Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Farm Business Management: business planning, financial management, labor/employment, risk management, Legal
- Sustainable Communities: quality of life
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, |
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, |
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, |
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, |
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 |
8 |
Online survey, |
FC staff |
|
5.2 |
6) Producers intend to adopt at least 1 risk-reducing action |
# of producers who intend to take at least 1 risk-reducing action step post |
240 |
In person survey |
Farm Law Leaders |