ARK Seminar: Cultivating OpportUNiTY with social and community farming: Presenter Jonny Hanson.

Expanding on the theme of ‘OpportUNiTY’ for Good Relations week 2024, this ARK event showcases the potential of social and community farming to cultivate good relations in Northern Ireland (NI) across racial and sectarian divides. Dr Matt Williams, conservation and education manager at Jubilee Farm, NI's first community-owned farm, discusses the project’s role in building bridges between people of different political, religious and ethnic communities, while long-term volunteer William Martin shares his lived experience of how Jubilee Farm has helped him transition from life in Cote d’Ivoire.  Tiziana O’Hara of Cooperative Alternatives then highlights the Cultivating Community Farming accelerator project, how this model of social innovation is spreading across Northern Ireland and its future potential. Finally, Dr Aoibeann Walsh of Rural Support brings an update on their work to expand social farming with refugees and asylum seekers across NI, and the potential benefits of this approach.

The event took place on Thursday 19 September 2024, 10.00 to 12.00, in the the Great Hall in the Lanyon Building, Queen's University Belfast, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NN.