History of Green Care Farms
"My Grandpa Ron was a farmer and a science teacher in Wellington County, Ontario. When I was 14, he was diagnosed with early onset dementia at age 63. As his dementia progressed, it became harder for him to spend time outside safely, and my family struggled to find meaningful programs and services that reflected who he was and what mattered to him."
Inspired by Grandpa Ron
"There were no programs in Canada for people living with dementia to remain active outdoors in this way. That gap stayed with me.
After learning about care farms in Europe and spending years working in healthcare, policy, and social work, it became clear that we needed new solutions outside traditional service models. Rather than simply study the need, Green Care Farms was created to build the program families had been missing. We have been operating since 2021.
Green Care Farms exists to offer outdoor day programming for people living with dementia in a real farm setting. At the same time we also support the wider journey that care partners and families are navigating across dementia care, respite, and community connection.
We know that a dementia diagnosis affects the whole family. Green Care Farms is proud to offer not only programming, but also connection, hope, and a different vision of what support can look like."
Rebekah Churchyard
Founder & CEO, Green Care Farms
Ron Goodall looking at a plane in the sky outside his long term care home
Rebekah Churchyard, in the process of building Green Care Farms
Rebekah with brother Arthur Churchyard and mother Mary Churchyard (Ron’s daughter)
Our Journey of Growth
2015
The First Seeds
Rebekah begins researching European Care Farm models, specifically looking at the success of Care Farming in the Netherlands and Social Farming in the UK. The concept for Green Care Farms coming to Canada begins to take shape.
2021
Breaking Ground
Despite global challenges, the first pilot program launches. We partner with a local farmer, Andrews Farm Market and Winery, in Milton, Ontario. We partnered with farmers to create safe, outdoor spaces for people with dementia to engage in farm activities.
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2022
Community Days
Our local community including many friends and family members responded to the call for help in building the program space and Sensory Garden. Over several Community Days folks who support Green Care Farms helped to construct our wonderful program space!
2024& 2025
Course: How to Start a Care Farm
Green Care Farms offered our first two educational workshop series on how to start a care farm! We completed our initial beta testing course in Spring 2024 with Canadian community leaders with great success! We repeated that course in Spring 2025 to a fully registered cohort.
Over three weeks we shared important information about starting a care farm. The content summarizes our model which is based on the Dutch care farming models all over the Netherlands and parts of Europe. Our example population will be people with dementia however the care farming concepts taught are transferable to many different populations.
Since then, we have developed our course into an Online Learning Platform, join the course waitlist here: https://www.greencarefarms.org/blank-3
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2025
Satellite Location
In partnership with our company, John and Jessica Zufferli create Meaford Green Care Farm in honour of John's mother, Joanne who lived over a decade with dementia. They now help others with dementia thrive in the section of their farm dedicated to Meaford Green Care Farm.
Present
Cultivating the Future
Today, Green Care Farms is a leader in therapeutic agricultural care. We continue to run our day program, teach courses and support consulting projects to additional sites. We have expanded to multiple locations, providing respite for dozens of families and proving that nature is a powerful partner in health.