A Taste of Paradise Farm, like other organisations that have been allowed to continue to operate during the Covid 19 Pandemic, has had to adapt a number of our usual methods to ensure the health and safety of the young people and our staff.

For us, being out in the wide open space and fresh air of a family farm has meant that young people can still visit the farm and meet and continue to work with their mentors, following the strict hygiene and social distancing rules from the NSW Government.

When one of our young people needed to stay home as their family were needing to isolate, the young person’s family asked if there was a way for us to continue to connect with the young person online. One of our mentors Luke suggested that we could do this over Zoom.

After Josie, the mentor, and her young person had a successful time over Zoom, Josie started to think about what she could do to make it a better experience for the young person the next time they met over Zoom.  She felt that if she could come up with a hands-free device that held her phone, then the young person could get a first-hand view of the work and activities Josie was doing.

Josie got to work and fashioned out a hands-free device that kept her hands free, while giving her young person a bird’s eye view of what was going on at the farm.  The really positive thing, aside from connecting with her young person during their isolation, is that when the young person is allowed out of isolation and comes back to the farm for their usual program, they won’t feel like they have missed anything as they will have been a part of the action online.

These images are of Josie modelling the new hands-free device and giving it a test run!