Progress 07/30/24 to 07/29/25
Outputs Target Audience:The target audience of the Colorado AgrAbility Project is farmers, ranchers, agricultural workers, and their families as well as workers in adjacent industries supporting agriculture that have been affected by injuries, long-term illnesses, disabilities, behavioral health concerns or other barriers inhibiting their ability to work. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In October of 2024, Hannah Cefelo was hired as our newest Rural rehabilitation specialist. Candiss Leathers and Ashley Buchanan provided a large amount of one-on-one mentoring to our newest Rural Rehabilitation Specialist Hannah Cefelo. Hannah spent the first 6 months working with Ashley and Candy to learn all aspects of the position and has spent many hours shadowing, learning available resources, reviewing case notes. She is now doing intakes and assessments by herself. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our main method for dissemination of results and information continues to be through our website: https://agrability.colostate.edu/, and our email distribution lists. We updated our website this past year to ensure all resources available on the webpages are available and up to date. We also shared our outcomes through our annual impact report with our partner and extension network. Our impact report is also available in hard copy at our booths and presentations. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, we will continue toprovidehigh-qualityservices at no cost to Colorado farmers and ranchers and promote their independence by helping workers find the help they need to begin, remain or regain employment in agriculture. This, in turn, will have positive economic implications for farmers and ranchers and the rural communities in which they live and work.Providing supportis particularly important as rural areas have higher disability rates than urban areas (ACS 2022), and with the age of U.S farmers and ranchers continuing to rise each year this issue will only be exacerbated. A2024 study found that job-related agricultural injuries in the United States resulted in costs of $11.31 billion dollars which is 2.1% of U.S Gross Farm income (Adhikari et al., 2024). AgrAbility support services to Colorado farmers and ranchers can help to reduce these costs to producers and society through the reduction of secondary injuries (Adhikari et al. 2024 found that 19.4% of all agricultural injuries were secondary or tertiary injuries) and providing farmers and ranchers a path forward to continued employment after their injury or disability. Objective 1: Direct Assistance -the Colorado AgrAbility Project will provide direct, customized on-site service to Colorado ranchers and farmers with disabilities. We will provide Colorado farmers and ranchers with disabilities individualized consultive information, education and technical assistance to increase the likelihood that they, their farm operations, and others working at the same farms, experience success. To achieve this objective, we plan to undertake the following activities: Activity 1.a. Deliver on-site services to 70 clients. After the retirement in the last two years of both of our long-time Rural Rehabilitation Specialists,we were in a period of transition. We now have two Rural Rehabilitation Specialists who are trained and ready to serve our clients independently. Our experience working with the agricultural producer population has shown us that most injuries and disabilities have ongoing lasting effects that need continued services and support for multiple years. Activity 1.b. Continue to expand our services and build relationships. Relationships have been the key to successfully serving clients; it is through these relationships that we are able to facilitate the provision of the needed assistive technology and other resources for our clients. In this project period we will continue to build relationships throughout rural Colorado. Objective 2:Education is the Colorado AgrAbility Projects long-term investment strategy. Our educational activities focus on raising awareness of the dangers of farming and ranching and the need to be proactive in avoiding injuries and secondary injuries. This education is particularly important in agriculture which has a high injury rate, 15.25 per 100 workers in agriculture each year (Adhikari et al., 2024). Activity 2.a. Increase knowledge and safety of ranchers and farmers and their families engaged in production agriculture and increase service capacity levels of providers who work with these individuals. We plan to hold at least 5 winter workshops targeted at farmers and ranchers, with topics that differ by region based on the unique needs and agricultural production occurring in the different regions of the state. Activity 2.b. Mentor 1-2 students. Students can come from a variety of different backgrounds including Colorado State University OT Department, Creighton University, and the Colorado State University Extension Internship program. Farmers and ranchers benefit from having educated professionals who have experience with the unique needs of agricultural populations, and these experiences can often be difficult to obtain. Through the education of the next generation of professionals in the needs of agricultural producers with injuries, we will help to ensure that services and innovations that support the farmer and rancher population continue into the future. In addition, these students provide valuable contributions to the Colorado AgrAbility team. Activity 2.c. Internal education with Colorado State University Extension AgrAbility is a program offered by Colorado State University Extension and through leveraging the many assets of Extension, including their presence across the state, we can best meet the goals of this project. We have made great strides with internal knowledge of the AgrAbility program within Extension, and in the coming year we will continue to grow the awareness of AgrAbility to maximize the benefits that come from this partnership. Activity 2.d. Physical and Behavioral Health of Farmers and Ranchers goes hand in hand. Literature has shown that poor physical health as well as past injury or work disability are connected to mental health (Yazd et al. 2019). We will use our strong reputation for serving the physical health needs of farmers and ranchers to connect farmers and ranchers to resources and programs that address the psychological needs of our clients as well. Through other funding (Colorado State Senate Bill Funds and NIFA Western Region Stress Assistance Program), the Colorado AgrAbility Project offers support to farmers and ranchers beyond their physical needs. Through this partnership with mental health support, we will cross-refer farmers and ranchers to better serve the breadth of their needs. Objective 3: Networking touches all other aspects of what the Colorado AgrAbility Project does, without networks and trust building we would not receive any referrals. We will continue to build the capacity of the Colorado AgrAbility Project to deliver services to Colorado farmers and ranchers through our networks and partnerships. Activity 3.a. Enhance strong relationships with the National AgrAbility Project (NAP). The Colorado AgrAbility project has taken a leadership role with NAP related to evaluation. We have led the efforts to evaluate the QOL that our clients experience due to the project. We will continue to work on the evaluation of QOL improvements for all of the stateprojects that choose to participate. In addition, we realize the importance of the economic implications of our work. Our Project Director, Dr. Hill, is an agricultural economist with extensive experience evaluating the economic impacts of different policies and investments. We have been working on developing a methodology for the evaluation of the Economic Impacts of AgrAbility and in this coming grant year will integrate the evaluation needed for this analysis into the data we collect for the Colorado AgrAbility Project and begin to expand to other interested SRAPS. We plan to have preliminary estimates of the economic impacts of the Colorado AgrAbility project by the end of the project period. Activity 3.b. We will convene a Colorado AgrAbility Project Advisory Committee. We value the input and direction from our Advisory Committee members, and they have been instrumental in improving our AgrAbility brochures and providing input in our future directions and services. In the last grant cycle, we redeveloped our advisory committee. In this coming grant year, we plan to use this newly imagined advisory committee to continue to innovate on the work we do and best serve the farmers and ranchers in Colorado. Objective 4: Marketing activities are designed to increase awareness of AgrAbility and generate referrals into the program. Activity 4.a. Increase farmer and rancher awareness of theProject through public appearances, materials, success stories, news stories, and website Colorado State University Extension is doing a large-scale refresh of our website making it easier for users to find information, the AgrAbility project is fortunate to have been invited to be a part of this refresh with a new dedicated site for the project, we plan to use this opportunity in the coming year to revamp our website and the materials provided.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Activity 1.a 2 Rural Rehab Specialist (RRS)support The Colorado AgrAbility Project (CAP). These two RRS served 94 clients this past year. CAP is one of 18 statesconducting a 17-year Quality of Life (QOL) study to determine whether AgrAbility clients increase their QOL and Independent Living and Working levels (ILW). 52.2% improved overall QOL levels., 40% reducedphysical symptoms levels., 41.4%improved physical well-being levels., 47.1% improvedpsychological well-being levels, 55.9% improvedexistential well-being levels, 55.9% improvedsupport levels, 63% improved overall ILW levels, 50% reported improving all parts of their life. Activity 1.bSupported 21 new clients in CO with an injury or disability and supported 73 existing clients. Each received one on one consulting and connection toresources to strengthen their business and ability to continue farming despite their injury or disability. Alex, who experienced a spinal cord injury in an accident, partnered with us to create a video outlining the process of asking for help and finding services after injuries. When asked if he'd be willing to share his story, he said, "AgrAbility has done so much for me, I will do whatever is needed to help others like me learn about what AgrAbility can do for them". Vijay V., a Colorado AgrAbility client, stated: "It was a breath of fresh air to have someone who was on my side and wanted me to succeed in keeping my property as a productive farm that supports my family and community." Our RRS's are the pivotal connection for many of our clients in receiving the assistive technology they need to continue their work in agriculture. Partnering with the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) we connect clients with the resources needed to purchase equipment needed to overcome their physical limitations. For example, we were able to help one client buy a new skid steer, electronic pallet jack, and a UTV worth $102,000. This equipment helped the client continue tocomplete his agriculture employment, without them he would not have been able to continue his cattle or feed store business. Activity 2.a.We held five Winter Workshops in Grand junction (15), Larimer County (8), Greeley (7), Sterling (17), and Pueblo (40). Workshops focused on AgrAbility 101/ AT showcase/ OT Assessments.A collaborating OT professor discussed how the workAgrAbilityis doing improves the QOL for the Farmers and Ranchers with disabilities. As a result of these winter workshops, farmers and ranchers with disabilities and injuries received resources and direct service referrals. They were able to see hands-on demonstrations of available assistive technologies and get tools to help them deal with different sources of stressors and challenges. The workshops were also a learning lab for agriculture professionals that support farmers and ranchers. With farming being one of the highest-ranking occupations for injury, (2019, BLS) it is vital that people working in agriculture and those that support them are aware of services and resources available when accidents and injuries happen. Activity 2.b.AgrAbility mentored two CSU OT students, under Ashley Buchanan, AgrAbility Rehabilitation Specialist. Theycompleted site visits and assessments for new AgrAbility clients. They gained hands on experience working with rural clients in need of OT support andgot to witness client engagement to practice and apply their new skills and OT knowledge. Training the next generation of the workforce in the unique needs of farmers and ranchers will lead to better outcomes for farmers and ranchers. Activity 2.c.We continue to focus on this internal outreach and education with CSU Extension.AgrAbility is an integral part and signature program within Colorado State Health Extension. AgrAbility has worked hard to maintain updated information distribution and training for all existing and new staff in these county offices. One relationshipwe focused on is supporting seniors and aging populations. Activity 2.d.CAP's four Behavioral Health Specialists, funded through non-NIFA funds, continue to work across Colorado to identify localized needs and develop suitable programs and resources that promote holistic well-being. They have worked alongside and in collaboration with our RRS's to support the Behavioral Health needs of people working in agriculture experiencing limitations due to disabilities, and injury. This year we received two additional grants that focus on Suicide Prevention and awareness, and one grant that focuses on supporting people with disabilities that are interested in starting a career working in agriculture. In 2023/24 AgrAbility partnered with Colorado Farm Bureau, and the Colorado Department of Agriculture, using federal funds to create a film called "Legacy" that focused on the stress and behavioral health challenges experienced by people working in agriculture. The AgrAbility team has facilitated 20 outreach events with screenings for the "Legacy" film. This has resulted in 20 outreach opportunities to promote AgrAbility and the services and support available for people working in Agriculture with disabilities. Physical and behavioral health needs of Colorado farmers and ranchers go hand in hand, being able to provide more holistic services to our Colorado farmers and ranchers is one of the strengths of the Colorado AgrAbility Project. Activity 3.a. As a result of outside funding, we were fortunate enough to send 11 Colorado AgrAbility team members to the 2025 National AgrAbility conference (NIFA funding was used to send Project PI Rebecca Hill to the National Conference). Our team presentedsessions on the following topics: Economic Impacts of AgrAbility Help Us Help You Survey to identify Quality of Life outcomes of AgrAbility clients Legacy film, outreach and programing for AgrAbility in Colorado Critical Conversations for Addressing Stress in Agriculture One of our Co-Directors continues to lead the NAP evaluation team and the 17-year Quality of Life Study. The other is conducting ongoing research on the Economic Impact of AgrAbility, and has created an advisory committee for this study. Activity 3.bOur CAP advisory committeeprovided guidancein a variety of areas. We expanded the committee to include 5 additional members. One from a State Rehabilitation Hospital, a Current Agriculture Student at CSU, anExtension Specialist, a previous RRS and an AgrAbility Client. There are currently 16 members on the committee. The two AgrAbility clients are instrumental in helping us gauge the needs and effectiveness of our programing. The committee offered suggestions on increasing referrals, marketing and outreach for our program, and ways to secure diversified program support and the financial viability of our program. This team represents specialists and experiences beyond those of our immediate team. We have received two direct referrals from advisory team members this year that resulted in new clients. Activity 4.aCAP continued the dissemination of ourbrochures andhandouts to partners and at public events. CAP stafftabled at agriculture-related conferences including the Colorado Cattlemen's Conference, 8+ county fairs, the state fair, Southern Rocky Mountain Ag Conference, Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers, among others to market our services. CAP has developed a social media presence on Instagram and Facebook and is working with CSU Office of Engagement and Extension, Marketing and Communications, to further build out our public presence through our extension website. Additionally, CAP developed a repository of short-form videos that highlight the success stories of past AgrAbility clients. These videos are now available on our website and have been shared on social media platforms.
Publications
|
Progress 07/30/23 to 07/29/24
Outputs Target Audience:The target audience of the Colorado AgrAbility Project is farmers, ranchers, agricultural workers, their families as well as workers in adjacent industries supporting agriculture that have been affected by injuries, long-term illnesses, disabilities, behavioral health concerns or other barriers inhibiting their ability to work. While we serve all individuals who are in the target audience specified above we are especially working to target individuals from the following demographic groups: Hispanic - in this reporting period we reached 8 with direct services (this does not include workshop attendance or other outreach) Native Americans-in this reporting period we reached 1with direct services (this does not include workshop attendance or other outreach) Veterans -in this reporting period we reached 33with direct services (this does not include workshop attendance or other outreach) Women -in this reporting period we reached 27with direct services (this does not include workshop attendance or other outreach) Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This year, Candiss Leathers provided a large amount of one-on-one mentoring to our newest Rural Rehabilitation Specialist Ashley Buchanan. She has been working with Ashley to learn all aspects of the position and has both allowed Ashley to shadow her on visits and then shadowed Ashley on visits providing constructive feedback after the visits. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our main method for dissemination of results and information has been our website:https://agrability.colostate.edu/ We are currently working to improve our website and the resources available on the webpage. Over the coming year we will have a much more complete webpage and will do a better job being able to disseminate our results and information to communities of interest. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will continue to work with clients and work towards each of these goals next year as we have done this year. One particular challenge that we will face next year is the retirement of Candiss Leathers. Candy has been an extremely valuable team leader and her loss is going to really be felt in this coming year. In addition, we also lost Jim Craig who was one of our Rural Rehabilitation Specialists. Candy has been diligently working to get Ashley up to speed, but we still have one Rural Rehabilitation Specialist position open. We have been advertising this position for months and have not had any qualified candidates apply. So we start out this next year down one Rural Rehabilitation specialist and the one full time specialist is very new. Candy has graciously agreed to continue to consult with the project on a part time basis and help to train the new individual once they are hired. We are concerned with only one specialist, who is very new to the position, we may struggle to reach as many clients as we traditionally have in the next year. Our focus in this coming year is training and to build back up a strong team to continue to serve our clients.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Activity 1.a The Colorado AgrAbilty project had a total of 115 clients this year. Colorado AgrAbility is one of 17 states that has been conducting a 16-year Quality of Life (QOL) study to determine whether AgrAbility clients increase their QOL and independent living levels. Some highlights from the results are: -77.4% (N = 216/279) AgrAbility clients improved their overall QOL levels. -72.8% (N = 193/265) AgrAbility clients reduced their physical symptoms levels. -64.3% (N = 160/249) AgrAbility clients improved their physical well-being levels -67.8% (N = 183/270) AgrAbility clients improved their psychological well-being levels. -74.9% (N = 203/271) AgrAbility clients improved their existential well-being levels. -68.6% (N = 205/299) AgrAbility clients reported improving all parts of their life--physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and financial between when they began and completed their work with AgrAbility. 60.6% (n = 80/132) reported that they strongly agreed or agreed that their involvement with AgrAbility improved their household income. Activity 1.b In this grant cycle, we had a goal to expand our services to the following target groups Native Americans - Our goal for year 2 of the project was to serve 2 Native American clients, we ended up serving 1 this year. We are continuing to work on our relationships with Colorado Tribal groups. Hispanic - Our goal for year 2 of the project was to serve 2 hispanic clients, we ended up serving 8 hispanic clients. Veteran - Our goal for year 2 of the project was to serve 24 veteran clients, we ended up serving 33 veteran clients. Women - Our goal for year 2 of the project was to serve 30 women clients, we ended up serving 27 women clients. Activity 2.a. In 2024, we held three Winter Workshops in Kremmling (8 participants), Fort Morgan (9 participants), and Rocky Ford (8 participants). The workshops focused on Aging in Agriculture and included an introduction to CAP and its associated resources.Participants learned about farm safety strategies/tools and techniques to remain independent within ag. Additionally conversations were led by AgrAbility Behavioral Health Specialists surrounding emotional well-being, how to get the most out of your "mental engine" and strategies for stress management.representatives from the Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and community health agencies (e.g., Colorado Coffee Break Project, County Extension representative, etc.) were also present at the workshops. Activity 2.b. In 2024, AgrAbility mentored four Colorado State University graduate-level students. Two Doctorate of Occupational Therapy students completed their internships under Candiss Leathers, AgrAbility Rehabilitation Specialist. Doing so, they completed farm/ranch site visits and assessments for new AgrAbility clients. The students were particularly inspired by Candy's ability to build meaningful relationships with diverse clients. Read more about the student's experience on the CAP website. A Masters of Public Health/Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine student completed her practicum project with AgrAbility by supporting our communications efforts. The student developed a social media calendar that highlights upcoming AgrAbility and partner events, ag-safety/disability awareness information, and shares stories of past clients. This effort has helped CAP further develop our repository of impact stories. Activity 2.c. We have made great strides in this area. AgrAbility has become more integrated with CSU Extension and is now seen as an integral part and signature program within Health Extension. Some evidence of this is increased engagement and referrals by Extension staff as well as the integration of a field-based Extension professional on our Advisory Committee. We will continue to build on these relationships. In addition, we recently conducted a survey of Extension staff asking them about their knowledge of AgrAbility and how they engage with the project. Some highlights from this study: Most respondents were at least somewhat knowledgeable of AgrAbility services (50% have made referrals to AgrAbility before). Respondents would like materials that provide additional information about AgrAbility to share with community members, etc. Respondents ranked Ag-Stress, Assistive Technology demonstrations, and education about the process and steps to work with AgrAbility as the areas they are most interested in learning more about Activity 2.d. Since June 2023, CAP's four Behavioral Health Specialists have worked across Colorado to identify localized needs and develop suitable programs and resources that promote holistic well-being. Over 1,500 agriculture and rural community members received behavioral health education/navigation, 1 on 1 stress management support, or resources from CAP in 2023. Additionally, CAP co-developed LandLogic, a novel Cognitive Behavioral Therapy adaptation specifically designed to serve agricultural populations. LandLogic provides "agri-cultural" responsiveness training to help clinical providers understand the unique stressors and strengths within ag populations and provides evidence-based tools and interventions to support rural clients. Since 2022, 200+ mental health providers have received the LandLogic training and 100% of participants surveyed, who have mostly agricultural clients, agreed they would apply the LandLogic training to their practice. Further, CAP partnered with Colorado Agriculture Addiction and Mental Health Program (CAAMHP), to create LEGACY, a documentary developed to to decrease mental health stigma and increase utilization of support resources among ag populations. Activity 3.a. Due to outside funding, we were fortunate enough to be able to send 9 Colorado AgrAbility team members to the National AgrAbility conference and we presented in sessions on the following topics: Economic Impacts of AgrAbility Help Us Help You Survey to identify Quality of Life outcomes of AgrAbility clients Behavioral Health supports for agricultural populations Our Co-Director continues to lead the NAP evaluation team and the Quality of Life Study. We are also working on an Economic Impact of AgrAbility Study and creating an advisory committee for this study. Activity 3.b We have developed a one-page document which describes the roles and responsibilities to clarify expectations with our Advisory Committee members. This year we have re-imagined our advisory committee composition and have invited new members to the team. Our advisory committee met 2 times this year and provided valuable feedback in a variety of areas. Activity 4.a In 2024, CAP developed new brochures and 1-page handouts to ensure updated information is available to partners and the general public. CAP staff attended the several agriculture-related conferences, the Colorado Cattlemen's Conference, 8+ county fairs, the state fair, among other events to market our services. CAP has developed a social media presence on Instagram and Facebook and is working with CSU Office of Engagement and Extension Marketing and Communications to further build out our public presence. With the help of a graduate student intern, CAP has developed a social media calendar through December 2024, constituents of relevant content that promotes CAP's services, events, and community impacts. Additionally, CAP is developing a repository of short-form videos that highlight the success stories of past AgrAbility clients. These videos will be available on our website and social media platforms. Our website received several revisions over the course of the year to ensure relevance/accuracy of information.? CAP created a 2024 Behavioral Health Impact Report to summarize our influence across the state. View the impact report on our website: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://agrability.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/23-24-AgrAbility-Impact-Report_FINAL.pdf
Publications
|
Progress 07/30/22 to 07/29/23
Outputs Target Audience:The Colorado AgrAbility Project (CAP) serves Colorado Farmers and Ranchers with information and on-site visits. This year we updated our view of what clients we could serve to be the broader agricultural/rural workers who support agriculture, using the following definition: "All farmers, ranchers, agricultural workers, and members of their families are eligible to receive AgrAbility services. This includes both seasonal and migrant farm workers. Other occupations that have been served include loggers, fishermen, gardeners, lawn maintenance personnel, Christmas tree growers, truckers, agricultural implement service technicians, and wood workers" Within this audience we made extra efforts to reach out an support individuals from the following audiencesNative Americans, Hispanic/farm worker populations, veterans and women. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Over the last year, we have grown our team from 6 to 11 team members. As AgrAbility grows it has been important for us to provide professional development opporutunities for our team. One area that we have focused is to make sure everyone on the team is Mental Health First Aid trained as well as other agricultural based trainings such as COMET (Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory). Going forward we have carved out a budget from our state appropriated funds for team members to use for professional development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have disseminated our results to our communities of interest and we continue to improve our ability to reach these audiences. Our new AgrAbility coordinator is developing a marketing strategy that includes our involvement in relevant social media platforms and better utilization of our new website to communicate the results of our efforts. In addition, we are working to get our outputs translated into Spanish, and currently our website can be viewed in Spanish or English. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the coming year we plan to continue the momentum we have created in this past year as evidenced by the activities outlined in the previous section. The lessons we learned in our Spanish listening session and from conversations with New Mexico AgrAbility will allow us to continue to expand our service offerings to our target populations. We also will begin holding meetings with other SRAP's who have identified interest in an AgrAbility Economic Impact study to begin framing the evaluation materials. Our team is growing from 5 at the beginning of this grant cycle to a total of 11starting July 5th due to leveraging outside dollars for the AgrAbility program. In this coming year we are going to make the most of this opportunity to best serve our rural communities.
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1: Direct Assistance Activity 1.a - Deliver onsite services We have had a successfulyear providing on-site and follow-up services to both new and existing CAP clients.Table 1 below contains more information on the number of clients we served up to 3/31/23. We are also on track with service to our targeted audiences of Hispanic, Veteran, Native Americans and women. Table 1: Total, New and Returning Clients, with Actual Number of Total CAP Clients from Targeted Groups FY 7/30/22-11/30/22 7/30/22-3/31/23 Total # Clients 80 87 # New 7 14 # Returning 73 73 Total #Native American 1 1 Total # Hispanic 3 5 Total # Veterans 20 22 Total # Women 19 21 Closed 10 18 A directoutcome of CAP direct assistance activities are increases in the quality of life of our clients. Colorado AgrAbility is one of 17 states that is conducting a 16-year Quality of Life (QOL) study to determine whether AgrAbility clients increase their QOL and Independent Living and Working levels (ILW). Here are the most recent findings from the QOL study related to AgrAbility clients: -77.4% (N= 216/279)clients improved their overall QOL levels. -72.8% (N= 193/265) clients reduced their physical symptoms levels. -64.3% (N= 160/249)clients improved their physical well-being levels -67.8% (N= 183/270)clients improved their psychological well-being levels. -74.9% (N= 203/271)clients improved their existential well-being levels. -68.4% (N= 184/269)clients improved their support levels. -79.3% (N= 230/290)clients improved their overall ILW levels. -68.6% (N= 205/299)clients reported improving all parts of their life--physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and financial between when they began and completed their work with AgrAbility. Activity 1.b Continue to expand our services to women and veteran farmers and implement a strategy to build relationships and increase our Hispanic and Native American CAP clientele. Evidence of success in this area can be seen in Table 1. In addition, this year we held a Spanish focusedwinter workshop/listening session that helped us create networks with target groups as well as learn more about the needs of this target population. We have been in discussions with the New Mexico AgrAbility project on taking a more regional approach when working with tribal clients. Often tribal land cross state boundaries and working with our neighboring AgrAbility project will allow us to better serve the needs of this population. Objective 2: Education -CAP's long-term investment strategy. Activity 2.a -provide winter workshops with research-based information and education. In 2023 CAP provided five winter workshopsJanuary 11 (Grand Junction), February 10 (Colorado Springs), February 17 (Sterling), February 23 (Pierce), and March 1 (Limon). We were able to get more marketing from Colorado State University Extension (one example can be found here: https://engagement.source.colostate.edu/free-agrability-workshops-support-colorado-agricultural-communities/). The topics covered in each of the workshops were as follows: An introduction to Colorado AgrAbility, Ergonomic safety and health, PPE best practices, Drought and the Colorado River, and resiliency and stress management. Quotes from WW participants:"the depth of detail - really excellent balance of high-level information. Easy to digest and understand." "very good presenters and information" "This program is fantastic for individuals with disabilities." "The presenters were so engaging!" "I liked the diversity of programming. I appreciate the amount of experience and knowledge shared" We had a total of 96 registrants who attended including 25 farmers and ranchers and 71 professionals. Fifty-one workshop participants completed and returned "Help Us Help You" evaluations following their participation in the workshops for a 53% (n = 51/96) response rate. Some highlights: As a direct result of participating in this AgrAbility program, my knowledge increased. Scale from 1 - 9 very little tovery much, average score was 8.1. I plan to use the information presented in this program. The scale was from 1 - 9 not at all to a lot the average score was 7.8 An additional output from the winter workshops was that because of the workshop we were able to assist a participant to write a successful $10,000 LOR field work grant (http://www.lorfoundation.org/field-work/) Activity 2.b - Mentor students each year of the project This year the AgrAbility team is currently serving the mentorship teams of two separate Colorado State University Extension Interns. Activity 2.c. - Increase internal education with Colorado State University Extension about CAP. We are making huge strides in this area.Extension professionals turned out at our Winter Workshops in force this year and we have been integrating ourselves into the Colorado State University Extension Rural Health Team as well as the CSU Community Development PRU. We have already seen rewards from this partnership and expect them to only increase in the future. For Example, we were asked to facilitate a COMET training for new Extension employees. Activity 2.d - Seek non-NIFA supplement funds to expand the programs work in behavioral health. We have been fortunate enough to receive a state appropriation to serve our rural communities related to behavioral health. We currently have one state level behavioral health specialist (the first for Colorado State University) and on July 5th we are hiring three regional behavioral health specialists to serve in rural areas. In addition, we have been able to hire a marketing coordinator to help us communicate our story. We look forward to the future as Colorado AgrAbility expands our capacity to serve the behavioral health needs of our rural communities. Objective 3: Networking - touches all other aspects of what we do. Activity 3.a. Enhance relationships with NAP Colorado has prided ourselves on our good relationship with NAP and our continued partnership. This year we sent 6 team members to the National Conference and several team members volunteered to help with the event. One team member, Candiss Leathers, was awarding the prestigious ground breaker award. We also had a team member travel to and assist in Kansas City. We have led the National AgrAbility quality of life survey and continue to do so and are working on putting together a team to frame an Economic Impact Study to communicate the economic impacts of the programs to help seek future funding for this important USDA program. Our team also created a factsheet for the national program on important safety considerations. Activity 3.b. - Increase the effectiveness of our advisory committee This year werecreated the CAP advisory committee. We created several informational documents and training materials for our advisory committee. In addition, we strategically selected members for the committee and held our first new advisory committee meeting inJune. Activity 3.c. - Continue to strengthen the relationship between CAP and Colorado DVR One of our new Advisory Committee members is from DVR and at our first advisory committee meeting he gave us a presentation that was very helpful for both the team and advisory committee. Objective 4: CAP's marketing activitiesto increase awareness of AgrAbility and generate referrals. Our new AgrAbility coordinator has been updating all our materials and we have created a marketing sub-committee of AgrAbility team members to work on this revamp.One of the larger marketing activities we conducted in this period was to update our website. Our old website was not being updated with new materials, difficult to navigate and not visually appealing. We have completely recreated our website and have received significant positive feedback on the new site.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Leathers, C.; Fetsch, R., Sanchez, J., Craig, J. and Reznicek, C. AgrAbility Safety Considerations for On-Site Visits with Farm and Ranch Families. Colorado State University AgrAbility,May 17 2023
|