Progress 08/01/12 to 07/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:The long-term goal of the FBC is to expand the use of farmer-to-farmer training models as a proven approach for increasing the number of farmers producing food for local and regional food systems. This project will work to strengthen farmer-to-farmer training networks across the country. The target audience for this project is the existing Farm Beginnings programs hosted by 10 organizations in 12 states that collectively train 150 new farmers per year through the Farm Beginnings curriculum. In order to further strengthen farmer networks across the country, the FBC has built relationships with 22 informal farmer alliances known as the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT), across 19 states and 1 province in Canada. The organizations participating are the Land Stewardship Project, MN and WI; Angelic Organic Learning Center, IL and WI; The Land Connection, IL, FoodWorks, IL; Dakota Rural Action, SD; FARRMS, ND; Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, NE, University of Nebraska - Extension, NE; Maine Organic Farmers and GrowersAssociation, ME; Hawthorn Valley Farm, NY; Lake Superior Region Sustainable Farming Association, MN; CRAFT Southeast, TN; Caroline CRAFT, NC; Finger Lakes CRAFT, NY; Hudson Valley/Bershires CRAFT, MA; Catskills CRAFT, NY; Chespeake, CRAFT, VA; East End CRAFT; NY; Santa Cruz CRAFT, CA; Upper-Midwest CRAFT, IL and WI; Tri-StateCRAFT, PA, DE and NY; Ozark CRAFT, MO; Michigan CRAFT, MI; Mid-Hudson CRAFT, NY and Lower-Hudson CRAFT, NY. Beginning farmers will also be positively impacted by this project, since they are the target audience of each individual program. Beginning farmers in the FB program tend to be equally split between young people who may have come up through various farmer associations as interns, career professionals who are looking to change profession, and working farmers or children of working farmers seeking to transition toward sustainable agriculture methods. In 2013-2014 nine FBC organizations surveyed 157 FB participants at the beginning of the Farm Beginnings course. The results of this survey are very similar to LSP's observations over 17 years of training farmers and ranchers. From this we know that Farm Beginnings participants are primarily from a non-farming background, have some experience gardening or farming, a significant percentage do not have access to land. The majority of people we serve are female. A significant percentage are under the age of 35. Another significant percentage earn $30,000 or below in annual gross family income. Although Farm Beginnings does reach a diverse audience of beginning farmers and ranchers, people from culturally and ethnically diverse communitiesare not our primary audience. We do have recently returned veterans in our trainings but we have not yet developed a way to monitor their participation through our surveys. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?In-person Training and Resource Sharing to strengthen farmer-to-farmer approaches:FBC and CRAFT 1st conference, January 2014 - 37 people; Hours: 23 Topics:history of CRAFT and FBC; Holistic Financial Planning, Fostering Leadership in Farmer Networks; Grant Writing for Farmer Networks, Farmer Mentors:Improving Depth and Skill in a Farmer Network; Options in Farmer Network Models; Fundraising for a Farm Network; Fun in Farmer Alliancesand Bridging the Gap: Farmer Alliances as the Cornerstone of a Multi-year Farmer Training Program. Conference participants gave a ranking of 4.5 or higher out of 5 point scale on the importance topics, usefulness of information learned, organization of the overall meeting and its value. The meeting was successful both in terms of participation from both groups and outcomes achieved. FBC and CRAFT 2nd Conference, February 2015 - 32 people; hours: 20 Topics: Fundraising strategies, Educational pathways from intern to farm manager/owner, Building farmer educator skills, Teaching adult learnersand identifying CRAFT alliance Best Practices.Since this meeting was the last interaction between FBC and CRAFT for the purposes of this project we evaluated the progress made to reaching the objectives of the entire project. FBC and CRAFT alliances each had 17 staff and farmers who attended. Since this meeting was the last interaction between FBC and CRAFT for the purposes of this project we evaluated the progress made to reaching the objectives of the entire project. All participants ranked the conference a 4.1 or higher on a 5 point scale for achieving the goals of the collaboration (see other products FBC_CRAFTMeetingEvaluationPostMtg2015_0129).As a result of these meeting, AOLCshared its Farm Dream curriculum with Organic Growers School, an organization that is host of an active CRAFT farmer network. AOLC offered technical assistance to OGSthat enabled them to successfully carry out two Farm Dreams workshops for their region in 2014 and early 2015. In the spring of 2015 OGS along with their CRAFT farmer alliance joined the FBC. LSP provided 40 hours of training with OGS and their farmer leaders in preparation for starting a Farm Beginnings program. In-person Training to increase sustainability of FBC and CRAFT organizationsDuring the FBC and CRAFT conferences in 2014 and 2015 staff from AOLC, DRA and LSP provided three fundraising trainings. In 2014 the session, titled 'Grant Writing for a Farmer Network,' was attended by 13 staff and farmers from FBC member organizations and CRAFT farmer alliances. In 2015, the sessions, 'the ABC's of the BFRDP' and 'Grassroots Fundraising and how it can support your farmer-to-farmer efforts,' were attended by 30 staff and farmers from FBC member organizations and CRAFT farmer alliances. In-person Training to increase the knowledge and skill of FBC member organizations in evaluating short, medium and long term impactsIn-person evaluation training was provided during two - 2-hour evaluation trainings at the FBC 2015 Annual Meeting and the 2015 FB Facilitator Training. FBC member organizations were also offered the assistance of Ann Williams, the outside program evaluator, in creating evaluation tools, and conducting, interpreting and reporting evaluation data. The following member organizations requested and received 42 hours of evaluation consultation regarding their individual programs: 1) Angelic Organics Learning Center (AOLC), 2) Dakota Rural Action (DRA), 3) FARRMS, 4) Land Stewardship Project, and 5) Maine Organic Farming and Gardening Association (MOFGA). Two organizations received each received orientation and coaching for new programs and new facilitators. In total, six organizations received 48 hours of individual training and coaching on using the FBC evaluation tools. In-person training to enhance the skill and knowledge of Farm Beginnings facilitatorsAs a result of these efforts, during the three years of this project, Farm Beginnings facilitators received a total of 49 hours of in-person train-the-trainer, 52 hours of in-person coaching and 14 hours of resource sharing through conference calls and Facebook chats. Peer-to-peer sharing was also increased through the addition of 126 curriculum and resource documents that were added to Dropbox, the FBC on-line platform for resource sharing. In response to emerging facilitator needs and turn-over in some organizations, in-person coaching was added to the suite of options for professional development for facilitators in 2015. Four organizations received 52 hours of in-person curriculum coaching AOLC, DRA, MOFGA and OGS. The Organic Growers School was provided with two-trainings to prepare them to launch a new Farm Beginnings program which held its first class on October 24th, 2015. The in-person trainings during the 2013 FBC annual meeting focused on sharing teaching tools and curriculum for facilitators including working with farmer presenters; Record-keeping and Managing time and course content (6 hours). The in-person trainings during the 2014 FBC and CRAFT conference focused on Holistic Financial Planning and Farmer Alliances as a Cornerstone to Multi-Year Beginning Farmer Training (3 hours). During the 2015 FBC and CRAFT conference the in-person facilitator training focused on Resource sharing on working with beginning farmers to develop a Farm Proposal; Record-keeping resource recommendations and decision-making using the testing guidelines and Teaching Adult Learners (3 hours). In August 2014, 11 facilitators were trained over 2 days for a Holistic Management train-of-trainers. This training took 16 hours and introduced 79 curriculum and resource documents. Upon completion of this Holistic Management Training for Farm Beginnings facilitators, an evaluation of facilitators focusing on changes in knowledge was conducted for the major Holistic Management themes covered during the training, Holistic Goal and Holistic Financial Planning and Decision-Making, as well as the less major theme of Soil Health and Ecosystem Processes. The evaluation was performed on a 1-5 scale. Evaluation results showed that facilitator knowledge of the Holistic Goal prior to the training was rated as moderate (2.83), and post training, was rated as high (4.0) for a change in knowledge increase of 41%. As part of this change in knowledge around the Holistic Goal, 100% of facilitators indicated that they learned new approaches with close to 70% indicating they would immediately implement new approaches. Evaluation results showed that facilitators knowledge of Holistic Financial Planning was rated as low (2.17), and post training, had increased to moderate (3.67) for a change in knowledge increase of 69%. Through the training, 100% of facilitators learned how the financial planning worksheets function. In addition, 100% agreed that family budgeting and exploring family financial goals utilizing spending tracker tools and budgeting worksheets was an important and essential element of our beginning farmer training. As an outcome of the training, 83% of facilitators wanted to or planned to develop Holistic Financial Planning concepts and approaches within their Farm Beginnings courses the following year and expressed interest in additional training. This lead to a follow-up one-day Holistic Financial Planning training a year later, July 2015, as part of an in-person facilitators training at Angelic Organics Learning Center in Caledonia WI. Nine Farm Beginnings facilitators participated in this workshop. In addition to a one-day focus on Holistic Financial Planning, 11 facilitators gathered for an additional 1.5 days of training in July 2015, focusing on training and FBC logistical themes of: FBC Orientation Packet content brainstorming and sharing of proposed content plan; FBC Facilitator Handbook content and Core Skill Goals for Farm Beginnings graduates and Farm Transition Planning tools. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?1-Assist FBC members and CRAFT networks to strengthen farmer-to-farmer approaches. The culmination of the work ofthat the15 CRAFT and 11FBC farmer networks completed through the two conferences has been captured in the final booklet, "Collaborative Regional Alliances for Farmer Training: Best Practices of CRAFT Farmer Alliance in North America." This 54 page resourcehas been distributed both electronically and in print to all 25 CRAFT North America farmer alliances and all 11 FBC members. It is also available through the revisedCRAFT website, www.craftfarmer.org. 2-Increase the program sustainability of FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances through increased fundraising skills. To better understand the needs of FBC and CRAFT organizations, LSP and AOLC led a comprehensive needs assessment of the fundraising skills of each organization. The results of this needs assessment was shared with 22 CRAFT networks and 11 FBC organizations. 3 - Increase the capacity of FBC members to document short, medium and long term changes. All evaluation instruments and survey data are documented and save through a Survey Monkey account. All FBC members have access to the FBC Survey Monkey account and can access their evaluation data as needed. Individual organization, FBC aggregate data,two annual evaluation reports and two evaluation surveys were provided to FBC members. 4 - Enhance the skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings trainers. Peer-to-peer has been greatly increased through this project due to the sharing and use of a on-line document sharing service, Dropbox. All of the curriculum and resources that were shared during trainings over this three year period were added to Dropbox resulting in an additional 126 curriculum and facilitator resources available to Farm Beginnings Facilitators. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
1- Assist FBC and CRAFT to strengthen and expand farmer-to-farmer networks. Since the start of this project in 2012, we have surpassed our goal of reaching 22 organizations. ALOC and LSP opened lines of communication and resource sharing with 26 farmer networks, both FBC and CRAFT, across the US and Canada. These farmer networks now have access to each other and knowledge of best practices and successful farmer training models. The most significant accomplishment was successfully organizing, recruiting and hosting two conferences for the FBC and CRAFT farmer networks. In early January 2014, 37 people from FBC and CRAFT participated in a three day conference hosted by Hawthorn Valley Farm in Hudson, NY. In attendance were 20 staff and farmers from FBC and 17 farmers from CRAFT. The meeting was successful both in terms of participation from both groups and outcomes achieved. In February 2015, 32 people from FBC and CRAFT participated in a three day conference hosted by Organic Growers School in Asheville, NC. FBC and CRAFT each had 17 staff and farmers who attended. As this was the last meeting between FBC and CRAFT for the purposes of this project we evaluated the progress against our objectives. Participants ranked the conference a 4.1 or higher on a 5 point scale for achieving the objectives of the collaboration. The culmination of these conferences has been captured in a final booklet, titled "Collaborative Regional Alliances for Farmer Training: Best Practices of CRAFT Farmer Alliances in North America." 2- Increase the program sustainability of FBC and CRAFT through increasing fundraising skills. Based on an initial needs assessment AOLC and LSP staff provided 25 hours of individual fundraising capacity building assistance to 8 organizations, 6 FBC and 2 CRAFT. These consultations helped 5 farmer training organizations develop proposals for new initiatives, and assisted another group to brainstorm a potential application to a government grant program. Based on this assistance, three of these organizations were awarded a BFRDP grant. During the combined FBC and CRAFT conferences in 2014 and 2015, 4 fundraising capacity building trainings were attended by 15 people. For the FBC, the newly created sustainability committee convened monthly calls over the 3 year period totaling 70 hours of staff time including prep and follow-up work. By working to assist FBC and CRAFT to build fundraising capacity we identified a need to reach out to national funders. By building relationships with foundations and government officials and advocating for the importance of farmer-to-farmer led training, we have helped farmer-to-farmer training programs gain the attention of national funder's. 3- Increase the capacity of FBC to document short, medium and long term changes. In response to the situation analysis completed in 2013, the FBC Evaluation Committee undertook a process to prioritize 5 "primary outcomes" to be measured annually. The revised Graduate Survey was administered in the falls of 2013 and 2014. A comparative summary report as well as organizational and aggregate data from the Graduate Survey was provided to each organization. To assist organizations in identification and incorporation of shared outcomes a Logic Model Template was created. One objective of this project was to assist all member organizations in developing their capacity to conduct program evaluation, and to establish a minimum level of baseline and outcome measurement across organizations. The FBC worked to standardize outcomes and streamline 2 existing FBC evaluation tools: an Enrollment Survey and a Graduate Survey. At the onset of the grant (2012), all of the organizations conducted the Enrollment Survey and 60% (6/10) completed the Graduate Survey. In 2014, all organizations reported that they had participated in both surveys. Individual organizations were also encouraged to evaluate individual sessions of FB, and to conduct final evaluation at the end of the classroom component of the programs. The annual survey of the FBC indicated that all of the 11 organizations conducted final evaluation at the end of the FB classroom sessions. 8 of the organizations evaluated individual training sessions. At the 2013 FBC meeting, the member organizations reached consensus on using the commercial survey program, Survey Monkey, to retain all common FBC evaluation data. All FBC member organizations have access to the FBC Survey Monkey account and can access their evaluation data as needed. Individual organization, FBC aggregate data, and 2 annual evaluation reports and evaluation surveys were provided to FBC members. 4- Enhance the skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings trainers. This project has significantly increased communication and peer-to-peer sharing among Farm Beginnings facilitators. Prior to this effort facilitators had no organized system for sharing with each other or organizing trainings. As a result of these efforts, during the 3 years of this project, Farm Beginnings facilitators received a total of 49 hours of in-person train-the-trainer, 52 hours of in-person coaching and 14 hours of resource sharing through conference calls and Facebook chats. Peer-to-peer sharing was also increased through the addition of 126 curriculum and resource documents that were added to Dropbox, the FBC on-line platform for resource sharing. All of the curriculum and resources were used in trainings and then shared through Dropbox instead of through email. In 2012 only 4 out of the 11 organizations had shared their teaching templates and materials through Dropbox. Now all 11 organizations have uploaded materials in their file on FBC Dropbox account. In response to emerging facilitator needs and turn-over in some organizations, in-person coaching was added to the suite of options for professional development for facilitators in 2015. Four organizations received 52 hours of in-person curriculum coaching AOLC, DRA, MOFGA and OGS. The Organic Growers School was provided with 2 trainings to prepare them to launch a new Farm Beginnings program which started in October 2015. The in-person trainings during each of the FBC annual meeting focused on sharing teaching tools and curriculum for facilitators. In August 2014, 11 facilitators participated in a train-the-trainer focused on Holistic Management. This took 16 hours and introduced 79 curriculum and resource documents. Upon completion, facilitators evaluated their changes in knowledge and plans for use of Holistic Management. Evaluation results showed that facilitator knowledge of the Holistic Goal prior to the training was rated as moderate (2.83 out of 5), and afterwards was rated as high (4.0 out of 5) an increase of 41%. The evaluation also highlighted that 100% of facilitators learned new approaches for clarifying values and creating a vision. Close to 70% indicated they would immediately implement these new approaches. Holistic Financial Planning and Decision-Making was a major theme of the training. Evaluation results showed that facilitators' knowledge of Holistic Financial Planning prior to the training was rated as low (2.17), and post training, had increased to moderate (3.67) a 69% improvement. Through the training, 100% of facilitators learned how to use financial planning worksheets and found the Holistic Management Testing Guidelines useful. This led to a follow-up Holistic Financial Planning training, in July 2015, at Angelic Organics Learning Center in Caledonia WI with 9 Farm Beginnings facilitators. In addition, 11 facilitators received training following the Holistic Management training. The additional 1.5 days of training focused FBC curriculum revisions and Land Transition curriculum. A result of this additional training was the development of a consensus of the core skills our programs need in order to be highly effective practitioners of beginning farmer training.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Arnold, Thorsten. Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training: Best Practices of CRAFT Farmer Alliances in North America. Grey Bruce Center for Agroecology. Ontario, Canada. February 2015
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Progress 08/01/13 to 07/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The long-term goal of the FBC is to expand the use of farmer-to-farmer training models as a proven approach for increasing the number of farmers producing food for local and regional food systems. This project will work to strengthen farmer-to-farmer training networks across the country.The target audience for this project is the existing Farm Beginnings programs hosted by 10 organizations in 12 states that collectively train 140 new farmers per year through the Farm Beginnings curriculum. In order to further strengthen farmer networks across the country, the FBC has built relationships with 22 informal farmer alliances known as the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT), across 19 states and 1 province in Canada. The organizations participating are the Land Stewardship Project, MN and WI; Angelic Organic Learning Center, IL and WI; The Land Connection, IL, FoodWorks, IL; Dakota Rural Action, SD; FARRMS, ND; Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, NE, University of Nebraska – Extension, NE; Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association, ME; Hawthorn Valley Farm, NY; Lake Superior Region Sustainable Farming Association, MN; CRAFT Southeast, TN; Caroline CRAFT, NC; Finger Lakes CRAFT, NY; Hudson Valley/Bershires CRAFT, MA; Catskills CRAFT, NY; Chespeake, CRAFT, VA; East End CRAFT; NY; Santa Cruz CRAFT, CA; Upper-Midwest CRAFT, IL and WI; Tri-State CRAFT, PA, DE and NY; Ozark CRAFT, MO; Michigan CRAFT, MI; Mid-Hudson CRAFT, NY and Lower-Hudson CRAFT, NY. Beginning farmers will also be positively impacted by this project, since they are the target audience of each individual program. Beginning farmers in the FB program tend to be equally split between young people who may have come up through various farmer associations as interns, career professionals who are looking to change profession, and working farmers or children of working farmers seeking to transition toward sustainable agriculture methods. In 2013-2014 nine FBC organizations surveyed 157 FB participants at the beginning of the Farm Beginnings course. The results of this survey are very similar to LSP’s observations over 17 years of training farmers and ranchers. From this we know that Farm Beginnings participants are primarily from a non-farming background, have some experience gardening or farming, a significant percentage do not have access to land. The majority of people we serve are female. A significant percentage are under the age of 35. Another significant percentage earn $30,000 or below in annual gross family income. Although Farm Beginnings does reach a diverse audience of beginning farmers and ranchers, people from culturally and ethnically diverse communities are not our primary audience. We do have recently returned veterans in our trainings but we have not yet developed a way to monitor their participation through our surveys. Changes/Problems: In year two of this project, we have continued to make good progress toward our goal of strengthening farmer-to-farmer training and networks across the country. We have learned some important lessons has we moved through year two that will make our completion of this work in year three more successful. 1 - Assist FBC members and CRAFT organizations to strengthen and expand farmer-to-farmer networks. We continue to suffer from the problem of not having enough funding to bring CRAFT farmer networks to the FBC and CRAFT conference. The initial budget and projections were an underestimated of the interest and committment of these group to work together and to build a national presense for CRAFT farmer networks. 2- Increase the program sustainability of FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances through increasing fundraising skills. We have had much less response to the offer for individual technical assistance to help build capacity for individual organizations to fundraise successfully. We have re-evaluated how we seek to build the capacity of individual organizations to be successful with fundraising. Our initial assumption placed a priority on providing 1-1 consulting for invididual organizations to address their needs. In fact, many of the CRAFT farmer alliances are volunteer-based and are not interested in applying for grants or conducting other forms of fundraising. Since most of the Farm Beginnings members have enough staff capacity and grants expertise to not warrant one-on-one consulting there has been only slight interest from FBC members. In part this is due to a delay in the funding and implementation of the BFRDP program. Now that there is funding and the program is up and running again we have already started to provide technical assistance to both FBC and CRAFT organizations. However, we have re-strategized our approach with this goal and have started to engage FBC members and CRAFT members directly in efforts to reach out to national funders to implement a resource development plan. We have learned that reaching out nationally requires increased planning and staff time commitment, and that we will need guidance as we develop new materials for individual organizations to launch succesful fundraising strategies. 3 - Increase the capacity of FBC members and other beginning farmer training organizations to document short, medium and long term change. While the work to reach this goal has been successful and we do not anticipate great changes, there are some imporant lessons we have learned in terms of the methods and delivery of evaluation training. The primary issue for people in using the evaluation protocol was a lack confidence in use of evaluation tools and interpreting and reporting on results. People are also not interetested in group trainings on evaluation. They prefer an individualized approach. Ann Williams work to reach out individually to each member of the FBC helped build their confidence in using the tools. Additionally, Ann has helped individuals experience the value of doing evaluations through generating reports that are useful for each organization as they talk about the impact of their work with current and prospective funders, their board and other people interested in their work 4- Enhance the skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings trainers. The main problem encountered during this year was a the partial cancellation of the FBC and CRAFT meeting due to winter storm Hercules. Over half of the facilitators were delayed by one full day and missed a full half day of in-person training focused on topics for facilitators. When the facilitators did arrive, they were able to re-capture some of that time through a 3 hour evening session. Additionally, a second in-person facilitator training was developed and hosted in August 2014 which more than made up for the missed opportunity due to Hercules. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Professional develop is a main focus of this project. We have provided professional development for 40 farmer educators and Farm Beginnings Facilitators through a dynamic and active relationship between these 32 organizations and their staff. Each goal of the project articulates a specific group and a focus for professional development with this group. The FBC is working with 22 CRAFT farmer networks to build thier capacity to train and support beginning farmers. This project has provided numerous professional development opportunities for the coordinators of both CRAFT and FBC farmer networks. Over 30 coordinators from 18 different farmers network received professional development at our January 2014 conference, which consisted of 16 hours of trainings conducted through a variety of formats: Open Space, breakout sessions, formal presentations, technical assistance and group learning. During this conference thirteen training modules were delivered for18farmer networks. Evaluations of the trainings reveal the following, on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being “Strongly Disagree” and 5 being “Strongly Agree; The topics covered in the sessions were important: 4.5; I learned useful information: 4.5; Overall, this was a valuable meeting: 4.6. Another facet of this work focuses on both CRAFT and FBC members and seeks to provide professional development in fundraising skills. This was accomplished through in-person trainings at the FBC and CRAFT conference, individual consulting and through the work of the sustainability committee. Two goals of this project focus directly on FBC members; building the capacity of individuals to implement an regular and effective evaluation protocol and building the skills and knowledge of FB facilitators. We were able to support professional development during this year by offering Ann Williams time and expertise to individual groups to address the evaluation needs that were identified in year 1. FBC member from six organizations worked with Ann to improve and implement their evaluation protocol. For the Farm Beginnings facilitators, the greatest need that was identified was more regular opportunities to learn from each other. This was accomplished through 3 facilitator phone calls and two training sessions at the FBC CRAFT conference. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The two groups identified for sharing information through this project are the Farm Beginnings Collaborative member organizations and CRAFT farmer networks. THrough this project we have reached a total of 22 CRAFT farmer networks and 10 FBC member organizations. For the FBC information is shared in three main ways, through regular conference calls led by three committees, Evaluation Committee (four members); Sustainability Committee (4 members) and the Facilitator's Committee (all 10 FB facilitators participate); on-line through the FBC Dropbox Account, Google Groups and through a jointly administered Survey Monkey account and during our annual in-person meetings. For two goals of this project the FBC members are seeking to include the CRAFT farmer networks through sharing information through individaul phone calls, group conference calls and this year we brought these two groups together for the first ever FBC and CRAFT conference. The three day meeting focused on sharing best practices, building organizational capacity and strenthening farmer networks. Additionally each FBC member organization has several other affliated organizations in their regions who they share information and tools with as a part of joint efforts. In September of 2013 FBC members presented information on best practices and gaps for farmer-to-farmer training approaches during the BFRDP Project Directors meetnig in McAllen Texas. LSP staff also shared evaluation tools and templates as a part of an evaluation round table during the meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? 1 - Assist FBC members and CRAFT organizations to strengthen and expand farmer-to-farmer networks.Envisioned and planned next steps for a North American alliance of farmer networks. At the FBC and CRAFT conference, clear next steps for building skills over the next year were presented. Steps to strengthen farmer networks included developing a centralized location (i.e. website) for manuals, resources and literature; increasing individual farmer network group capacity; increasing the relationship, sharing and capacity of a North American group of CRAFT farmer networks and FBC farmer networks; creating sets of standards for the CRAFT farmer-apprentice relationship and CRAFT group organization. Additional action items we are moving forward on include: strenthening relationships across CRAFT group, reaching out to other CRAFT networks, sharing different farmer network model, sharing different rmodels for how farmer networks benefit from relationships with formal organizations. This effort will be collected and shared through the booklet “CRAFT Groups in North America." This booklet is a written compilation of the activities, best practices and means of self-evaluating the success of CRAFT farmer alliances in North America. It is currently being researched and compiled and will describe and summarize the activities/best practices/success stories in which CRAFT groups are engaged. The booklet will highlight: Diverse CRAFT groups across the continent, pointing out their unique characteristics; Benefits that these activities provide to each group; Benefits of collaborating as a national/international CRAFT group; Photos from CRAFT alliances; Anecdotes and CRAFT farmer spotlights. It will be published and publically available in 2015. During the FBC and CRAFT conference in January 2013, the FBC has committed to a period of expansion and is taking preparatory steps to bring Organic Growers School of North Carolina into the Farm Beginnings Collaborative. They have a robust CRAFT farmer alliance and are proposing to add the Farm Beginnings program to their beginning farmer training services. 2- Increase the program sustainability of FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances through increasing fundraising skills. In the past year there has been less than expected interest in individual consultation from FBC and CRAFT groups. In light of this we plan to committee increased effort to building the capacity of the FBC to reach a wider, national audience of funders through training and in-person visits and conversations. We plan to engage 10 individuals from FBC and CRAFT organizationns who are interested in building their capacity for reaching out to a wider, national audience of funders. This will be accomplished through conference call interviews and in-person meeting with key resource people who are interested in sharing information and tools for reaching national funders. We will also provide regular conference calls regarding upcoming funding opportunities, like BFRDP and RMA. 3 - Increase the capacity of FBC members and other beginning farmer training organizations to document short, medium and long term changes. LSP will continue to provide leadership with the FBC members to maintain their use the established evaluation protocol. This is primarily through email reminders and sharing reports generated by Ann Williams. As we wrap-up this work of this project in the last year we want to make sure that each FBC member can access and use Survey Monkey to generate and send evaluations, download and analyze results both for their individual organizations as well as across the FBC. Additional training for this will come from either Ann Williams or a specialist from Survey Monkey. There are features within Survey Monkey that allow wider data analysis and sharing that FBC members will need to know how to use in order for the evaluation tools to remain useful. THis year we will have two years of results from documenting mid-term impacts (within 18 months of starting the Farm Beginnings course). This will be an important set of data to compare and report both back to the FBC members and to share broadly with other organizations seeking to positively impact beginning farmers. 4- Enhance the skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings trainers. Facilitators have responded very positively to the increased communication, resource sharing, and training provided. Facilitators are interested in topics both from a curriculum enhancement and knowledge increase perspective but also from a practical program management perspective. Facilitators have requested follow-up indepth trainings on specific topics, including Holistic Financial Planning. This training was developed and hosted as a two 2 day intensive train-the-trainer workshop in August 2014. Based on the evalation from this training and a range of topicsidentified from the facilitator's regular calls the following topics will be prioritized and organized to cover as many as possible through continued phone calls and in-person trainings. Facilitators prefer to meet in-person when possible and we are still working through the best virtual training model.A priority will be placed on providing additional training on Holistic Managment and specifically the Holistic Goal and Holistic Financial Planning. Based on resent survey we wil seek to include an additional, in-person training for facilitators in the next year.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The long-term goal of the Farm Beginnings Collaborative (FBC) is to expand the use of farmer-to-farmer training models as a proven method for increasing the number of farmers producing food for local and regional food systems. As a renewal project, the Education Enhancement Team will address gaps in training between the Farm Beginnings Collaborative (FBC) and Collaborative Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) beginning farmer mentor programs. In the last year the FBC members have identified several key objectives for the next 3-5years. 1 - Assist FBC members and CRAFT organizations to strengthen and expand farmer-to-farmer networks. This project has built of the foundation established in year one through the needs assessment and outreach to FBC and CRAFT farmer networks. Prior to this effort CRAFT and FBC farmer networks operate in relative isolation. Both faced challenges to farmer training without access to proven, successful farmer training models. Angelic Organics Learning Center and Land Stewardship Project opened lines of communication and resource sharing for over 20 farmer networks across the US and Canada. These farmer networks now have access to each other and knowledge of best practices and successful farmer training models that are used across the continent. Aspiring and beginning farmers in the US and Canada are more connected to national resources and receive improved training through participation in more robust farmer networks. The most significant accomplishment in year two was successfully organizing, recruiting and hosting the first ever conference for the FBC and CRAFT farmer networks. Over 30 coordinators from 18 different farmer networks joined with the 10 FBC member organizations to deliver 13 training modules over the course of three days. These training modules shared components of how CRAFT farmer networks work and farmer-led aspects of the Farm Beginnings training model. As a result of this meeting, Angelic Organics Learning Center (AOLC) shared its Farm Dream curriculum with Organic Growers School, an organization that is host of an active CRAFT farmer network. AOLC offered technical assistance to Organic Growers School that enabled them to successfully carry out two Farm Dreams workshop for their region. At the FBC and CRAFT conference these two groups also envisioned and identified next steps for a North American alliance of farmer networks. 2- Increase the program sustainability of FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances through increasing fundraising skills. In year two we disseminated the needs assessment report to over 22 CRAFT groups and 10 FBC groups. AOLC and LSP staff provided 10 hours of fundraising capacity building assistance to 3 organizations, one FBC member organization and two CRAFT organizations.These consultations helped two farmer training organizations develop a proposals for new initiatives, and assisted another group to brainstorm a potential application to a government grant program.Based on this assistance, one of these organizations was awared a BFRDP grant. During the combined FBC and CRAFT conference, two fundraising capacity building trainings were offered and attended by 13 CRAFT or FBC organizational members. The sustainability committee convened monthly calls during this year totalling 48 hours of staff time including prep and follow-up work related to the work identified by the committee. Through our work to assist FBC members and CRAFT farmer network groups to build fundraising capacity we have identified a need to reach out to national funders. By building relationships and advocating for the importance of farmer-to-farmer led training with strategic foundations and government officials, we have helped farmer-to-farmer training programs gain the attention of national funders circles. FBC members and CRAFT farmer networks are less interested in individual consulting than anticipated and in response we have adapted our work by focusing more staff time on the Farm Beginnings Collaborative sustainability committee and to developing materials to reach out nationally. 3 - Increase the capacity of FBC members and other beginning farmer training organizations to document short, medium and long term changes. During this second year of the grant using the situational analysis developed in year 1, we were able to target FBC member organizations who needed individual assistance to better understand and use the current evaluation protocol within the FBC. This was accomplished through 30 hours of consulting including 6 hours of evaluation training for new FB programs, increased use of Survey Monkey, a shared on-line data management system for all FBC members and revision of the evaluation calendar that was then sharing with FBC member at the annual meeting. According to a December 2013 survey of FBC members, all 10 organizations create and administer evaluations of individual classroom sessions as well as a final evaluation, all groups completed the enrollment survey and all but one group completed the mid-term graduate survey (18 months after taking the class), Each organizations received the data from the survey through survey monkey along with a summary report completed by Ann Williams. During this time the evaluation committee met 3 times by phone to monitor the progress of this work. 4- Enhance the skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings trainers. This project has significantly increased communication and peer-to-peer sharing among Farm Beginnings facilitators. Prior to this effort facilitators had no organized system for sharing with each other or organizing trainings. As a result of these efforts, during the second year of this project, facilitators have had five opportunities to share and learn from each other either face-to-face, by phone, or through group chats including three facilitator training calls and two trainings at the FBC and CRAFT conference in January 2014. On December 3rd, 2013 four Farm Beginnings Facilitators participated in the call to share information on logistics of the program including introductions, contact hours, an overview of the curriculum, working with presenters and curriculum highlights. They also prioritized which topics to cover at the upcoming annual meeting and assigned roles for facilitators to present on each topic. Another facilitator training call took place on May 22nd, 2014 with seven Farm Beginnings facilitators. The facilitators shared information regarding the following topics; strategies for adult education, teaching about cash flow, working with immigrant farmers and the Farm Beginnings curriculum, models for training and support beyond the Farm Beginnings course. The Farm Beginnings facilitator’s held a “Farm Dreams” resource sharing call July 19th, 2014 to discuss how programs offer the Farm Dreams training, what curriculum looks like and how it is priced. Five facilitators participated. The in-person trainings during the FBC and CRAFT conference focused on Holistic Financial Planning and Farmer Alliances as a Cornerstone to Multi-Year Beginning Farmer Training. In 2012 only 4 out of the 10 organizations had shared their teaching templates and materials through Dropbox. Now all ten organizations have uploaded materials in their file on FBC Dropbox account. In year 2 of this grant, the 2013-2014 FB Course Handbook was added to FBC Dropbox account.
Publications
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Progress 08/01/12 to 07/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The long-term goal of the Farm Beginnings Collaborative (FBC) is to expand the use of farmer-to-farmer training models as a proven approach for increasing the number of farmers producing food for local and regional food systems. This project will work to strengthen farmer-to-farmer training networks across the country. Our target audience is Collaborative Regional Alliances for Farmer Training (CRAFT) organizations across the country and the farmer networks engaged through the members organizations of the FBC. The activities accomplished in year one reached twenty-six organizations from twenty states to form a community of practice focused on strengthening farmer-led training models. The organizations participating are the Land Stewardship Project, MN and WI; Angelic Organic Learning Center, IL and WI; The Land Connection, IL, FoodWorks, IL; Dakota Rural Action, SD; FARRMS, ND; Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, NE, University of Nebraska – Extension, NE; Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association, ME; Hawthorn Valley Farm, NY; Lake Superior Region Sustainable Farming Association, MN; CRAFT Southeast, TN; Caroline CRAFT, NC; Finger Lakes CRAFT, NY; Hudson Valley/Bershires CRAFT, MA; Catskills CRAFT, NY; Chespeake, CRAFT, VA; East End CRAFT; NY; Santa Cruz CRAFT, CA; Upper-Midwest CRAFT, IL and WI; Tri-State CRAFT, PA, DE and NY; Ozark CRAFT, MO; Michigan CRAFT, MI; Mid-Hudson CRAFT, NY and Lower-Hudson CRAFT, NY. The beginning farmers impacted through the work of these organizations have a similar profile to Farm Beginnings (FB) graduates. Beginning farmers in the FB program tend to be equally split between young people who may have come up through various farmer associations as interns, career professionals who are looking to change profession, and working farmers or children of working farmers seeking to transition toward sustainable agriculture methods. Results of a FBC cross organizational pre-enrollment survey were compiled for a combined total 142 beginning farmers enrolled in Farm Beginnings for the 2010-2011 year. Of the beginning farmers enrolled, only 25 percent of the participants reported being from a farm background and 40 percent reported they were not currently engaged in farming. Fifty-nine percent of those trained were thirty-five or younger and 48 percent were women. This is typical of the beginning farmers engaged by all of the twenty-six organizations who are participating in this project. Changes/Problems: In year one of this project, we have made significant progress toward our goal of strengthening farmer-to-farmer training networks across the country. Only slight modifications have occurred in the timing of activities in year one. Objective 1 - FBC members and CRAFT organizations have strengthened and expanded farmer-to-farmer networks. The only modification to our original plan was that there was a higher than expected, positive participation of CRAFT organizations. Objective 2 - Increase program sustainability of FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances through increased fundraising skills. Due to scheduling conflicts the in-person fundraising training to FBC members in year one of the project was cancelled. Instead, FBC members were offered the opportunity to meet with fundraising trainers through individual phone consultations through the rest of year one. In addition to the individual consultations, the FBC developed a fundraising committee that has the capacity to develop a comprehensive plan for training for the January 2014 meeting. Objective 3: Increase the capacity of FBC members and other beginning farmer training organizations to document short, medium and long term changes. The FBC has found a way to utilize Survey Monkey for our data collection and analysis needs. We plan to continue using Survey Monkey as our primary tool for datagathering and analyis. We will look for a system to back up this data incase we are not able to access Survey Monkey in the future. We also plan to continue to work with Ann Williams to help us design, revise, analyze and summarize our data as a group. We will not be looking for another online system for datagathering and analysis. Objective 4 - Enhance skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings trainers. There are no significant deviations from our planned activities in year one for this objective. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project is working to strengthen farmer-to-farmer training networks across the country. Our target audience is Collaborative Regional Alliances for Farmer Training (CRAFT) organizations across the country and the farmer networks engaged through the members organizations of the Farm Beginnings Collaborative. The activities accomplished in year one reached twenty-six organizations from twenty states to form a community of practice focused on strengthening farmer-led training models. The organizations participating are the Land Stewardship Project, MN and WI; Angelic Organic Learning Center, IL and WI; The Land Connection, IL, FoodWorks, IL; Dakota Rural Action, SD; FARRMS, ND; Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, NE, University of Nebraska – Extension, NE; Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association, ME; Hawthorn Valley Farm, NY; Lake Superior Region Sustainable Farming Association, MN; CRAFT Southeast, TN; Caroline CRAFT, NC; Finger Lakes CRAFT, NY; Hudson Valley/Bershires CRAFT, MA; Catskills CRAFT, NY; Chespeake, CRAFT, VA; East End CRAFT; NY; Santa Cruz CRAFT, CA; Upper-Midwest CRAFT, IL and WI; Tri-State CRAFT, PA, DE and NY; Ozark CRAFT, MO; Michigan CRAFT, MI; Mid-Hudson CRAFT, NY and Lower-Hudson CRAFT, NY. The training and professional development opportunities we have provided included: In-person trainings Results from the Evaluation Skills Needs Assessment was shared through an in-person presentation to ning FBC members. Then small groups came up suggestions for support activities to increase the use and knowledge of evaluation methods throughout the FBC member organizations. Six hours of train-the-trainer was conducted by Farm Beginnnings facilitators from all nine of the FBC member organizations during the FBC member annual meeting February 2013. The training topics included working with farmer presenters, teaching record keeping and managing time and content for the Farm Beginnings course Through these facilitator-led trainings, the lead facilitators increased their own capacity to provide training for other facilitators Conference call trainings delivered Three conference call trainings were held (on January 23, March 6 and May 13, 2013) with a total of 6 FBC members and 15 CRAFT farmer alliances attending. The topics of the trainings were best practices for farmer networks, farmer-to-farmer training, and the role of farmers as trainers. From April 2013 through August 2013 two Farm Beginnings facilitator cross-trainingswere delivered through a Facebook Chat. The topics for the trainings were one - Course Overview and Course Flow--discussing course layout, spacing, and timing and two - Holistic Financial Planning. All nine FB facilitators participated. Coaching provided One FBC member organization received five hours of consulting to build their knowledge and skill with using evaluation tools. One new FBC program was trained on evaluation by a professional evaluator. Sharing of Farm Beginnings teaching templates and tools through a web-based document sharing site Three micro-agendas were created for each of the in-person facilitator trainings and then shared on through an on-line document sharing website with the entire FBC. Six new training tools or templates were shared during the two facilitator Facebook Chats and then posted to the web based document sharing site. Course Flows and Agendas from all nine Farm Beginnings courses were updates on the web based document sharing site. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The two groups identified for sharing information through this project are Farm Beginnings Collaborative members and CRAFT farmer alliances. Through this project we have reached out to a total of 20 CRAFT farmer alliances around the world but not all of them have decided to participate in our project. For the FBC, information is shared in three main ways, through regular conference calls, on-line through the Farm Beginnings Collaborative Dropbox website and in-person at our annual meeting. For the two objectives of this project that seek to work with both the FBC member and CRAFT farmer alliance we are sharing information primarily through individual phone calls and conference calls. In year 2 of the project all of the FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances will meet in-person in New York for a three day meeting. Additionally, each of the FBC member organizations have several other affiliated organizations who they work with in their region. It is up to each FBC member to decide how to share information with these affliated organization. Affliated organizations do not have access to the online document sharing website. In year two there will be an oppoturnity, through the annual BFRDP project directors meeting, for FBC members to share ifnormation that they are learning through this project with other beginning farmer training programs from around the country. The focus of this presentation will be on what we have learned about the obstacles, barriers, best practices and gaps for farmer-to-farmer training initiatives. Additionally, LSP hosted the BFRDP PD meeting in December 2012. LSP shared information not only regarding it own Farm Beginnings program but also the work of the FBC through a poster session at the meeting. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Year one of this project focused on laying the foundation for the training and support activities that will happen in year two and three. Objective 1 - Assist FBC members and CRAFT organizations to strengthen and expand farmer-to-farmer networks In terms of engaging a large number for farmer training networks we have hit our target in year one. In years two and three will continue to engage more farmer training networks and intensify the training and collaboration with the organizations that are already involved. The primary opportunity for training and deepening collaboration in years two and three will through two in-person meetings. The assessment conducted in year one has identified priority training topics that will be covered through the two in-person meetings as well as through 2 to 3 conference calls per year. Thetraining outline for the in-person meeting set for January 2nd through January 5th, 2014 at Hawthorn Valley Farm in New York. This training will provide sixteen hours of training including six hours of cross training between FBC member groups and CRAFT groups. The farmer network training topics for the January 2014 meeting are Fostering Leadership in Farmer Networks; Improving Depth of Skill in a Farmer Network; Options for Farmer Network Models and Fun in Farmer Alliances. An early estimate of the number of participants shows that this will exceed our target of 46 participants by nine with 28 Farm Beginnings Collaborative members and 26 CRAFT members attending. Objective 2 - Increase the program sustainability of FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances through increasing fundraising skills. A summary report has been compiled and is guiding the development of trainings for the in-person FBC and CRAFT meeting in January of 2014 at Hawthorne Valley Farm. At this meeting there will be a session devoted to Grant Writing and a session devoted to Fundraising for National, Multi-Organizational efforts. Consultations will continue with individual organizations as they increase their fundraisings skills. The FBC Fundraising Committee will continue to take action towards achieving its goals to increase the financial sustainability of FBC members. Specifically, this will include approach new, national foundations and developing a generic proposal for use by FBC members. Objective 3 - Increase the capacity of FBC members and other beginning farmer training organizations to document short, medium and long term changes. All of the outcomes completed in year one have contributed to our goal of having all organizations within the Collaborative with increased capacity in regard to evaluation. LSP will continue to lead the evaluation work for the FBC by sending out reminders and generating reports. As new students enroll in the 13-14 Farm Beginnings class each FBC member will direct their students to fill out an on-line pre-survey. LSP will work with a professional evaluator to summarize the results of the pre-survey in December 2013. At the end October 2013 LSP will remind FBC members to send out an on-line post-surveys for all FB graduates from the 12-13 year. LSP will work with a professional evaluator to summarize findings of the post-surveys in a report in February 2014. In addition to leading the evaluation cycle within the FBC, LSP will also continue to provide training and coaching for FBC members on evaluation. At the in-person FBC annual meeting LSP will lead a discussion about gathering qualitative data regarding beginning through interviews, focus groups and farm visits. LSP will organize a follow-up conference call training focused on how to use Survey Monkey to analyze the FBC pre and post-survey results. A professional evaluator is currently developing reports for each of the FBC members based on the pre and post-survey results. In years two and three it will be critical for FBC members to learn about the value of this information and how to create these reports themselves. In the next two years of this project, LSP will recruit FBC members to work with a professional evaluator on individual questions from FBC members including focusing on best practices for reaching out to graduates for the post-survey. Objective 4 - Enhance the skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings trainers. In years two and three there will be 4 to 6 hours of train-the-trainer training at the FBC in-person meeting. In January at the FBC annual meeting at Hawthorn Valley Farm the training will focus on three priorities identified during the assessment completed in year 1. These three areas are Sharing of Best Practices among facilitators, How to teach record keeping and How to develop effective farmer presenters. This group is planning 4 hours of face-to-face facilitator training at the 2014 FBC Annual Meeting at Hawthorne Valley in NY. In the fall the facilitators met reflect on their process, update their plan for future trainings and assess their Facebook Chats as a method for sharing information.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We are encouraged to report that twenty-six organizations participated in the first year of our project, including eleven Farm Beginnings Collaborative members and fifteen Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) organizations. This already exceeds the target of twenty-two organizations that we had set for the entire project. Through the participation of these twenty-six organizations we have reached into twenty states, six more states than we had set for a target for the entire scope of the project. In terms of engaging a large number for farmer training networks we have hit our target in year one. In years two and three will continue to engage more farmer training networks and intensify the training and collaboration with the organizations that are already involved. Year one of this project focused on laying the foundation for the training and support activities that will happen in year two and three. Under objective 1 – strengthen and expand farmer-to-farmer networks in 22 organizations in 14 states, we surpassed our original target through engaging 26 organizations from 20 states. Through this engagement process information was gathered from FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances regarding obstacles, barriers, best practices and gaps for their farmer networks. Two trainings have already been completed with 15 organizations based on this completed needs assessment. The assessment has also provided the topics for in-person training scheduled for January 2014 in year two of the project. Under objective 2 - increase the program sustainability of FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances through increasing fundraising skills progress was made through completion of a needs assessment survey by 13 FBC members and CRAFT farmer alliances, formation of a fundraising committee and progress on key action steps identified at in-person training in February 2013. Under objective 3 - increase the capacity of FBC members and other beginning farmer training organizations to document short, medium and long term changes significant progress was made. An assessment was completed through individual calls with the 12 FBC member organizations. A report was created based on the responses to these conversations. A special session was held at the 2013 FBC annual meeting to discuss results from the “needs assessment” done by professional evaluator Ann Williams with each organization. A logic model template was completed and is available through an on-line document sharing website. One FBC member organization received five hours of consulting on evaluation. One new FBC program was trained for a total of 3 hours on evaluation by a professional evaluator. In year one of the project two new members were added to the FBC Evaluation Committee. The Evaluation Committee accomplished the following - built the evaluation knowledge and skill of 9 programs, clarified shared outcomes for middle and long range evaluation through 4 meetings, helped 9 organizations develop annual evaluation calendars, gathered data from 133 beginning farmers enrolled in all nine programs and reflected on report of findings based on to evaluate short, medium and long-range goals. Under objective 4 – enhance the skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings trainers, we were able to accomplish our main goals of for the first year. Efforts to address enhancement of skills and knowledge of Farm Beginnings facilitators began in November 2012 with a group conference call of all facilitators. During this call facilitators from at least seven participating FBC groups discussed topics of interest for the Facilitator Training planned for Feb. 2013 at the FBC Annual Meeting. The biggest accomplishment of the year was having at least half of the February 2013 FBC Annual Meeting time devoted to these facilitator training tiopics. Through this facilitator-led training not only did these facilitators increase their understanding of best practices for working with farmer presenters, teaching record keeping and creating a manageable course they also increased their own capacity to provide training for other facilitators. Each of these three in-person sessions at the February 2013 FBC meeting was led by multiple FB facilitators and small group work was incorporated into each session with the goal being to maximize facilitators’ exposure to the other programs and their curriculum. In order to increase and continue more facilitator exchange, the trainers have initiated a new process for on-going cross-training. The FB facilitators hosted two topic-based Facebook Chats and tied the chats to document sharing of teaching templates on an web based document sharing service. This has resulted in an increase of the sharing of curriculum among facilitators through this web based site. In the fall the facilitators met to reflect on their process, update their plan for future trainings and assess their Facebook Chats as a method for sharing information. In addition to increasing their knowledge and expertise related to training beginning farmers new FB facilitators gained invaluable support and all the FB facilitators appreciated the additional contact with one another and want to continue doing training together.
Publications
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