Live Green and Prosper Community Education and Outreach Initiative

Live Green and Prosper Community Education and Outreach Initiative

Summary

The Live Green and Prosper Community Education and Outreach Initiative began in September 2009. The initiative has allowed WCTE to become a trusted partner in the agricultural community by creating links between community organizations directly involved in sustainable agriculture, community leaders, government agencies, and local farmers. During the second phase of the initiative, it was our goal to use the partnerships we have formed as a platform to further strengthen the connections we’ve made. With the grant received from SARE, WCTE was able to continue to be an active resource working to advance economic sustainability for family farmers by teaching regional agriculture producers about digital media and free public media resources as well as teaching a new generation of young people to support the local food movement through our on air broadcast of Live Green Tennessee; our distribution of the Local Table magazine as a print media resource; and by our community outreach efforts.

Objectives/Performance Targets

• Create stronger links between producers, key consumers and resources on a local level through an effective network of community partners mobilized through WCTE.
  Create innovative content and publish it through digital media platforms (website, Facebook and You Tube)and broadcast/print media outreach to make agriculture visible within the community.
  Be an active educational resource working to advance economic sustainability for agricultural producers by teaching them about digital media and how to utilize digital media in marketing and advertising.
  Grow both the initiative and the understanding of sustainable agriculture by recruiting a new generation of local foods enthusiasts.

Accomplishments/Milestones

• WCTE Held quarterly Partner Meetings. January/April/July/October
  Through direct links and feeds, we automatically shared fresh content from our Partners and other sources around the web with the WCTE/livegreen website.
  Educated producers about online direct marketing techniques by holding digital media based classes for agriculture producers. Life of a Farmer classes held: March 24, 2011 – Initial 4 hour training session; May 2, 2011 – Training session; September 6, 2011 – Training session. Trained group of six farmers to use the flip video camcorders and upload videos to You Tube. (http://www.youtube.com/user/WCTEFarmer?feature=mhee)
  Digital Media for Farmers Class held November 17, 2011
  Created local producer/agriculture related stories to be told on the education & outreach broadcast of Live Green Tennessee season three.
  Raise consumer awareness about local agriculture by distributing the locally produced magazine: Local Table a guide to food and farming in Middle Tennessee free during all community events attended by WCTE’s education and outreach team.
  Community Events Included:
  The Upper Cumberland Home & Garden Show
  Annual USDA Rural Development Conference
  Living Well Festival
  Earth Day
  Ad Day on Capitol Hill
  Jammin at Hippie Jack’s Music Festival
  Nature Fest
  Windows on the World
  Stations of Imagination
  Komen Upper Cumberland for the Cure Race Day exhibit
  NETA (National Educational Telecommunication Association)Annual Conference

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

• Utilized local, state and community agricultural organizations to obtain local producer/agriculture related stories for the 13 week educational broadcast of Live Green Tennessee season 3.
  Utilized Lisa Shivley (Publisher of Local Table Magazine) to obtain the pilot group of agricultural producers for “Life as a Farmer” and “Digital Media for Farmers” classes.
  Used social media platforms to distribute original content and build connections and relationships between consumers, producers, public services, teachers, parents, young adults, kids, and other stations.
  Incorporated social media networks such as Facebook and You Tube.
  Used the WCTE/livegreen website to feature the stories of community based organization leaders and individuals by hosting embedded video segments from our Live Green Tennessee series, our farmer produced “Life as a Farmer” segments.
  Worked with Lisa Shively (publisher) to distribute the Local Table Magazine free throughout our community.
  Made using multi media as simple and easy as possible with an instructional tutorial.
  Distributed agricultural video segments throughout WCTE’s multi-media network; website, Facebook and You Tube.
  WCTE continued to expand our online presence into our live broadcasts and community events.
  WCTE handed out over 6,000 Close Up Program Guide and over 8,000 Local Table Magazines throughout the Upper Cumberland January 2011 – December 2011.
  704 views to videos to date.

• Farmers involved with Classes
• You Tube Operations Manual
• Life as a Farmer Syllabus & classroom materials
• Websites & Links
• Digital Media for Farmers Class 101

Collaborators: