Cultivating Farm Law Leaders in the Western Region

Project Overview

WPDP24-012

Project Type: Professional Development Program

Funds awarded in 2024: $99,960.00

Projected End Date: 03/31/2026

Host Institution Award ID: G107-25-WA511

Grant Recipient: Farm Commons

Region: Western

State: Oregon

Principal Investigator:

Eva Moss

Farm Commons

Commodities

No commodities identified

Practices

No practices identified

Proposal abstract:

This project will result in the
development and support of 8 Farm Law Leaders who will deliver at
least 8 farm law workshops in the Western region on legal issues
of importance to sustainable producers. The Farm Law Leaders will
be equipped with additional resources that empower the Leader to
continue supporting producers who attend the workshops. As a
result, 240 farmers attending the 8 workshops (30 attendees each)
will have more resilient stable businesses and improved quality
of life.

We will achieve these outcomes by
hosting a Farm Law Leadership Fellowship- a train-the-trainer
program for Extension educators, farm education nonprofit staff,
farm business service providers, and post-secondary instructors
to lead farm law workshops locally. The training curriculum
emphasizes risk-reducing action steps and accurate, clear legal
explanations. The program also trains (and requires) Leaders to
use peer-to-peer training techniques and incorporate local
producers in their presentations.

This program creates a next-step
leadership process for agriculture professionals who have been
through our 2018 Western SARE PD-funded Guiding Resilience
program (a 15-hour training in the basics of farm law for
professionals). Graduates asked us for this program so they can
deliver presentations. They also want support materials designed
just for them. As such, we will develop two handbooks in
collaboration with professionals and producers, to further
support the Leaders on leases and business structures. These
handbooks complement the extensive collection of resources Farm
Commons already provides to agriculture professionals on other
legal subjects.

As a nonprofit devoted
exclusively to teaching agricultural communities farm law, we are
deeply skilled in creating educational materials that accommodate
all state-specific nuances that are necessary to the curricular
goals. Through our NC SARE pilot, we proved that it is safe and
effective to train laypersons in legal matters without violating
any rules on practicing law.

Project objectives from proposal:

For this proposal, objectives and
short term learning outcomes are the same. Please reference
the attached Logic Model for additional detail.

Logic Model Ref #	Objectives	Indicator	Target Number	How measured	By whom
4.1	1) Increase ag professional’s (APs) skills, tools, frameworks and practice for increasing legal resilience in their agricultural community	# of APs with increased skills, tools, frameworks and practice to teach the 10 legal best practices	8	Online survey, interview	Farm Commons staff
4.2	2) Increase APs confidence in delivering at least 1 farm law educational presentation in their community	# of APs with increased confidence in delivering at least 1 farm law presentation	8	Online survey, interview	FC staff
4.2	3) Increase APs capacity to adapt at least 1 farm law educational presentation that is accurate and motivates producers to take at least 1 risk-reducing action.	# of APs with increased capacity to adapt Farm Commons template presentation to speak to their agricultural audience, without overstepping legal bounds.	8	Online survey, interview	FC staff
4.2	4) Increase APs confidence in integrating peer-to-peer learning and featured producer stories into the workshops	# of APs with increased confidence to integrate peer-to-peer learning and featured producer stories into the workshops	8	Online survey, interview	FC staff
4.3	5) Increase APs capacity to provide follow up support to producers on the 5 workshop topics	# of APs with increased capacity to provide follow up support to producers through use of the trainer handbooks and associated handouts	8	Online survey, interview	FC staff
5.2	6) Producers intend to adopt at least 1 risk-reducing action step as a result of attending a workshop led by an ag professional Leader	# of producers who intend to take at least 1 risk-reducing action step post workshop	240	In person survey	Farm Law Leaders (8)

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.