Seleucids renaming the city Epiphaneia in the 2nd century bce. During Byzantine rule it reverted to Emath, a form of its traditional name. When the Arabs took the city in the 7th century ce, they transformed the principal Christian church into a great mosque. Ḥamāh was captured by Crusaders in 1108, retaken by the Muslims in 1115, destroyed by an earthquake in 1175, and occupied by Saladin in 1188, the Mamlūk sultans about 1300, and the Ottomans in the early 16th century. It passed to Syria after World War I.
