Agri-Cluster Retention and Expansion (ACRE) Program: Training Service Providers in Strategic Business Planning for Complex Value Chain Enterprises

PLANNED:

Overview of the Education Plan

At its core, this project is a training-the-trainers initiative. We begin by launching a listserv-based community of practice (ACRE CoP) that engages a group of 50 service providers who will be trained to facilitate ACRE programs throughout the region. This will be followed by the implementation of 4 one-and-a-half day ACRE process demonstrations around the region. After this online and in-person training, some service providers will proceed to conduct ACRE programs for any new or struggling value-chain projects they are advising. Other providers will choose to become “certified trainers” of the ACRE approach. Thus, over time, we will foster greatly expanded impact in the volume of trainers, the ACRE programs conducted, and the number of farmers who ultimately benefit.

Recruiting Service Providers Interested in Value-Chain Strategic Planning

Methods of recruiting service providers include networking with FSA, the Association of NE Extension Directors, the Northeastern Association of State Departments of Agriculture, along with our own Extension/NGO contact lists. The promotion will include a link to an online application for membership in the ACRE CoP that gives the project team a baseline understanding of trainees, including their interests, knowledge, affiliations, farm experience or experience in working with farmers, specific objectives in completing the training, how they may eventually apply the training, and their level of interest in becoming certified.

Service providers accepted to the CoP will receive an ACRE Toolkit that offers step-by-step instructions to facilitating an effective ACRE program. The toolkit will include templates, worksheets and other handouts, and case study materials that will encourage self-paced learning.

Training Approach and Content (Core Competencies)

The CoP will be listserv-based with periodic Zoom training. Online training will introduce basic principles of strategic business planning in complex value chains. This online learning will then be applied in four regional ACRE intensive training and demonstration projects, in which our trainees will participate in a “mini-version” of an ACRE program (compressed into one and a half days) conducted by the project staff. We believe that the combination of online “classroom” training on principles, coupled with experience in the field participating in an ACRE program, will provide the key learning-by-doing approach that maximizes learning in the context of vocational training.

The core competencies that will be gained include but are not limited to the following techniques:

• Create a transparent and trusting environment that maximizes collaboration between business partners in a value chain.
• Cultivate a shared vision, mission, goals, and objectives among all stakeholders in the value chain.
• Examine the past, accurately characterize the present, and plan the future of value chain.
• Narrow down a wide range of issues (drivers, challenges, opportunities) to those that present “key-leverage” project opportunities to increase present and future resilience in the value chain.
• Establish indicators agreed upon by the stakeholders to measure progress in implementing the strategic plan, with full accountability.

ACRE Program Certification

Upon completion of their training, we expect service provider trainees in the ACRE CoP to proceed to launch ACRE programs with marketing projects in their home communities. Project staff  will provide online mentoring. After conducting at least one ACRE project on their own, service provider trainees will be eligible to take an ACRE certification exam to demonstrate their knowledge of core competencies described above, such that they are confidently able to teach other service providers how to facilitate ACRE programs. Passing the exam with a 90% or better grade qualifies the trainee to receive an ACRE digital badge that can be included in LinkedIn, résumés, CV, and the like.

Though it is unclear at this juncture, our hope is that we will find an institutional home for the ACRE program at a land-grant university. We may also approach AgMRC or other online marketing resource centers about providing an online home for the toolkit materials and a portal to training opportunities. 

REVISED EDUCATION PLAN

We are providing a revised education plan to reflect the significant changes to our approach to this project. Over the last year (DATES), our advisory committee was not very engaged with the project. This was largely the result of COVID and the complexities it introduced to our advisors' own work. We chose to proceed with the plan to create an online curriculum in part because we realized that, given the circumstances, individuals needed to follow a more self-directed and self-paced way to engage with the training. Our team, including our key advisor and consultant Philippe Jeanneaux, developed this alternative method together. There are two key reasons for the revision:

First, we expanded the application of the AgriCluster Retention and Expansion program (ACRE) beyond value-chains alone. Over the course of our first year of the project we have come to believe that, while value-chains and economic issues are likely to be a major focus of many ACRE projects, ACRE can also be applied to a more broad range of sustainable agriculture and food systems, including regional agroecology projects, and even community food security project. The fundamental activities of building trust, a shared vision, and a measurable set of objectives in a strategic plan dashboard are the same regardless of the topical domain. Thus, we anticipate the ACRE training course will have more broad utility and impact.

Second, due to the travel and meeting restrictions brought on by Covid, we restructured our ACRE training for service provider into a 15-unit Moodle course that is being housed in Extension Foundation Campus. We are in the later stages of design the course and expect to be beta testing this winter. We will go live in the spring of 2022 after outreach and trainee recruitment for our ACRE community of practice. We still anticipate great interest in this training. The training will include weekly Zoom meetings thru early summer. The remainder of the project may be similar in some respects to our original education plan describe above, including four possible in situ ACRE workshop demonstration sessions around the region, coaching trainees to develop their own ACRE projects, and offering a certification exam for those service providers who would like formal certification as an ACRE project facilitator. Of course, these things, too, may need to become virtual in some way. Given the ongoing pandemic, it is difficult to predict how we may ultimately engage with trainees.

The net result of these issues is that both our training content, core competencies, and pedagogy are now a bit more complex, requiring additional time for service provider trainees to complete. That said, we engaged a training program consultant to assist us in developing our self-paced Moodle course, with excellent graphics, animation, and voiceovers. The 18 units are grouped into three courses as follows:

ACRE COURSE #1 - Preparing to Launch an AgriCluster, including:

• Unit 1 Introduction to the ACRE Process
• Unit 2 ACRE Theory, Principles, and Foundations
• Unit 3 ACRE Fundamentals of Facilitation
• Unit 4 Core Group Formation
• Unit 5 Core Group Planning Meeting
• Unit 6 Setting the Stage for the ACRE Workshop

ACRE COURSE #2 - Conducting an ACRE Workshop, including:

• Unit 7 Launching the Workshop
• Unit 8 Shared History Exercise
• Unit 9 Shared Values Exercise
• Unit 10 Shared Vision Exercise
• Unit 11 Opportunity-Generating Exercise
• Unit 12 Initiative Build-Out Exercise
• Unit 13 Prefeasibility Analysis
• Unit 14 Drafting the Project Work Plan
• Unit 15 Workshop Wrap-Up and Evaluation

ACRE COURSE #3 - Ratifying and Implementing an ACRE Project Work Plan: includes:

• Unit 16 Post-Workshop Core Group Meeting 
• Unit 17 ACRE Project Summit and Work Plan Ratification
• Unit 18 Project Implementation: An Overview