Project Overview
Annual Reports
Information Products
Commodities
Practices
- Education and Training: extension, mentoring, networking
- Farm Business Management: whole farm planning, new enterprise development, budgets/cost and returns, feasibility study, agricultural finance, risk management, value added
- Sustainable Communities: ethnic differences/cultural and demographic change, new business opportunities
Abstract:
We did a needs assessment at the Intertribal Agriculture Council. We did a focus group and interview of Federally Recognized Tribal Extension Program agents (FRTEP) and written evaluation from FRTEP and conference participants. From that we decided to create 2 sets of modules (one on basic personal finance and one on business management).
Between when we applied for the grant in October 2013 and when we received the grant FRTEP started doing their own professional development meetings. So instead of holding 2 3.5 day meetings, we had shorted focused meetings as part of other professional development events. We did 2-hours as part of the FRTEP meetings in October 2016. At those meetings people indicated they did not need a follow-up ingeneral, but there was interest in doing something local in Arizona.
Project objectives:
Finalize Performance Plan: We have decided that we need to change how we deliver the material. The summary above explains why and what we want the delivery plan to be. We worked with other groups to present materials. We also expanded the curriculum development portion of the project.
Develop Curriculum. We did the focus group study and surveyed existing materials. We came up with outlines for 2 sets of modules for FRTEP agents and others to use to deliver programs. The first set is personal basic finance (the top issue from the focus group) and the second set is for business evaluation and management. Each module is intended for a 2 hour session, but the curriculum can be used in a variety of ways. The list of modules for each are below.
The Personal Finance Modules are listed below.
|
Module |
Topic |
|
Intro |
Introduction |
|
Module 1 |
Record Keeping and Cash Flows |
|
Module 2 |
Loans and Credit Cards |
|
Module 3 |
Loan Process,5 C's of Borrowing |
|
Module 4 |
Credit Reports and Credit Score |
|
Module 5 |
Savings and Budgeting |
|
Module 6 |
Personal Finance |
|
Module 7 |
Creating Your Financial Plan |
|
Module 8 |
Presentation of Plans, Review Plans, and Additional Topics |
The business Management Modules are listed below.
|
Module 1 |
Developing Your Idea |
|
Module 2 |
Market Assessment– estimating market size, pricing |
|
Module 3 |
Introduction to Budgets and Financial Statements |
|
Module 4 |
Financial Analysis |
|
Module 5 |
Introduction to American Indian Land Tenure |
|
Module 6 |
Ownership, Liability and Risk |
|
Module 7 |
Tax Issues for Farmers and Ranchers |
Each module has a guideline with teaching notes, power point file and optional exercises, handouts, etc. The modules will be finalized in 2016.
Conduct Promotional Program. We did this through other groups programs.
Deliver Seminars. The way we will train FRTEP agents and others to deliver the materials needs to be modified from the existing methods. A summary of the reasons is in the summary section above. We worked with other groups to present information and also did stand alone meetings in Arizona.