Progress report for ENE25-190
Project Information
Agriculture service providers have enormous capability to deliver timely, effective, and accurate legal education that prevents farm legal problems - despite the fact that they aren’t attorneys. Our proven model for training agricultural educator to teach farm law is in demand in the Northeast region. But at the same time, we need to adapt our existing model to better serve the unique needs of English as a Second Language (ESL) and New American (immigrant, refugee, and asylum seeking, shortened to NA) producers. These producers have just as much, if not more, need for quality legal education that guides them through the United States’ framework.
Simply translating or interpreting existing curricula intended for English speakers isn’t working. ESL and NA farm audiences need curriculum that provides robust explanation of common US legal concepts, that isn’t dependent on literacy levels, and that enables accurate, localized translation and interpretation into a wide variety of languages. Also, legal education for ESL and NA farmers shouldn’t sacrifice any of the leadership development and empowerment that US-born English speaking farmers experience when they learn how to resolve legal risk.
We can do this. We will adapt our existing and successful training program to effectively empower ESL and NA farm audiences. The Advisory Committee will help us do this by assisting us in identifying the concepts that need elaboration, providing a trauma-informed perspective, recommending non-literacy-driven mechanisms of teaching, and selecting words for the glossary. The project team will use this input to create a set of 5 presentations with slide decks and scripts, a teacher’s manual, activities, and handouts that teach the basics of business structures, insurance/liability, employment law, farm leasing, and farm diversification. These materials will be geared for low to no-literacy audiences and for interpretation/translation into a wide variety of languages. Selected glossaries in Spanish, Kinyarwanda, and Mayan will be prepared, with other languages developed on an ongoing basis in communities.
Then, we will recruit and train 8 agriculture service providers (called Fellows) to deliver this material in their own communities. Our 6-session training program builds confidence and identifies the exact bounds of legal education (rather than legal services). By providing robust and ongoing support as Fellows deploy the curriculum, we will see 80 ESL and NA farmers take essential steps to reduce legal risk. Most Fellows will choose to translate the material themselves and deliver it in the audience’s native language while others need to use simultaneous translation. Both will be supported. In addition, Fellows will use peer to peer learning techniques and leadership development to support their community’s legal resilience journey.
Eight agricultural service providers from within non-English speaking farming communities in the Northeast will deliver at least one and up to 5 select farm law presentations in their community’s first language, regardless of the audience’s level of literacy. Each presentation will reach at least 10 English as a Second Language or New American (ESL or NA) farmers during the term of the project for a total of 80 farmers served.
The 8 ag service providers we train will have the knowledge and confidence deliver our effective, community-focused curriculum without overstepping legal bounds. Our intensive 6-session Legal Education Fellowship (Fellowship, for short) gives our 8 ag professionals (Fellows, for short) the training they need. We provide robust support to Fellows in delivering the selected presentations including networking to others around the country who are delivering the same material in their communities after the project ends. This also means at least 80 ESL or NA farmers will understand and be prepared to implement best practices for legal resilience, regardless of: the language they speak, their familiarity with US legal business conventions, or their literacy level. (No specific farmer performance target due to challenges collecting/analyzing data in a low/no literacy environment.)
Educational approach
Curriculum Modification:
This project has an additional step in our Educational Plan that comes before Engagement and that is to modify the curriculum. “The curriculum” is comprised of 5 slide presentations (one each on 5 legal subjects) each with full scripts, complimentary interactive exercises, a teacher’s manual, and a guide to incorporating farmers into the presentation. As discussed earlier, we will rebuild each of these elements to be easily understood by audiences with no background in the US legal system or ability to read. The curriculum will also be readily translatable or interpretation-ready with accuracy assured through a glossary. This process occurs in close collaboration with the Advisory Committee, which meets monthly and invests a total of 50 hours each into the process.
Engagement (Selecting our Fellows):
After the curriculum is revised and finalized, we recruit individuals for the Fellowship. We advertise the opportunity to apply via our newsletter, social media, and direct outreach to organizations in the Northeast. Using this approach twice before, we received over 40 applicants from a wide range of entities (including many NE region applicants whom we had to turn away). Applicants must describe their connections to the community they serve, their experience crafting and delivering farmer education, their goals for being a part of the Fellowship, and their opportunities to reach at least 10 ESL and NA farmers with educational programming in the next 9-12 months. Those are also the criteria, and each applicant is scored on a rubric of 1-3 as to the extent to which they demonstrate alignment. Applicants must have taken our Guiding Resilience course so that they already know the basics of farm law (available for free with a scholarship to all BIPOC service providers nationwide). Applicants with the highest score are chosen, with the caveat that the final Fellow composition must have at least 50% BIPOC representation. For this program, as we anticipate as much as 100% of the top scoring applicants will identify as BIPOC. A total of 8 applicants are chosen and invited to go forward, with alternates also designated in case anyone declines. Emilyn Sosa and Nicole Yeo-Solano are pre-selected, as they have been involved in the project development.
Learning (Training the Trainers):
Next we bring the Fellows through the Fellowship! The learning is comprised of six 2-hour meetings with 1-2 hours of homework expected between each meeting session. Our first session is focused on building familiarity between fellows and a common purpose. Session 2 focuses on how to avoid crossing the line into acting as someone’s attorney and on handling unexpected scenarios. Session 3 deals with how to incorporate farmers as co-presenters. Sessions 4 and 5 emphasize curriculum instruction and practicing delivering at least 1 of the 5 presentations with peers. Session 6 reviews mechanics for getting presentations reviewed and approved, as well as communications skills. Fellows have the option to translate/interpret the material themselves or to work with a professional in their network which we support.
Each of the 5 curriculum modules Fellows are trained to deliver empower farmers with 1-2 legal best practices for that subject. Each best practice is something farmers can do on their own that directly reduces legal risk. Each best practice is developed with an audience activity or interaction.
Then the Fellows go out to deliver their presentations within their communities! They host presentations on farm law at local workshops, conferences, or events. We help them prepare by advising on adaptations and peer-to-peer learning. We review and approve presentations for legal accuracy. We also network folks to 22 other nationwide Fellows with their own experience and skills to share. We review presentation success and weaknesses with Fellows and strategize to address weaknesses. We will host one Fellow cohort in 2025 and another in 2026, if necessary to ensure 8 Fellows meet the performance target.
Evaluation:
We will evaluate success with two tools. The first is a 60-minute interview of each Fellow. We ask how many presentations they gave, on what legal subjects, and how many farmers attended each presentation. We ask participants about the program’s strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions for adapting the program for future Fellows. We will also issue an online evaluation during that phone call that measures: A) improved confidence in instructing on farm law matters, B) overall confidence in adapting and delivering our 5 educational workshops, B) overall Confidence in integrating peer-to-peer learning into the 5 educational workshops, and C) Intention to continue conducting farm law workshops and integrating farm law programming into current work.
Milestones
- Engagement: Advisory Committee comprised of 4 service providers and 2 farmers from the ESL/NA agricultural communities will convene monthly beginning April 2025 and completing in September 2025. Each meeting is designed to seek Committee feedback the legal subjects of business structures, insurance/liability, and farmland leasing as they are adapted and their glossaries are developed.
Status: Delayed. Begins April 2026 and runs until September 2026
Accomplishments:
- Engagement: Project staff (Rachel, Erin, Jeanette) draft agendas for the Advisory Committee meetings, communicate agendas, and provide the Advisory Committee with the draft curriculum on which they will be giving input. Rachel, Erin, and Jeanette work collaboratively, with Rachel taking the lead on issues of project strategy, Erin on developing Committee engagement, and Jeanette in direct communication with Committee members. This occurs April 2025-Sept 2025.
Status: Delayed. Begins April 2026 and runs until September 2026
Accomplishments:
- Engagement: Project staff (Rachel, Erin) lead on development of the modified business structures and leasing curriculum modules by adopting and incorporating the input of the Advisory Committee. Each meeting gathers further input and feedback as the curriculum is redeveloped. This occurs April 2025-Sept 2025.
Status: Delayed. Begins April 2026 and runs until September 2026
Accomplishments:
- Engagement: Project staff (Jeanette) begins advertising and doing outreach on the Fellowship opportunity in July and August 2025 with all applications due in mid-August. Applicants are screened and ranked and top scoring folks are selected and notified by mid-September 2025.
Status: Delayed. Outreach now begins July and August 2026, with follows notified by mid-Sept 2026.
Accomplishments:
- Learning: Project staff (Rachel, Erin, and Jeanette) host the Fellowship program for the 8 selected Fellows over a 6-week period beginning in October 2025 and ending in November 2025. Project staff deliver the training collaboratively. Rachel issues the program honorariums to Fellows after the final training session.
Status: Delayed. Fellowship now beings October 2026 and ends November 2026
Accomplishments:
- Learning: The 8 fellows secure at least one workshop or presentation on business structures, insurance/liability, or leasing in their communities between November 2025 and April 2026. Fellows work with Project Staff to prepare their presentation(s) using the curriculum in which they were trained. Rachel provides legal oversight, ensuring each presentation is accurate and coordinates with the interpreter/translator to ensure the glossary is followed and adapted, as necessary. Jeanette provides outreach and communications support. Erin provides support with peer-to-peer learning and farmer co-presenter aspects. Fellows are responsible for all other aspects of hosting their workshops including facility, registration, refreshments, printing, etc. This project's support is limited to adaptation of curriculum and outreach support, only.
Status: Delayed. Fellows will secure a workshop or presentation between November 2026 and April 2027.
Accomplishments:
- Evaluation: After April 2026, when Fellows have completed the winter farm law programming, Project staff (Rachel) will schedule and do individual Zoom meetings to evaluate success thus far. She will follow the verification interview script submitted above and secure completion of the online evaluation as well. Each of the 8 Fellows will participate in a single hour-long meeting.
Status: Delayed. This will be done September 2027
Accomplishments:
- Engagement: Just as was done in Milestone 1, the same Advisory Committee is reconvened after a winter break starting April 2026 and running to Sept 2026, using the same basic format and process as described in Milestone 1. However, this time the Committee will be reviewing the curriculum for employment law and business diversification.
Status: Condensed into Milestone 1. We had planned to repeat the fellowship and curriculum process in two parts, with this second part occurring second. Instead, we are training all the fellows on each of the 4 curricula over the time period April 2026-Sept 2027
Accomplishments:
- Engagement: Just as was done in Milestone 2, the Project staff (Rachel, Erin and Jeanette) draft agendas for the Advisory Committee meetings, communicate agendas, and provide the Advisory Committee with the draft curriculum on which they will be giving input for this second phase curriculum revision in April -Sept 2026.
Status: Condensed into Milestone 2. We had planned to repeat the fellowship and curriculum process in two parts, with this second part occurring second. Instead, we are training all the fellows on each of the 4 curricula over the time period April 2026-Sept 2027
Accomplishments:
- Engagement: As described in Milestone 3, the Project staff (Rachel, Erin and Jeanette) lead on development of the employment law and diversification modules by adopting and incorporating the input of the Advisory Committee. Each meeting gathers further input and feedback as the curriculum is redeveloped. This occurs April 2026-Sept 2026.
Status: Condensed into Milestone 3. We had planned to repeat the fellowship and curriculum process in two parts, with this second part occurring second. Instead, we are training all the fellows on each of the 4 curricula over the time period April 2026-Sept 2027.
Accomplishments:
- Engagement and Learning: IF the project experienced any Fellow attrition over the last year, we will repeat milestone 4 and 5 by taking applications for a Fellow cohort and running a second Fellowship training beginning October 2026. If we have zero attrition and all Fellows are still able to provide programming, we will not take any additional applicants.
Status: Condensed into Milestones 4 and 5. We will separately fund the participation of 1-2 extra fellows to ensure that attrition doesn't affect our ability to meet the outcomes in the project period April 2026-Sept 2027.
Accomplishments:
- Learning and Evaluation: We will bring our existing Fellows through a streamlined training process to ensure they know and are capable of delivering the new employment law and diversification modules. We will continue supporting Fellows in hosting their programming and conduct a second round of interviews with the online evaluation component in Spring 2027 with final presentations completed by Sept 2027.
Status: On track.
Accomplishments:
Performance Target Outcomes
Performance Target Outcomes - Service Providers
Target #1
8
Eight agricultural service providers from within non-English speaking farming communities in the Northeast will deliver at least one and up to 5 select farm law presentations in their community’s first language, regardless of the audience’s level of literacy. Each presentation will reach at least 10 English as a Second Language or New American (ESL or NA) farmers during the term of the project for a total of 80 farmers served.
80