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SK DE04 – DIE FLECKENBÜHLER E.V.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE CASE STUDY
Case study number: DE-04
Name of the farm/organization: die Fleckenbühler e.V. / Fleckenbühl farm
Title of the case study:
Demeter farm run by a community of drug addicted people
MAIN DATA
Country
Germany
Year of establishment
1984
Target groups
- Addicts
Type of farm
Biodynamic mixed farm
Size (in hectares)
250 ha (80 ha pasture land and 170 ha arable land)
Numbers of employees from target groups
Farm is run by the community itself with a concept that the community of former addicts manage the farm by themselves. They are not “employed” but part of the community.
Number of members from target groups using services without employment
Everyone joining the community becomes an “employee” by being integrated into the work which is supervised by those who are on the farm already for a longer time and have the ability and the background to be leaders of the work.
Sources they live from
Products, donations, government
Innovative / not innovative
Innovative
Websites
www.facebook.com/diefleckenbuehler
www.instagram.com/wir_sind_mehr_als
www.youtube.com/user/dieFleckenbuehler
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Well kept a bio-diverse landscape of the Fleckenbühler |
DESCRIPTION
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Former drug addicts running a biodynamic farm |
Die Fleckenbühler e.V. is a community and self-help organization for people with addiction problems who want to live without drugs, alcohol, tobacco and the use of violence. It was founded in 1984 and is located close to the city of Cölbe. People with an addiction can directly come and stay there from that moment onwards but they must stay sober. Furthermore it is accepted by the government that prisoners can come there instead of going to prison. At the moment about 120 people live there. The community is managed by people who have been addicts themselves in the past. People who come there can work on the farm, in the cheese dairy or in the bakery, which is located in Frankfurt. There are three main rules which is part of their concept, you are not allowed to take any kinds of drugs, you are not allowed to smoke and you are not allowed to show any kind of violence. Financially there are three components which cover their costs. The first one is the money which comes from the products they sell, the second source of money is money from the government which they get for the prisoners who work there and the last bit of money comes from donations, founding or fundraising.
POSITIVE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
The main impulse to start the farm was that a group of people who were former addicts found it especially healing to work with nature. This was in 1984. Uwe Weimar only joined the farm as a client in 2000. “My motivation to work here is that the organization helped me in the past, so now I like to help other people with a similar problem.” Another aspect he mentiones is that he likes to do something to improve nature conservation. He finds it difficult to talk about success because the think that success is not really the right word to describe it. But he is happy about that the farm and enterprise “Fleckenbühler” still exists and that he managed to stay and work for such a long time on the farm. Moreover for him it is always great to see when a person he worked with on the farm is now living a normal life. According to him the new innovations which have been realized is that the organization has elaborated a new financing model now.
OBSTACLES AND HOW TO OVERCOME
Uwe Weimar says that there is always a variety of conflicts you have to try to work with. In terms of social conflicts there are many who are responsible for making decisions. But they all may have different opinions on the discussed matters. Regarding finances the money which comes from public subsidies has become less and but the bureaucracy in order to get this money has increased over the years. In connection with this a lot of this paperwork has become digitalized which means that especially for the older generation it has become more difficult to do this kind of work. There are always problems with clients, but they have changed. “Nowadays people take drugs which lead to irreparable damage in their brain! In the past it was only drugs like heroine where the brain fully functioned again after not taking them for a while.” One challenge they have which they try to overcome is connected with their sales. In the past their old farm shop became a brasserie. But over time they developed such high standards so that the farm did not manage to sell all their products in the shop anymore. They overcame the problem by re-opening a little farm shop in the end.
RECOMMENDATIONS, ADVICE
Uwe Weimar says that you should really inform yourself about how much work it will be and how it can be financially sustainable before starting a social farm. Additionally, you should be sure about who will be your main target group because different rules apply for each target group. Further on Uwe explained that you should avoid having to high expectations for your project a therefore your initial investments are going to be too high. What he recommends is to slowly set up a project and then it will need some time to grow.
PROMO
Uwe Weimar explaines that they have two farm shops to sell their products but they also have a shop in Frankfurt, an online shop and a catering service. Most of their products they try to sell within a radius of 30 km around the farm. Of course they also try that a lot of their own products are used for the people who work there but it does not always work. For example it is forbidden by law in a social enterprise to eat cheese produced from raw milk. So they are not allowed to eat the cheese they produce. But “the way we promote the farm is really professional.” They have one person dedicated to the social media section and for example they do a weekly facebook post.
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Farmer Uwe Weimar |
FINAL SENTENCES
He thinks that within the next ten years the sense of community will not be as strong it used to be. The reason for that is the change of the financial system of the community that might change the concept towards a therapeutic center; the production part is supposed to become less important. Looking more closely at the agricultural aspects, he says that the farm needs to adopt more to climate change and it needs to choose the right measures to do so. On the social side he thinks that some people who now are in the role of being a client will become the responsible ones being in charge of some branches the farm has. The aspect he is proud of is that the farm has been existing for such a long time.
