Green social cultivation in Kärråkra

With health-oriented rehabilitation, the project wanted to give people who were outside the labor market a meaningful activity – and create new opportunities to approach working life with broadened skills.

There is a lot of research that shows how animals and nature have a very positive impact, including when it comes to rehabilitation. Therefore, the project owner wanted to offer the participants a nature-based activity to create routines, social interaction and a positive context.

For many of the participants, meeting the basic requirements set by various authorities for returning was a major challenge. Therefore, the project also wanted to offer a start in a calm environment to slowly get back into working hours.

An important part of the project was to renovate and start up a farm shop with organic farming, working through a social work cooperative. During the course of the project, two seasons of outdoor cultivation of vegetables and berries for self-picking and sale were carried out.

The participants were continuously offered various forms of social interaction such as forest stays, joint lunches and motivational talks. Another important part was the various courses that were carried out. Bouquet and wreath making, social entrepreneurship, and Vardag i Balans courses are such examples. The project has also included various meetings and new collaborations. Information about the project was disseminated, among other things, through an information brochure and a new website.

At the end of the project, some participants had left their sick leave to instead start working, one of whom is employed by the association. Two new positions were created, one at 75 % and one at 25 %. Through the National Board of Health and Welfare, employment for the target group could also be offered on certain days of the week after the end of the project.

Several of the participants expressed a better feeling thanks to their participation in the project. They felt that they had found meaning in life and new friends. The farm shop, which has made the business better known and thus attracted more and more people, also sells five products, such as ceramic soap dishes, Mother's Day hearts and kale trees on trunks.