Slam & Vauxhaul City Farm

Organisation: The Maudsley Traumatic Stress Unit
Funding: £110,330

This project will use a city farm to provide practical therapy for vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers and help them adjust to life in a new country. The setting is designed to help overcome the difficulty of engaging these, often very traumatised, individuals with the mental health system.

The project has three key aims: to increase the clients' sense of safety; to help them work through their traumatic experiences within the safety of therapy in a non-hospital setting; and to re-connect with everyday life.

It will do this by providing emotional and practical support; offering structure through specific, practical activities; building kinship with people who have had similar experiences; building confidence and self-reliance; and establishing links into the wider community.