Communities and Farming

Two founding partners of the Arthur Rank Centre; the Rank Foundation and the Royal Agricultural Society of England, tasked the Centre to identify and respond to issues that are creating distress or disadvantage in the rural and farming community.

Today we work closely with other non-profit organisations to deliver our services, and have a well-established reputation for launching new areas of work to support the rural and farming community and nurturing them to stand-alone status, for example: The Rural Housing Trust, Farm Crisis Network and Addington Fund.

Over almost 40 years our Rural and Farming Support Programme has helped thousands to overcome crises and rise above deprivation, and its ongoing work includes:

  • Rural Stress Helpline: a confidential, non-judgemental listening service for rural people, run by a trained telephone counsellor. The helpline dealt with nearly 2,000 calls in 2010, and resolved £5.3 million worth of Single Farm Payment claims on behalf of farmer callers.

  • Care Farming: a national initiative to promote and develop Care Farming (the use of land-based activities for therapy) for a wide range of people (recovering addicts, with mental health problems, ex-offenders, disaffected youth), run in partnership with Harper-Adams University College, University of Essex and the Federation of City Farms. 150 care farms are supported nationwide.

  • National Chaplaincy for Farming: a presence for the Christian church at national farming events such as the Oxford Farming Conference, CLA Game Fair, and providing a prayer group based at the Farmers’ Club to pray for those in need in the industry.

  • Agricultural Chaplains: a national centre for the network of clergy and lay people with farming experience who provide pastoral support for farmers and rural people in crisis.

  • Work with the Farming Help Partnership

  • Responding to crisis events such as flooding 2007, Blue Tongue epidemic 2007, Foot and Mouth epidemics 2001 and 2006, with practical measures and pastoral support through existing and new services.