Nikki Johnstone is the Manager and Owner of Waulkmill Menagerie, a social enterprise petting farm offering hands-on experience with animals for a wide variety of visitors based in New Deer, Turriff, Aberdeenshire. The farm currently has over 130 animals (and rising!), with emus, meerkats, chinchillas, and giant land snails calling Waulkmill home, alongside more traditional farm animals such as sheep, pigs and poultry. Nikki recently added 6 of her favourite animals, goats, to her numbers, and it was wanting to share her love of animals to people with additional support needs that started her business.
“Waulkmill Menagerie started by accident! I previously worked as a Learning Support Assistant, and when left my role and moved to the countryside, I was keen to continue supporting young people. I wanted to keep some animals and started with a hand-reared donkey and some goats – this then grew into keeping more animals. I knew that people with support needs could benefit from being around animals and being outdoors, so I got in touch with a care contact in the local council about how we could get involved in providing work experience and volunteering at the farm. They help with all the paperwork and risk assessments – we do our own here for each person we support too”.
“During the week, we support a wide variety of people of all ages – from those with additional needs, people on animal care courses at the local college, young people who don’t enjoy going to school – a whole range. Some are working towards a qualification with animals that will lead to a job, others are volunteering to gain a Saltire Award. We try to support anyone who has a general interest in animals, and we can offer them the chance of some hands-on experience.”
“People gain important skills when working with us – it’s so different to being in school. They get involved in brushing, keeping the animal enclosures clean, feeding, and depending on their course and abilities, they can even help trimming hooves. We tailor the experience to the individual and their needs, as well as what they want to get out of being here. They learn to be on time, to complete tasks and get to be outdoors, which is great for wellbeing. People leave having gained confidence in their abilities and are enthusiastic about what they’ve seen and done.”
However, not all people who have spent time at Waulkmill Menagerie leave.
“Quite a few of the people who have been for work experience move into paid roles for a few hours at the weekend. They spend more time with the animals, but we also open our doors to the public, so they work on their customer service skills too. It helps those with additional needs gain some confidence and independence.”
When asked if she would recommend getting involved with work experience to other businesses, Nikki says:
“Absolutely – it’s amazing seeing what people can achieve from being here. Businesses can really benefit from supporting different people and it can lead to fantastic opportunities for both you and the young person. It’s extremely rewarding…and it’s not as much work as you might think!”