AMS GRANT WRITING WORKSHOPS AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE (AMSTA)

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1005160
• Grant No.: 2014-48775-22628
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $900,000.00
• Proposal No.: 2014-09739
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2014
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2018
• Grant Year: 2014
• Program Code: [FF-L]- IYFC, Admin. Discretionary & Reim. Extension

Project Director
Goetz, S. J.

Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
408 Old Main
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802-1505

Performing Department
Agricultural Economics, Sociol

Non Technical Summary
The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) seeks to provide training and support for farmers and food system participants with the goal of improving the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program (FMLFPP) grants process. The public benefits created by this grant program are potentially significant but need to be fully documented. The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, located at Penn State University, proposes to work closely with the three other Regional Rural Development Centers and the national Cooperative Extension System to ensure complete geographic coverage in implementing a national training program designed to improve the FMLFPP grant application, management, and evaluation processes.The objectives of this proposal are threefold: (1) to expand awareness of the current FMLFPP grant funding opportunity (currently set at $30/million annually) and to increase the number and share of high-quality submissions; (2) to make the application process less cumbersome, especially for small and underserved farmers or farm groups, by providing training opportunities and coaching for potential applicants; and (3) to help those who succeed in securing these grant funds to better manage their awards and document the impacts of their work.To meet these objectives we will, first of all, design a training curriculum in close collaboration with AMS. Second, we will offer direct workshops to train-the-trainers under this grants program and, third, we will provide direct support to applicants as they develop their grant applications. This will occur through close collaborations with extension professionals across the national land grant system.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
604	6050	3030	100%

Knowledge Area
604 - Marketing and Distribution Practices;

Subject Of Investigation
6050 - Communities, areas, and regions;

Field Of Science
3030 - Information and communication;

Keywords

farmers markets

local foods

evaluation

grants program

workshops

Goals / Objectives
The project's objectives are threefold.Working with the AMS Transportation and Marketing Program we will increase awareness among farmers and other eligible groups (to be defined) of the opportunities that exist within the USDA/AMS FMLFPP program area. Our specific goal will be to reach all farmers, farmer organizations and related eligible groups that currently appear on the listservs of land grant universities and that are potentially interested in local foods (for example, row crop farmers in some states who are at a great distance from consumers may not be interested).We will seek simultaneously to reduce the time and effort involved in applying for the grant and to improve the quality of the grant proposals. These efforts will be targeted especially at smaller farmers or farm groups as well as underserved populations in both rural and urban communities.The third objective relates to those applicants who succeed in securing funds. Here our goal is to improve the grants management skills of recipients and to improve the reporting back to USDA. Our goal is to train all recipients in the principles of good grants management and to assist them in developing appropriate measurement procedures, with the goal of achieving an improved success rate.

Project Methods
We propose to achieve these objectives using the following steps:Curriculum revision and developmentTrain-the-trainer workshopsState or regional-level workshopsEvaluationCurriculum Development Approach. We will work with the land grant system to identify and recruit individuals with relevant expertise from each region (a total of 4) to work closely with the RRDC network leadership and AMS to flesh out elements of a curriculum based on their knowledge of stakeholder needs and pre-existing AMS training modules. The four regional trainers will be charged with providing leadership for curriculum design and with training and coordinating the individual state trainers in their regions. The regional trainers will have experience with stakeholders likely to apply for these grants and in grants management. We will then convene a Washington, DC meeting of key AMS representatives, the RRDC leadership team for this project, and regional trainers. At this meeting a curriculum will be designed through close collaboration among the key personnel that reflects a national outreach, education and technical assistance strategy (including content). The curriculum will promote AMS grant programs (especially the FMLFPP) and will prepare eligible entities for developing and submitting competitive federal grant applications. We anticipate that this will take two to three days.Train-the-Trainer Strategy. The four regional trainers will convene workshops of single-or multi-state trainers for a train-the-trainer event to be conducted in each region. Each regional trainer will deliver curriculum in at least two regional sessions. These regional convenings will allow regional teams to form bonds to assist one another as the project progresses.State-or Regional-Level Workshops. The single or multi-state trainers will offer at least one Federal grant writing workshop that reaches each state for FMLFPP-eligible entities by providing hands-on, face-to-face interaction with trainers regarding the nature of FMFLPP, the expectations for receiving and managing Federal grants, and the basics of developing a Federal grant application (to include filling out required forms, constructing narratives and budgets, and registering with mandatory registry systems such as SAMS, grants.gov and IRS). We will advertise these FMLFPP-related trainings through relevant land grant university channels and networks, so as to reach as wide an audience as possible. We will work especially closely with partners in our 1890 and Hispanic- and Native American-serving institutions to create general and widespread awareness within underserved communities of the AMS grant programs. We also will target inner-city extension offices, as appropriate.Evaluation. Evaluation of the impacts of the trainings will occur in several phases. First, workshop participants will complete standard evaluations to help assess the quality of information delivery and identify gaps in the curriculum. Second, at each workshop, the project will collect names and addresses of participants. These lists will be provided to AMS to allow comparison of quality across individuals participating in the training versus those who did not participate. Those individuals who choose to watch recorded webinars instead of participating in face-to-face meetings will be required to register before accessing the web materials so that we have a record of these individuals as well, and can monitor their progress and success.

Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/18

Outputs
Target Audience:This project initally sought to reach those who have interest in, or have already applied to theUSDA AMS grants. Phase two, which currently is being carried out under the LFRM project, seeks to reach those who have already received a USDA AMS grant and are seeking technical assistance in carrying out their funded projects. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project held several train-the-trainer workshops ahead of the nationwide trainings, which provided a number of State Cooperative Extension staff a thorough understanding of the LFFMP programs and grant-writing best-practices. The project workshops that followed provided grant-writing training to attendees in all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands. The project also has provided PhD doctoral candidate Sarah Rocker with valuable experience in all aspects of the project's second phase, which is off to a strong start as 75 participants have already signed up to participate in the first webinar. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The curriculum developed in Phase 1 of the project is archived online (http://sites.psu.edu/amsta). Phase 2 plans, which will continue under the LFRM project, include webinars targeted at current grantees that also will be archived online for access by future grantees. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, in collaboration with USDA AMS, NIFA, and three other Regional Rural Development Centers launched this project in 2014 in order to develop and deliver a new national curriculum in support of grant applicants to the FMPP and LFPP. Over the two years that followed, 162 trainings were held reaching more than 3,000 participants. All of the trainings, which were held in every state plus Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands during Year 1, and again in the high-priority "Strikeforce States" in Year 2, were geared towards expanding the participants' understanding of how to write a better grant application submission to the USDA AMS. In 2017, with the training portion of this project complete, team members conducted follow-up assessments and evaluations with existing FMPP and LFPP grant recipients to explore with AMS how to support grantees in carrying out their work. Working closely with the grants management team at the Agricultural Marketing Service, we have successfully transitioned this Technical Assistance project into a new version (AMSTA 2.0). The goal of this project, which represents a fine-tuning of the Local Food Resource Mapping (LRFM) project, is to provide dedicated technical assistance to recent and current grants recipients of the Local Food and Farmers Market Promotion Programs. In addition to Sarah Rocker and Brian Moyer, this project includes five highly experienced "coaches" who will provide support to the grant recipients. The website of this new effort (under development) is: http://sites.psu.edu/amsta.

Publications

Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Those who have interest in, or have already applied to, USDA AMS grants and are looking to increase their effectiveness in completing the process. By increasing applicants' skill and knowledge, we expect to increase the number of successful awards given in a total year. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As previously reported, the project workshops held in year two provided grant-writing training to attendees in 16 states. All 25 state trainings were geared towards expanding the participants' understanding of how to write a better grant application submission to USDA AMS. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?As previously reported, results have been disseminated via workshops held in all 16 states. The curriculum has been archived online for ready access by grant applicants in the future (www.amsta.net). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will discuss with NIFA and AMS the possibility of follow-up evaluations with existing FMPP and LFPP grant recipients and providing additional training on how to successfully carry out a grants program once it has received funding. In this will use information provided by grants recipients in the "Problems encountered" section of their annual reports to AMS. Options being considered include providing a FAQ list and also preparing a Best Practices factsheet for these recipients.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The initial training component of this project has been completed, as documented in the two previous progress reports. At present, David Lamie is conducting a follow-up assessment of AMSTA in South Carolina, which will be completed by the end of August 2017. In addition, we are successfully closing down the over 50 subcontracts that had been issued to our land grant university collaborators.

Publications

• Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: http://www.amsta.net/

Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience:Those who have interest in, or have already applied to, USDA AMS grants and are looking to increase their effectiveness in completing the process. By increasing applicants' skill and knowledge, we expect to increase the number of successful awards given in a total year. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As described under Accomplishments, the project workshops provided grant-writing training to attendees in 16 states. All 25 state trainings were geared towards expanding the participants understanding of how to write a better grant application submission to USDA AMS. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via workshops held in all 16 states. The curriculum has been archived online for ready access by grant applicants in the future (www.amsta.net). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are presently in the process of wrapping up and synthesizing as well as documenting the results of the Year 2 trainings in a handful of states designated as high priority by USDA (the Strikeforce states). Because changes were made to the LFPP and FMPP grant programs compared to the previous year, it was necessary to revise portions of the curriculum. We are still collecting information on the various sessions. We have created an infographic to summarize the impressive impacts of this particular grant and are disseminating it through our website as well as at conferences as appropriate.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A total of 25 second-round (AMSTA 2) workshops were held in 16 states, with an emphasis on USDA-designated Strikeforce States. The AMSTA training materials from the first round of trainings was updated to reflect changes in the Farmers Markets and Local Foods Promotion grants programs. The number of participants in this second round of training ranged from 4 in Nebraska to 71 in Tennessee, with most attendees again being females (as in the first round). The number of minorities (Black, not of Hispanic origin), for states reporting this, ranged from zero to 25 in Indiana. Oklahoma and South Dakota each had three American Indian/Alaska Natives in attendance, one Asian/Pacific Islander attended in Oklahoma and one "other" attended in South Dakota. We are currently in the process of completing the reporting on this project including completing the subcontracts.

Publications

• Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Changes to curriculum to reflect FMLFPP program changes were made to website (amsta.net).

Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15

Outputs
Target Audience:Those who have interest in, or have already applied to, USDA AMS grants and are looking to increase their effectiveness in completing the process. By increasing applicants' skill and knowledge, we expect to increase the number of successful awards given in a total year. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This unprecedented project was built on a foundation of training and professional development. All 137 state trainings were geared towards expanding the participants understanding of how to write a better grant application submission to USDA AMS. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated via workshops held in all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands as well as in online form of PowerPoint slideshows and video series. The curriculum has been archived online for ready access by grant applicants in the future (www.amsta.net). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This project involved subcontracts with over 50 universities across the US. We are still processing final invoices from a number of these. A few states are also continuing their outreach efforts to underserved populations (e.g. Delaware State University). We are also finalizing the AMSTA online curriculum training webinars (in progress).

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, in collaboration with USDA AMS, NIFA, and three other Regional Rural Development Centers (Southern, Western, and North Central), planned, organized, and implemented the Agricultural Marketing Service Technical Assistance (AMSTA) project. Beginning with a meeting in Washington D.C. late in 2014, the AMSTA team created a comprehensive and new national curriculum for this project, in support of grant applicants to the FMPP and LFPP. This curriculum is useful both for applicants to general USDA or federal programs and for applicants to the AMS program in particular. Project meetings were held in person and on a bi-monthly basis using a virtual platform to ensure the progress and timely implementation of the project. The project unfolded as follows: Four "Train-the-Trainer" sessions were held at which the trainers from all 50 states were trained to deliver the curriculum in their own state trainings. These trainings were held early 2015 in Las Vegas; Nashville, TN; Chicago, IL; and Fogelsville, PA. In addition, the curriculum was tested during two pilot sessions held in Grand Rapids Michigan and Pittsburgh, PA. Altogether, 137 state trainings were held in all 50 states, plus Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands, reaching over 3,000 total participants. These trainings accomplished the outreach objective of the project. A review of the data collected on participants showed that the project reached 32.5 % of minorities which is considerably higher than expected based on the national average, both for the general population and for business owners. Additionally, the project attracted a total female population of 66.4%, 15.6% above national average.

Publications

• Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2015 Citation: The AMSTA Training Curriculum with Resources for Applicants; available at: http://www.amsta.net/