Beginning Farmer Business Training and Education Partnership Project

Beginning Farmer Business Training and Education Partnership Project

Summary

By December 31. 2009, 35 farm service providers had been trained to provide a variety of farm planning and guided study tools developed by NESFI. Several had begun their year-long mentored experience of providing these courses and tools to aspiring or early-stage farmers.

In 2008, NESFI project staff reviewed program offerings of 307 organizations and programs listed as Growing New Farmers Northeast Service Providers’ Consortium members and identified 57 whose missions most closely matched the needs of the Project’s constituency. Those organizations received information about the Project and an invitation to participate in a train the trainer session that was held in May 2009 in partnership with NOFA-NJ. In addition, project staff partnered with Penn State Cooperative Extension and University of Rhode Island Extension to hold train the trainer sessions in those states. Penn State Extension educators participated in a training session at their in-service days in March 2009. The University of Rhode Island Extension training was held in June 2009, with service providers from collaborating Rhode Island organizations and agencies in attendance. These three sessions were in addition to a project kick-off training held at NESFI in June 2008. In all, 36 service providers representing 8 Northeast states participated in four train the trainer sessions.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The project performance target envisioned that thirty (30) service providers would self-select from an initial group of 200 throughout the northeast. These 30 would agree to partner with the New England Small Farm Institute in order to offer “Exploring the Small Farm Dream” and “Small Farm Planner” decision-making and planning tools. One third of this group, or ten (10) would choose to participate in a year-long training practicum that included mentored practice in planning and delivering these courses/programs to new or incipient farmers. The final phase of the proposal included a wrap up, one-day “best practices” session to be attended by the 30 practitioners.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Milestone I: Outreach to 200+ regional providers; sub group of 30 elect to join the project as “Project Partners” to deliver the “Exploring the Small Farm Dream” short course and/or mentoring aspiring or early-stage farmers in self-study of the “Explorer” workbook and new “Small Farm Planner” planning research guide.

Milestone II: The 30 partners will attend a 2½ day regional classroom training or receive one-to-one mentoring.

As of June 30, 2009, Milestones 1 and 2 of the project had been achieved and, in fact, exceeded. Thirty-five service (35) providers in the Northeast elected to join the project and participated in one of four train the trainer sessions.

Although the original project plan was to hold 2½ day trainings in two regions, a “dry-run” held by the New England Small Farm Institute in June 2008, determined that 1½ day sessions would better meet project and participant goals. For example, by reducing the number of days for regional trainings, NESFI was able to respond to requests from Penn State Extension and University of Rhode Island Extension for dedicated trainings in those states.

In summer 2008, while project staff was conducting its review of service providers, in an effort to identify the most appropriate ones to provide outreach to, Pennsylvania State University Extension contacted NESFI to find out how some of their county offices could begin offering NESFI’s Exploring the Small Farm Dream course. They were experiencing growing interest in having programming for beginning farmers. After several discussions, NESFI and PSU decided to schedule a train the trainer session specifically for PSU educators at their in-service days in March 2009. University of Rhode Island Extension staff contacted NESFI after learning of the regional training in New Jersey. URI Extension is collaborating with several agricultural service providers in Rhode Island to serve beginning farmers and, rather than send everyone to New Jersey, NESFI agreed it made sense to hold a session in Rhode Island in June. In both Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, the train the trainer session provided an opportunity for service providers to discuss specific ways that Exploring the Small Farm Dream could enhance or expand services to beginning farmers in their respective states.

In addition to the training sessions mentioned above, NESFI collaborated with NOFA-NJ in May, 2009 to hold a regional training that drew participants from four Northeast states. Each train the trainer session was led by two facilitators who are experienced Exploring the Small Farm Dream instructors, and included an opportunity for practice. Participants received notebooks with a copy of the Explorer workbook and a recently updated copy of the course delivery guide. Project staff also created written guidelines for coaching individual users of the workbook, in response to interest from service providers in that option.

As a result of these developments, rather than 2, 2½ day train-the-trainer sessions, NESFI sponsored 4, 1½ day trainings (including the pilot). The end result was not only to bring a core of 35 (goal=30) providers on-board, but also to establish strong working relationships with key networks of potential trainers around the northeast.

Milestone III: A sub-group of 10 providers will elect to participate in a year-long training practicum or mentored practice in planning and delivering the full Explorer short course and/or guiding self-study users of Explorer and Planner tools.

By year’s end, phase III is well underway. Several service providers that had been through the spring and summer train the trainer sessions, have now begun to offer the “Exploring the Small Farm Dream” course in the fall and early winter, notably at Penn State, University of Rhode Island and NOFA New Jersey.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

NESFI anticipates that ten project partners will participate in the next phase of the project, as planned.

Collaborators: