Beginning Farmer Business Training and Education Partnership Project

Beginning Farmer Business Training and Education Partnership Project

Summary

By December 31, 2010, all major components of this project were completed. Eleven (11) new instructors had received mentoring/coaching in the provision of a beginner farmer training course. These 11 had been drawn from 35 farm service providers that had been trained in 2009 to provide a variety of farm planning and guided study tools developed by NESFI. In November, 2010, sixteen individuals, including several of the project’s program participants, attended a day-long “best practices” conference at Penn State University.

In 2008, NESFI project staff reviewed program offerings of 307 New Farmers Northeast Service Providers and invited 57 to participate in a train the trainer process. These training sessions were held in the spring of 2009 in partnership with NOFA-NJ, Penn State Cooperative Extension and University of Rhode Island Extension. 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. Beginning in the fall of 2009 and extending into the fall of 2010, eleven providers underwent a more intensive process of being mentored in the delivery of course material. As a result of the project, eight first time courses were offered through Penn State Cooperative Extension and University of Rhode Island Cooperative Extension to 120 aspiring farmers. In addition, NOFA-New Jersey added a new trainer to their roster, enabling them to offer more courses in the future. Project staff and consultants provided mentoring by a variety of means to new instructors.

The experiences of the core participants, staff, consultants and mentors were documented and analyzed at a wrap-up conference in November, 2010.

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 December 31, 2010 phase III was complete. The approach to mentoring the instructors who attended the train-the-trainer sessions was tailored to each individual. Project staff and consultants provided minimal coaching in the case of five Penn State University Extension educators. Program mentors were, however, in contact with each before, during and after their first courses to ask and answer questions about course delivery and management. A course mentor provided telephone and email guidance to the four-instructor team in Rhode Island and also sat in on a class session to provide feedback. The most intensive mentoring experience occurred in New Jersey where an experienced course instructor provided one-on-one guidance to a new, young farmer instructor throughout course planning and also sat in on the classes to provide feedback.

Milestone IV: The core group of thirty (30) will attend a one-day “best practices” follow-up session (one in each subregion) and undertake ongoing peer review of Partners’ Program Delivery Guide incorporating best practices and lessons learned.

In order to wrap up the project, NESFI invited new and established sponsors and instructors to a gathering at the Penn State University campus in Malvern, PA to share best practices and to determine the level of interest in maintaining a network of “Explorer” providers. Sixteen individuals representing twelve organizations from seven states and two Canadian provinces attended the November 19, 2010 event. Nine others expressed interest in participating but were unable to attend that day.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Best practices of new farmer training were discussed at the Malvern Conference (Penn State University) in November, 2010. During the morning session best practices were noted in the following topics:
• Applicant screening
• Optimal number of students for a class
• On-line option?
• Length of class/momentum/assignments/final presentations
• Setting course fees
• Improving teaching skills
• Follow up with course participants and connections with other services

The development of a network of providers (and how that might support the organizations and the individuals that teach them) surfaced as a strong interest at the conference. Numerous suggestions evolved that included more training, certification of sponsors, follow-up surveys of students, more gatherings and strong communications among providers whether by newsletter, online or other means.

While no immediate conclusions or plans resulted at the conference, there was a clear message that providers desired continuity in training, information dissemination and networking.

Collaborators: