Beanstalk Global /AHDB Talking Leaders Broadcast Series – We Don’t All Fit In One Box! With Jamie Feilden & Jake Curtis From Jamie’s Farm.

Beanstalk Global

Jamie’s Farm supports vulnerable young people nationwide to thrive academically, socially and emotionally through a unique 5-day residential experience and follow-up programme. The programme is a blend of ‘Farming, Family, Therapy and Legacy’ where children take on real jobs with purpose, punctuated with therapeutic support. The programme is in high demand and devliered at four rural farms across the country near Bath (HQ), Hereford, Monmouth and Lewes, alongside a city farm in Waterloo. Since the charity’s inception in 2009, nearly 10,000 young people have been supported with evidence for fewer school exclusions, increased engagment at school, improved wellbeing and the development of essential life skills.

Jamie graduated from the University of Edinburgh and taught History at Haling Manor School in Croydon from 2003. He worked in the Teach First office as part of the recruitment team from 2005 to 2008, focusing on the Jamie’s Farm project during his holidays and weekends. Jamie now manages the farming, fundraising and finance functions of the charity, as well as driving our growth strategy. Jamie is committed to ensuring the Jamie’s Farm experience is available to as many children as possible. His leadership has taken the organisation from occasional visits to his mother’s smallholding in Wiltshire, through to being a nationally significant charity, running four residential farms and one city farm. He can often also be found alongside children on the farm that bears his name, delivering lambs and calves and demonstrating that there is nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty in the cause of Farming, Family and Therapy.

Jake studied History at Cambridge University, before returning to his Birmingham roots to teach up the road from where he grew up as part of the Teach First Leadership Development Programme. He has also enjoyed teaching overseas, in Palestine and Ghana, and gained a distinction in his Masters in Educational Leadership from Warwick University.

Jake joined Jamie’s Farm in 2002 and has worked hard to ensure that as many children as possible get as great an impact as possible from our unique provision across all Jamie’s Farms. This involves supporting the delivery teams at each location to maintain and improve our approach and ensuring the central machine at Jamie’s Farm is well-run to enable our programme to be effectively delivered. It also includes a spot of river jumping with visiting children at our Hill House Farm HQ, which is unbeatable as a reminder of what the farm is all about. With his appointment as Co-CEO in early 2022 Jake will lead and develop all aspects of our work with children at Jamie’s Farm while Jamie will focus on Fundraising and Farming.