Community Agriculture and Food Systems Development Certification Program

Community Agriculture and Food Systems Development Certification Program

Summary

A growing number of communities are recognizing the important contributions food and agriculture make to the quality of life. With this in mind, the “Growing Home Certification Program” is a pilot training program designed to develop the knowledge and skills of community development professionals (including agriculture development specialists, Extension educators, economic developers, planners, local government officials) and other community leaders to strengthen agriculture and their communities through innovative food and agriculture-based activities.

The two year program consists of a distance learning component, which is designed to engage program participants primarily in their offices and homes (permitting them to remain in the contexts where they are and will be pursuing food and ag-based community development) and a face-to-face component – 6 two-day class meetings. During year one, participants complete three distance learning modules, each consisting of 4 units: Social, Political and Economic Considerations (Module I); Growing Home Strategies (Module II); Planning and Organizing in Your Community (Module III). Participants meet as a class prior to the beginning of each module and each includes readings, discussion questions, on-line interactive discussions, and a paper. The Module III paper is significantly longer than the first two, requiring participants to integrate the materials covered during all three modules into a proposal for a community-based project designed to strengthen food, agriculture and community. These proposals are reviewed by peer participants, program instructors and program advisory committee members, and, if acceptable, are awarded up to $1,000 in program funds for implementation. Upon completion of the projects, participants come together for project presentations and to discuss lessons learned throughout the development and implementation processes.

Throughout the program, emphasis is placed on engaging participants in a way which (1) incorporates their current work into the training and (2) supports that work through the training. If successful, funds will be sought to continue the program.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Our proposed objectives for this project include having at least 15 of 20 enrolled participants (1) be able to articulate how contemporary food and agriculture systems impact the community/communities in which they work; (2) understand the process of community-based food and agriculture systems development well enough to be able to identify strategies and articulate a clear and coherent plan for implementing these strategies in their communities; and (3) work with a community-based team to develop and implement a local food and agriculture-based development project.

Accomplishments/Milestones

At the end of the first year of the Growing Home Certification Program project, we are making satisfactory, if not strong, progress through the milestones identified in the project proposal and are close to having achieved two of three project performance targets.

The first milestone of the project (enrolling 20 participants) was met when we selected 21 participants from a pool of strong candidates hailing from throughout the Northeast and all 21 submitted notice of their intent to participate in the program. Our second milestone (20 participants complete the first module) was also met, when only one of the 21 participants failed to submit the Module I paper, withdrawing from the program due to personal commitments shortly thereafter. Our third milestone challenged us to have 19 participants complete Module II. We fell short of this milestone by 2, when 17 of the 20 continuing participants completed Module II. It is important to note that two of the three who did not complete Module II made arrangements to submit delayed assignments but were unable to follow through, and later also withdrew from the program citing personal reasons. Over the course of Module I and II, it became apparent that the workload we had assigned was requiring more time than anticipated by program instructors and participants. Consequently, we extended assignment deadlines, ultimately expanding the time allotted for each unit of the Modules from one week to two weeks. A second way in which we modified the project relates to milestones four (17 participants complete Module III and Year I final paper) and five (15 participants submit a Year II community-based project proposal). After developing the curriculum, we realized that there was considerable overlap between the Module III final paper, Year I final paper, and Year II project proposal assignments we had planned in the proposal. Because of this degree of overlap, we decided it made more sense to require program participants to write a single, comprehensive paper in which aspects of each of the three assignments were integrated, rather than three separate assignments. Thus, rather than writing three separate papers at the end of Year I, participants were required to write a proposal that brought together, in both an applied and theoretical way, what they had learned in the three modules with what they were proposing to do for their Year II project. Although assignments for milestones four and five were combined, they were no less rigorous as one than three, and, even as such, the milestones were achieved: 17 participants completed Module III and 16 participants are scheduled to submit a Year II proposal in January.

Hence, at the end of Year I, we are on track, having progressed through 4.5 of 7 milestones, with one above the expected number of participants still actively engaged in the program. In addition, in progressing through these milestones, we’ve achieved our first two performance targets and are poised to pursue the third in Year II: Based on completed Module I assignments, all continuing participants can articulate how the food system impacts the community in which they work (Performance Target 1) and based on the assignments completed during Modules II and III, participants understand the process of community-based development well enough to be able to identify strategies and create a plan for implementation in their communities (Performance Target 2). The degree to which this second performance target is achieved will be fully evaluated upon the submission of Year II project proposals in February 2004. Our progress towards the last two milestones (6 & 7) as well as the 2nd and 3rd Performance Targets will be reported on in the final report on the project (December 2004).

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Although we won’t be able to address the ultimate impacts of this project until we are through the second year of the project, when participants have provided leadership for the implementation of community-based projects, there is evidence that the Growing Home Certification Program is making a positive difference in the work of program participants:

1. Favorable responses to written and verbal evaluations of the program indicate that it has provided participants with (a) a theoretical understanding of work they have been pursuing for a long time, (b) a better understanding of food and agriculture-based development strategies and community-based development processes, and (c) valuable networking opportunities with knowledgeable peers;

2. In all cases, those who have withdrawn from the Growing Home Program cited personal reasons for doing so while expressing strong support for the program and an interest in participating in it in the future. At least two of the four who have withdrawn over the course of Year I have described ways it has influenced their “food and agriculture-based community development” work, with one stating that she had made sure this very term was incorporated into her program’s Plan of Development.

3. Aside from the impacts on program participants and their ability to strengthen agriculture and communities, the program has thus far served its purpose as a pilot project – we are learning a great deal as educators developing a training program designed to simultaneously support and integrate ongoing work and professional development goals over two years. As a result of the feedback provided from participants over the first year, we have a better sense than when we started of (a) the quantity of work that can be completed by people with careers and lives, (b) the level of professional experience that participants should be required to have in order to participate in the program, and (c) the level of employer support required for participants in this program.

As a result of these impacts and several calls that we’ve received from individuals wanting to be a part of the program in the future, we believe it provides training that is both valuable and in demand, and are seeking funding to modify it accordingly, and offer it again.

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