Our campaign is now complete. 2067 supporters helped us raise £22,945.00
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Visit the charity's profileFeelings of isolation and social exclusion are a common reality for young people growing up in remote rural locations. With a lack of support services in the countryside, Young Farmers' Clubs (YFCs) are often considered a social lifeline.
When lockdown restrictions forced YFCs to stop meeting, feelings of isolation and loneliness intensified. In particular, our key worker farming members, who regularly spend long days working alone, desperately missed their weekly meetings to connect with others away from the farm.
It's more important than ever for YFCs to be operating again so they can help improve the wellbeing of more than 20,000 members, by providing opportunities to meet, learn new skills and be actively involved in their communities again.
In a recent survey, nearly all of the members surveyed admitted that YFC had helped them develop new friendships and 90% said their confidence had improved by being involved in the organisation.
YFCs are really important for people in rural areas. We can be quite secluded its not like you pass people in the street every day. So that regular contact you get through meeting up once a week with your YFC friends is vital. Josie, Cumbria
Our 46 County Federations play a crucial role in ensuring our YFCs can operate safely, providing advice on their charitable obligations, offering training opportunities and events that unite members throughout the county.
The Coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on County Federations' funds as they have not been able to hold their usual events and activities. Some County Federations - which are all small charities - are estimating shortfalls of as much as £50,000, and this is without the ongoing uncertainty of the effect the pandemic will have on the new membership year.
County Federations urgently need your help to ensure they can support their YFCs to re-open and give rural young people a safe space to connect during these challenging times. Please visit their individual team pages to offer your support.
As a wider organisation, The National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs (NFYFC) ensures rural young people's voices are heard by industry leaders and policy makers and supports its network of County Federations. NFYFC's national budget has also been hit by Covid-19 and is raising funds to:
* Deliver on the ground field work support to County Federations who are operating on reduced staff teams due to the pandemic.
* Support with the delivery of more online activities for members during the pandemic.
* Support with hosting a socially distanced competitions programme and managing entries in a Covid-secure way.
* Support with delivering training and development to rural young people.
Please support our campaign so we can continue to provide opportunities and important connections for more than 20,000 rural young people across England and Wales.
* Charities pay a small fee for our service. Find out how much it is and what we do for it.
