About – Kaima Nahalal

A farm where people and the land grow together

About Us

Who We Are: Founded in 2016 in Israel's Northern Jezreel Valley, Kaima Nahalal is a non-profit educational farm that expands opportunities for vulnerable youth and young adults — and strengthens the wider community in the process.

Our Mission: To foster personal agency, self-worth, and a sense of belonging in young people aged 15 to 21 who have been unable to find their footing in conventional educational, social, or national service settings.

Our Approach: We use the farm as our classroom and nature as our teacher. Through agricultural work and community life, participants discover their own capacity to grow — not through therapy, but through doing.

Who We Serve: We work with youth and young adults navigating serious challenges: school dropout, addiction, trauma, dangerously low self-esteem, and the particular vulnerabilities that can follow departure from ultra-orthodox communities, among others. Since 2024, in the wake of the Israel-Hamas War, we have also been working with Israel's welfare authorities to absorb distressed youth evacuated from the country's border regions.

Our Roots: Kaima Nahalal was founded as the first all-girl, woman-run farm in the Kaima social farming network. In 2024, we expanded our community to include boys, deepening our commitment to serving all vulnerable youth who need us.

Aims

Provide employment (a powerful tool for self-improvement) and cultivate other practical skills which foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking for young people facing significant barriers to social and academic advancement.
Create a safe environment to help heal past traumas and reconnect to society by encouraging people to trust themselves, their peers, and particularly adults.
Encourage teamwork and leadership development and cultivate a sense of personal value, self-confidence, and collective accountability.
Support youth (15-18) in returning to some form of formal educational setting and the pursuit of matriculation and encourage army/national service as a path toward social inclusion.
Provide a transition from adolescence to young adulthood for young women (18-21) not yet equipped to enter society with full autonomy.
Advance the concept of Yesh Meain (“Creating Something from Nothing”) in fostering environmental and social awareness and promoting change regarding agricultural consumption and perceptions of abundance within Israeli society.
Tap into the healing power of nature, promote healthy and mindful eco-friendly lifestyles, and offer the community access to organically-grown vegetables.
Demonstrate that girls and women can assume ownership and leadership in an arena such as agriculture, typically dominated by men.
Serve as a gathering place in a region of diverse communities and ecosystems where the people of all backgrounds can come together to learn about environmentalism and social and agricultural diversity.
Provide high-quality, sustainably-grown vegetables to a public increasingly more interested in farm-to-table produce.

Core Activities

Kaima Nahalal provides critical social and educational interventions for in a region (far from the center of the country) where few resources are devoted to addressing the underserved needs of high-risk girls, and offers opportunities for the wider community to come together.

Project Lavender - Long-term employment and empowerment activities

Our flagship "employment-as-education" program, Project Lavender, its name chosen for the plant’s restorative properties and holy references, targets two populations registered with Israel’s welfare authorities: youth (15-18) who have left or are at risk of leaving the formal school system, as well as young women (18-21) who have aged-out of other treatment frameworks and are performing a modified form of national service.

This intensive employment program teaches participants to grow, cultivate, market, and sell the farm's products to our customers who receive fresh vegetables delivered to their homes weekly. In doing so, they learn new skills and earn a salary, incentive that helps them take responsibility for themselves, the team, and the farm. Kaima Nahalal Farm provides a safe place in nature, where people and the land grow together. Our adult staff provides a protected environment for learning, conversation, and the creation of significant friendships. Difficulties that may arise during the work shift provide opportunities for dialogue that encourage personal adaptability and growth.

With the right funding, we can provide up to 60 young people with full-time employment per annum. On average, some 80% of these participants return to normative educational frameworks within six months.