Farming Resilience: Civil Society's Role in Supporting Vulnerable Rural Communities Through and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021-2022

Fieldwork for the project called "Farming resilience: civil society's role in supporting vulnerable rural communities through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic" consisted of: - Survey of 93 supporters of farming mental health (similar groups) and 207 farmers. - Workshop bringing together supporters of farming mental health. All instruments investigated the drivers of poor farming mental health, how COVID had affected them, and how support organisations were affected and how they can be made more sustainable through and beyond the pandemic. 22 qualitative interviews conducted for this project are NOT archived due to sensitivity and the risk of identifying interviewees (anonymisation was not possible).

The experience of a pandemic at a time of rural change (the post-Brexit agricultural transition is the biggest change to rural policy in a generation) presents a range of unique challenges to farmers, rural communities and the civil society organisations that support them. The project seeks to: i) understand the success of different activities in limiting the 'scarring' effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on farmers' mental health and resilience ii) understand the impacts of the pandemic on civil society organisations themselves (including severe fundraising shortfalls, operational restrictions and social challenges) and iii) scale up these understandings to build system and community resilience against future shocks, such as the impending challenges presented by the post-Brexit agricultural transition. It will do this through a scoping review, surveys and interviews with civil society organisations, and a range of policy and practice workshops with a range of stakeholders, supported by established partnerships and a strong steering committee. This research is important because we know very little about how the farming community, and the support systems underpinning them, are being affected by COVID-19. Our deliverables will enable policy-makers and organisations to support the levelling up of rural communities and to increase their community resilience to future challenges.

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