RABI Volunteer Newsletter – December 2024
Festive cheer and thanks!
A huge thank you to all RABI volunteers for helping bring the farming community together this festive season.
We truly appreciate you making time during this busy period to spread cheer at the end of a challenging year for farmers across England and Wales.
Below are some photos of recent successful events. Our apologies that we can’t include more.
If you would like to share your RABI event photos with us, please feel free to send them to us at volunteering@rabi.org.uk.
At the end of the newsletter, we have a few reflections from Jo, Chair of the Clwyd Committee, about their recent events.
Educate and Inform
On 19 November, we held a successful event at the House of Commons, attended by almost 60 MPs plus other stakeholders.
The aim was for MPs in the new Parliament to get to know RABI, understand how we can help their constituents and hear about wellbeing issues for farmers.
The day coincided with other events organised by the NFU. This was referenced at our own event and meant that MPs’ minds were clearly focused on the farming community. It also helped us position our role very clearly around the farming person.
We are now following up on the various contacts made on the day. You should expect to see similar initiatives over the next year as we continue to raise the profile of RABI and the need for support for farmers.
‘What Keeps Farmers Awake at Night?’
It is important that we continue to listen to farmers and use evidence to support the development of future services.
Given that many of our volunteers are farmers, we’d like to draw your attention to a study being undertaken by an organisation called Grounded Research, focused on understanding the challenges faced by farmers.
If you are a farmer and would like to take part or join their panel, please click here. Please do not share on social media to protect integrity.
Looking Ahead to 2025
Volunteer Survey
In the new year, we will circulate a link to our annual volunteer survey. It’s one way to get your feedback on your experience as a volunteer for RABI and helps us prioritise developments over the year ahead. We look forward to hearing your views.
Keeping Your Data Safe
In the last newsletter, we mentioned that we were going to contact you to check your details and permissions for communications with RABI. Recognising that December is a busy time for everyone, this has been delayed until early in the new year.
Volunteering in Practice
Q&A with Jo Strange, Chair of the Clwyd Committee
Who is involved in the Clwyd Committee?
We're lucky to have a committee of about 20 members with a great mix of experience and newer members who bring in fresh ideas and enthusiasm.
What have you been up to in 2024?
It's been a successful year for the committee with a variety of events, from bingo nights to bigger one-off events. We try to offer a range that will entice as broad a spectrum of the farming community as possible.
We were delighted to be chosen as finalists for the Community Impact award at the RABI Conference in October with our Cilcain Café. Twice a year we run a café in Cilcain village hall where we sell delicious baked goods alongside cups of tea to tempt the rural community out for an afternoon where they can get together and just have a chat for a good few hours. The social value is priceless, and it's such a heartwarming event to put on!
A real highlight for us this year was the Farm Walk we held back in June. It was kindly hosted by Swan's Farm Shop, who have won awards for their regenerative ag approach. We targeted working farmers and YFC members by holding it in the evening midweek and it really paid dividends with the turnout, with over 130 people attending. We nearly ran out of burgers!
Tell us more about your Christmas event — what did it involve?
We hold an annual carol concert in Ruthin Livestock market, and it's always a great night of Christmas cheer! It takes a lot of organising as we endeavour to have a proper choir and a full brass band every year, just to elevate it over a standard carol concert and make it memorable. This year, we had Meibion Marchan as the choir and Holywell Silver Band perform, and committee members worked hard to acquire brilliant donations for the raffle from local businesses.
Was it a success?
This year was the best yet. Both the choir and the brass band were fabulous and a couple of hundred were around the ring in Ruthin's main show hall. Many of them didn't previously know what RABI did but are keen to come to other events. Despite it being free entry, we raised £1,063 through the raffle and donations, and everyone was firmly in the Christmas spirit on their way home.
What are your plans for 2025?
We always like to try at least one thing new a year, and we're very excited to be holding a frog race in the Wrexham area next spring. It's a part of Clwyd we haven't done much in and we're conscious it's important to do things all over what is quite a large rural county. This helps ensure that as many people as possible know that RABI is there for any member of the farming community who might need us.
RABI Volunteer Newsletter – December 2024
Festive cheer and thanks!
A huge thank you to all RABI volunteers for helping bring the farming community together this festive season.
We truly appreciate you making time during this busy period to spread cheer at the end of a challenging year for farmers across England and Wales.
Below are some photos of recent successful events. Our apologies that we can’t include more.
If you would like to share your RABI event photos with us, please feel free to send them to us at volunteering@rabi.org.uk.
At the end of the newsletter, we have a few reflections from Jo, Chair of the Clwyd Committee, about their recent events.
Educate and Inform
On 19 November, we held a successful event at the House of Commons, attended by almost 60 MPs plus other stakeholders.
The aim was for MPs in the new Parliament to get to know RABI, understand how we can help their constituents and hear about wellbeing issues for farmers.
The day coincided with other events organised by the NFU. This was referenced at our own event and meant that MPs’ minds were clearly focused on the farming community. It also helped us position our role very clearly around the farming person.
We are now following up on the various contacts made on the day. You should expect to see similar initiatives over the next year as we continue to raise the profile of RABI and the need for support for farmers.
‘What Keeps Farmers Awake at Night?’
It is important that we continue to listen to farmers and use evidence to support the development of future services.
Given that many of our volunteers are farmers, we’d like to draw your attention to a study being undertaken by an organisation called Grounded Research, focused on understanding the challenges faced by farmers.
If you are a farmer and would like to take part or join their panel, please click here. Please do not share on social media to protect integrity.
Looking Ahead to 2025
Volunteer Survey
In the new year, we will circulate a link to our annual volunteer survey. It’s one way to get your feedback on your experience as a volunteer for RABI and helps us prioritise developments over the year ahead. We look forward to hearing your views.
Keeping Your Data Safe
In the last newsletter, we mentioned that we were going to contact you to check your details and permissions for communications with RABI. Recognising that December is a busy time for everyone, this has been delayed until early in the new year.
Volunteering in Practice
Q&A with Jo Strange, Chair of the Clwyd Committee
Who is involved in the Clwyd Committee?
We're lucky to have a committee of about 20 members with a great mix of experience and newer members who bring in fresh ideas and enthusiasm.
What have you been up to in 2024?
It's been a successful year for the committee with a variety of events, from bingo nights to bigger one-off events. We try to offer a range that will entice as broad a spectrum of the farming community as possible.
We were delighted to be chosen as finalists for the Community Impact award at the RABI Conference in October with our Cilcain Café. Twice a year we run a café in Cilcain village hall where we sell delicious baked goods alongside cups of tea to tempt the rural community out for an afternoon where they can get together and just have a chat for a good few hours. The social value is priceless, and it's such a heartwarming event to put on!
A real highlight for us this year was the Farm Walk we held back in June. It was kindly hosted by Swan's Farm Shop, who have won awards for their regenerative ag approach. We targeted working farmers and YFC members by holding it in the evening midweek and it really paid dividends with the turnout, with over 130 people attending. We nearly ran out of burgers!
Tell us more about your Christmas event — what did it involve?
We hold an annual carol concert in Ruthin Livestock market, and it's always a great night of Christmas cheer! It takes a lot of organising as we endeavour to have a proper choir and a full brass band every year, just to elevate it over a standard carol concert and make it memorable. This year, we had Meibion Marchan as the choir and Holywell Silver Band perform, and committee members worked hard to acquire brilliant donations for the raffle from local businesses.
Was it a success?
This year was the best yet. Both the choir and the brass band were fabulous and a couple of hundred were around the ring in Ruthin's main show hall. Many of them didn't previously know what RABI did but are keen to come to other events. Despite it being free entry, we raised £1,063 through the raffle and donations, and everyone was firmly in the Christmas spirit on their way home.
What are your plans for 2025?
We always like to try at least one thing new a year, and we're very excited to be holding a frog race in the Wrexham area next spring. It's a part of Clwyd we haven't done much in and we're conscious it's important to do things all over what is quite a large rural county. This helps ensure that as many people as possible know that RABI is there for any member of the farming community who might need us.
