Progress report for ENC23-232
Project Information
We propose a comprehensive training program for agricultural service providers from federal, state and local agencies as well as Michigan State University Extension. This program will be place-based in four prominent urban agriculture regions of Michigan and developed in partnership with urban farmers from each of those locations. Project outcomes for service providers will include:
- A deeper understanding of unique urban agriculture needs and the historical and racial context of urban agriculture that has previously hindered access to resources and services,
- Established relationships and trust between urban growers and service providers and
- Increased services provided to urban growers.
We will achieve these outcomes by establishing an urban farmer advisory team, hosting a series of regional listening sessions and using feedback from the farmer advisors and listening sessions to develop online and farm-based workshops for agricultural service providers to learn about urban agriculture production, challenges in accessing resources and services, racial equity, relationship building, and program adaptation to meet the needs of urban growers.
Partnerships With Farms in Urban Areas Across Michigan
A larger output of this grant will be the establishment of partnerships between grant project coordinators (MSUE & NCN) with regional urban farmers from Detroit, Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo and Flint. By engaging six urban farmers in a grant advisory capacity as well as hosts for urban farm listening sessions and workshops we will establish stronger ties between MSUE and the urban farming community. We also expect partnerships and connections to be developed between the urban farm partners involved and stronger linkages between urban agricultural work between Michigan urban areas.
Farmer Listening Sessions
As a result of hosting regional urban farm listening sessions around the state, we expect to produce additional educational materials for planned workshops and training that are specific to the needs of that urban farm community. We also expect the listening sessions to highlight other opportunities for collaboration, partnership and educational program development and will be sharing the results in a variety of ways during the grant project. This includes a written report outlining the challenges and opportunities facing urban farmers in Michigan
Educational Program Curriculum and Presentation Development
As described above, the main activities of the grant project include development of in-person workshops and web-based training sessions. These workshops and training will include the development of new presentations, content and programs that provide an innovative and farmer driven approach to professional development for ag educators and resource providers. While the workshops will be regional and place-based in nature, we expect there to be opportunities for the presentation material and curriculum that is being developed to be utilized in other urban communities across the North Central Region. The web-based trainings will however, focus on education that is relevant and relatable to ag educators and service providers in areas across the country
Planned Project Participation Outputs
This project will only be successful with the engagement and participation of both the urban farming community and the ag educators and resource providers the professional development workshops and training will be designed for. Farmer engagement is a key piece in ensuring the material for the professional development opportunities is relevant and impactful for the audience. We estimate that we will have 50 urban farm participants in the four listening sessions planned during year one of the grant. For the ag educator and resource provider web-based training we expect 75 participants across the three sessions and for the workshops we expect to reach an additional 40 ag educators.
Cooperators
- - Technical Advisor
- - Technical Advisor
- - Technical Advisor
Education
This program will be taking a very participatory and hands on education approach. Although the first year of the grant was focused primarily on data collection and farmer feedback that will be used for education program design during year two we did take steps to identify some of the facilitation and learning techniques that will be utilized during the year two education programming. At the suggestion of the farmers involved in the advisory committee a goal was to ensure that this training provided practical, yet impactful information in a fun and informative way. To this end the idea of a "Monopoly" or "Life" style game to describe the experience of urban farmers and the different challenges that they face was coalesced around by the project team and utilized to design the year one feedback sessions. For the year two educational programs we plan to feature small group activities centered around a game with "chance" and "community chest" cards that will inform resource providers about challenges and needs for urban farmers.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
To engage with a small group of active urban farmers from around the state to support the project development, engage with fellow farmers in their communities and provide a check on project coordinators to ensure grant activities and outcoems will best meet the needs of other urban farmers in Michigan.
Although key farm partners for the project were already identified, we spent the first few months of the grant re-establishing those relationships with the urban farmers who planned to be involved in the project. This included providing project information and farmer expectations for participation and what they would be receiving in return (fair compensation for their time and commitment to the project). The next step was to begin hosting the Farmer Advisory Committee meetings, on a monthly basis starting in January of 2024. These meetings were used as times to brainstorm the details of how we would be hosting the additional listening sessions in year one and in-person, on-farm trainings in year two. While we had a general framework for what would be included in these trainings we were looking to the farmers themselves to guide the format that would best meet urban farmers and resource providers where they are. The results of these meetings and impacts on the listening session and training design will be discussed in the additional education and outreach initiatives. Overall 6, 1.5 hour meetings with the farmer advisory committee were held and each farmer involved facilitated the hosting of a listening session at their farm or nearby farm property.
Outcomes: Overall learning and action outcomes resulting from farmers participation in the project advisory committee will be assessed at the end of the project through a final survey and feedback session with the participants.
Anecdotally, farmers have already expressed their participation has led to a strengthening of connections and community building between urban farmers in disparate areas of the state (Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, Detroit, and Flint). A better understanding of grants and participation and partnership with university projects, and deeper connection to farming resources and networks.
The first year of grant activities will be focused on obtaining information and feedback from current and future urban agriculture practitioners located across the four urban areas that have been identified for the grant. This will primarily include urban agriculture listening sessions in Battle Creek/Kalamazoo, Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids to better understand the challenges faced by urban producers in these cities. A specific focus of these listening sessions will be producers' ability to access state, federal and land-grant resources for farmers. These listening sessions are an integral part of the grant activities as each urban area will have unique challenges and historical contexts for communities that will need to be navigated and understood by agricultural resource providers and educators. While designing these listening sessions, MSU Extension and New City Neighbors will ensure that local farm perspectives and priorities are addressed by working directly with the regional farm partners identified in the grant who have the place-based knowledge and understanding of the context that these urban farmers are working under, and working to address. Without the critical step of gathering feedback directly from ag producers in each of these urban areas we would not be able to design educational programs that include an understanding of the unique regional context that is required.
With support from the Farmer Advisory Committee, project coordinators planned four urban farmer listening sessions across the state. These listening sessions were designed to be both a fun, family friendly activity that provided the opportunity for urban farmers to connect with each other while also providing their personal stories of challenges and opportunities in urban farming resource access.
These farmer listening sessions were designed to be as engaging and non-focus group like as possible. We ask a lot of our small farmers and often feel like we are putting them in situations that are more extractive and less reciprocal. These feedback sessions were setup to be family friendly, fun and engaging for participants. They included time for community building through a pre session farm tour and meal as well as hands on activities for participants (and children). These activities were all in service of the ultimate goal of collecting information to support the design of an urban farming game. This "game" will be used as the medium through which year two workshops are presented; A way to demonstrate the challenges and opportunities that urban farmers face when building their businesses and farm production systems.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
So far this project has focused on farmer engagement and feedback to inform educational program development for year 2/3 of the grant project. Many of the service provider focused outcomes will be collected as post workshop evaluations in year 2 and with follow-up focus group evaluation in year 3.
We have developed a new working collaboration with a local farmer in Flint who will be joining the project farmer advisory team and supporting the continued development of the educational curriculum and grant deliverables.
During this first year of the grant we have seen additional outcomes as a result of he grant activities we have engaged in. First and foremost greater connections and collaboration amongst farmers who are dispersed in urban areas throughout the state. We are also building this program with as much urban farmer input and collaboration as possible.