Item No. 1 of 1

INVESTIGATOR: Freedgood, J.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST, INC
1150 CONNECTICUT AVE STE 600
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 20036

FARMLAND FOR THE NEXT GENERATION:TRAINING THE TRAINERS TO HELP BEGINNERS SECURE LAND AND SUCCEED IN AGRICULTURE

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: According to USDA's 2012 Census of Agriculture, the number of beginning farmers and ranchers has reached a 30-year low - down 20 percent in just five years. One key reason for the decline is finding, affording and securing appropriate land to purchase or rent. More than a third of U.S. farmers and ranchers are 65 years or older, which suggests that in the next twenty years, at least 240 million acres of agricultural land are likely to change hands. The future of American agriculture hinges on the successful transfer of farm and ranch land to the next generation.Many resources are available to support BFRs in production, marketing, and business planning, but relatively few exist to help BFRs gain access to land. Farmland for the Next Generation will fill this gap. To achieve this we will evaluate existing curricula and resources, create a comprehensive curriculum that meets the needs of diverse populations, regions, and agricultural systems, test and validate it by delivering to 25 experienced agricultural educators, pilot the curriculum with BFRs, and ultimately extend the training to other trainers. Further we will sustain the knowledge by laying the foundation for a national network of service providers and making the curriculum and resources widely available. The ultimate outcome is to help BFRs secure land from retiring farmers and ranchers as well as institutional and non-operating landowners.

OBJECTIVES: The ultimate outcome of this project is to help beginning farmers and ranchers (BFRs) secure land from retiring farmers and ranchers as well as institutional and non-operating landowners. Four year goals include completing an evaluation of existing training programs and curricula related to land access for BFRs; creating, testing and validating a comprehensive national land access curriculum; building the capacity of agricultural educators and service providers working with BFRs to provide continuing education; and launching a national network to provide ongoing technical assistance and support to BFRs seeking agricultural land.

APPROACH: The approach is organized around activities to achieve five inter-related objectives/accomplishments.The first objective is to complete a formal, third party evaluation of land access programs, curricula and training resources for BFRs from across the nation. We will use this evaluation to evaluate existing programs, as well as new curriculum and materials we develop, and the results of project. Toward these ends, we will initiate the project by identifying existing training, mentoring and other educational programming to help BFRs gain access to land. Then we will map curriculum content and presentation methods to determine consistent goals, organization and information. Based on this review and input from the EET, the evaluator will produce a report with an assessment tool to guide curriculum standards, new curriculum development and training methodologies. We will engage the LATs in reflective exercises throughout the project to provide feedback on the trainings they receive and the trainings they deliver and develop a reporting form and electronic surveys to make it easy for them to participate in the evaluation. These feedback mechanisms will be used to revise and improve the final curriculum.The second objective is to develop a comprehensive national curriculum that uses the most effective existing materials and approaches and adds new content to address identified gaps to meet the needs of diverse populations, regions and agricultural systems. AFT will schedule a series of conference calls with the EET to address: 1) goals, needs and gaps; and 2) specific agronomic, land use, demographic, legal and other issues that may be distinct among regions, populations or agricultural operations. Then AFT and the training coordinator will work with the EET to draft core standards, e.g. the elements that the team deems essential to cover in the trainings.Working with the evaluator and training coordinator, AFT will draft a core curriculum and training plan. With input from the EET, we will identify best practices from existing curricula and resources, then leverage and adapt these to support the standards and core topics for a comprehensive national curriculum and to create training materials on core topics. We will work with project partners and other experts to fill gaps and once the gaps are filled, deliver a training guide and set of support materials for trainers to use.The third objective is to deliver and test the curriculum and training methods with 25 experienced agricultural educators and service providers from across the country. AFT will identify a pool of qualified candidates who are experts and/or leaders in their regions, and who have knowledge of specific demographics and/or agricultural systems. To guide the selection process, AFT and the EET will design an application process, develop selection criteria, and identify a diverse group of eligible land access trainers (LATs). To ensure diversity, we will seek applicants from each of the 10 USDA farm production regions and invite people who serve specific populations, such as representatives from 1890 and 1994 Land Grant institutions, and nongovernmental organizations serving limited resource farmers.We will identify 150 potential applicants and select 25 based on their level of experience and leadership in these issues, geographic, demographic and agricultural diversity of the BFRs they serve, capacity to deliver future trainings, and other factors called for in the selection process. We will survey the 25 accepted LATs to develop a baseline for evaluation and to assess their needs and interests. We will organize a conference call to introduce them to the project and each other and instruct them in the use of the social network platform. We will set up a structure of bi-monthly calls to support the LATs throughout the project.AFT will deliver at least three webinars and/or self-guided tutorials on the fundamentals of land transfer and access to ensure the LATs are well versed in basic concepts. Participating trainers will complete homework assignments to ensure they understand fundamental principles and have common understanding and vocabulary to support future activities. Then we will convene the LATs for the first of two 2-day trainings where the team will deliver the test curriculum. The training will include a half-day Roundtable during which the LATs can share their experiences and identify emerging issues.Based on feedback from the LATs, AFT will revise the curriculum and fill outstanding gaps in content. We will provide at least three more tutorials or webinars to introduce new topics, materials or approaches before the LATs begin field testing the curriculum with BFRs. We will repeat this process after they deliver the first set of pilot trainings. Then we will hold a second in person training to prepare the LATs to offer the curriculum to other agricultural educators and service providers.The fourth objective is for the LATs to test the curriculum with BFRs and extend the trainings to other trainers. The LATs will pilot the curriculum in two sets of trainings with at least 10 BFRs each (for a total of at least 500 BFRs reached). The training coordinator will lead bi-monthly peer-to-peer calls to support the LATs throughout the pilot phase. The LATs will collect information about the number of people trained, the number of curriculum module/s delivered, adaptations required to meet the needs of the audience, and to identify additional needs.AFT will incorporate feedback to finalize the curriculum and resources for use with agricultural educators and BFR service providers. Then we will produce the final curriculum and training plan incorporating lessons learned from the pilot BFR trainings, which we will deliver to the LATS in a second in-person training.Then the LATs will deliver at least one training to five to 10 agricultural educators and/or service providers. These will be targeted to professionals who have the capacity to conduct their own trainings and provide direct assistance to BFRs. In the end the LTAs will receive a certificate of completion.The final objective is to lay the foundation for a national network of service providers and make the curriculum, resources, and training modules widely available to USDA, Extension, BFRDP project leaders, BFR educators and service providers through the CTC and FIC. Toward this end, we will consult with the CTC to learn when and in what format they want to receive curriculum and materials collected through the project. Then we will hold quarterly meetings with the CTC to facilitate information sharing and ensure that resources are available to BFRDP recipients and others interested in how to help BFRs secure land.We also will develop pages and navigation on the FIC website to support the project and all materials used in trainings will be posted on the FIC and available through the social network platform.At the end of the project, AFT will work with the LATs to identify infrastructure to further disseminate the curriculum to agricultural educators and BFR service providers. We will hold at least two final calls with the LATs and EET to lay the foundation of an expanded network to support all the educators and service providers reached through the project, including those that were trained by the trainers, and ultimately to be available to all people who engage in BFR training around the issue areas of farmland transition and access.

PROGRESS: 2015/09 TO 2020/08
Target Audience:As an Educational Enhancement proposal, this project focuses on intermediaries - BFR educators and service providers. But the ultimate beneficiaries are the BFRs themselves. Working with a small, carefully selected group of Land Access Trainers (LATs) from USDA's 10 farm production regions, we have tested and validated the curriculum through pilot trainings to over 1,000 BFRs. Based on the results, we made revisions and adjustments to address additional gaps or issues identified and use the final curriculum and used trained 230 agricultural educators and BFR service providers, including for non-English speaking audiences. A key element of our approach was to use a third-party evaluator, a curriculum development expert and an Educational Enhancement Team to achieve multiple objectives. This is particularly important because of the inevitable tension between the efficiency of a national approach and the specific needs of individual states, populations and agricultural systems. Evaluation also was used to identify the best available curricula and resources as a foundation for setting core competencies, learning objectives, goals and standards to guide curriculum development for both BFRs and trainers. Changes/Problems:In Year 2, the major change was that instead of leveraging existing curricula and resources and filling gaps, we realized we had to create a comprehensive new curriculum from scratch. Based on requests from our LATs, in year 3, we added a capstone training and formal certification process. We also developed a shorter, 1-day training program to introduce additional trainers to the curriculum (rather than delivering the full 2 ½ day program to them.) In year 4, the major change was to reconsider our approach to delivering train-the-trainers programming. Instead of each LAT delivering individual train-the-trainer events, they worked in teams to deliver more complete trainings at larger venues. We concentrated on about 10 national and regional events based on the most appropriate venues and where LATs are located. Using this approach, we have reached twice as many trainers as we originally proposed. We also did not have the budget to translate the entire curriculum into Spanish as originally planned so are working with our LATs to find other ways to address translation. Problems mainly have been focused around turnover in LATs who changed jobs and a few who did not fulfill all their commitments. This latter problem is twofold: first, LATs who did not deliver any pilots and second, LATs who did not deliver complete curriculum modules but only used PowerPoint presentations, worksheets and other components as stand-alone resources or activities. We have worked individually with these LATs and their organizations to offer guidance and support to help with transitions and to fulfill their commitments. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As per above, working with the LATs we have trained over 1,000 BFRs. We provided four trainings to the LATs in Denver, CO, Atlanta, GA, Albany, NY, and Louisville, KY. To sustain the knowledge and networking gained in this project, the capstone LAT training in Louisville provided an opportunity for the original 25 LATs to become formally certified through an examination in order to acknowledge their multi-year commitment to this project. In addition, we facilitate monthly LAT Networking Calls to provide a platform for on-going networking, resource sharing, and technical support. We have completedthe final piece of professional development and are working with the LATs to deliver "train-the-trainer" trainings. We have reached 200 additional agricultural educators and service provides through trainings in 21 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?There are two communities of interest: internal and external. The internal communities of interest include the LATS, Educational Enhancement Team (EET) members, and American Farmland Trust-affiliated land access, tenure and transition projects, including the NY Navigators and NJ Farmland Advisors, which include funding by NE-ERMC and NE-SARE and matching grants. The results created in this project are in final draft form and disseminated through Podio, a shared workspace which is available to all the trainers who have been trained through this project so they can use and adapt them in their own BFR trainings. This includes the 200 additional trainers who so far have received "train-the-trainer" training from AFT and the LATs. We also have shared them with partners as we have pursued funding to extend these trainings after the end of the project. In addition, several LATs have leveraged the curriculum into beginning farmer programming including a Specialty Crop Block Grant Program proposal, an Extension 1890 Capacity Building grant award and an English-Language Learners translation of selected lesson plans from the LAT Curriculum for refugee and New American farm seeker audiences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

IMPACT: 2015/09 TO 2020/08
What was accomplished under these goals? The ultimate outcome of this project is to help BFRs secure land from retiring farmers and ranchers as well as institutional and non-operating landowners. The first project-term outcome is a curriculum and training resources which addresses gaps to serve the unique needs of diverse, and often underserved, populations. The second is a tested and validated national curriculum made widely available for use by qualified land access trainers (LATs) to deliver to BFRs in their regions. The third is a national network of LATs to sustain the project and provide ongoing support to BFRs seeking to secure agricultural land. The project's goals are twofold. First, they are to evaluate existing training programs and curricula, identify gaps, create standards, leverage existing materials and create new ones to fill gaps and to develop, deliver and disseminate a national curriculum on BFR land access training. Second, they are to build the capacity of agricultural educators and service providers working with BFRs to provide continuing education and launch a national network of mentors to sustain the project and provide ongoing support to BFRs seeking to secure agricultural land. To achieve these outcomes and goals, the project completed the followingfive inter-related objectives: Complete a national evaluation of existing farmland transition and land access programs, curricula and training resources; Create a comprehensive national curriculum that uses the most effective existing materials and approaches and adds new content to address identified gaps to meet the needs of diverse populations, regions and agricultural systems across the country; Deliver and test the comprehensive curriculum and training methods with 25 experienced agricultural educators and service providers from across the country (LATs) who are identified as leaders in their regions or with specific populations; Field test the curriculum with BFRs and ultimately extend the trainings to other trainers; Sustain the knowledge by laying the foundation for a national network of service providers and making the curriculum, resources, materials and training modules widely available to USDA, Extension, BFRDP project leaders, BFR educators and other agricultural educators and service providers through Farm Answers and AFT's Farmland Information Center.

PUBLICATIONS (not previously reported): 2015/09 TO 2020/08
No publications reported this period.

PROGRESS: 2016/09/01 TO 2017/08/31
Target Audience:The target audience reached during this reporting period was 25 Land Access Trainers selected through a competitive process to test and validate the newly created comprehensive, national curriculum and provide feedback to the curriculum development team. This curriculum is intended to serve diverse beginning farmers and ranchers across the country. Changes/Problems:The major change this year was to hire a curriculum development firm to help us create the curriculum instead of basing the curriculum on existing materials. This is because we learned from the evaluation that there were not adequate resources available upon which to base a national land access curriculum. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As per above, we offered a train-the-trainer training for the LATs. This was held in conjunction with the Changing Lands, Changing Hands conference (also supported by BFRDP) and the project offset the costs of participation in that conference as a way to provide additional professional development to LATs and AFT staff working on the project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results will be disseminated in Year 3. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Complete a revised draft of the core curriculum Conduct second Land Access Training in December 2017 Launch a peer-to-peer Land Access Trainers network with project partners Revise if necessary and make available for use in beginning farmer and rancher trainings Develop and pre and post training evaluation surveys for participants Conduct pre and post training evaluations Land Access Trainers will pilot the core curriculum with 125 beginning farmers and ranchers in 2018 Provide peer-to-peer technical assistance and support as the trainers deliver the trainings Revise core curriculum based on feedback from the trainings Translate the core curriculum into Spanish and pictures (for less literate audiences) Prepare train the trainer materials Lay ground work to expand the network to external partners and trainers in year 4

IMPACT: 2016/09/01 TO 2017/08/31
What was accomplished under these goals? A) Evaluation of existing training programs and curricula related to land access for BFRs: Major Activities: Finalized evaluation report of existing curricula Data collected: American Farmland Trust (AFT) searched USDA databases of research, extension and education projects, including: Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (accessed through the Current Research Information Service database), Risk Management Agency, Extension Risk Management Education, Conservation Innovation Grants and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. AFT used a list of 17 key words based on suggestions from the project's Educational Enhancement Team (EET) and USDA to identify relevant work. In general, staff looked back to 2009, the first year of BFRDP, but if no relevant projects were found, back to 2006. Based on this, AFT identified, reviewed and vetted more than 175 projects which addressed land succession, access and tenure and selected completed projects with deliverables that were readily available for further review. To track the identified projects, AFT created five workbooks and shared summary lists with the EET. The EET identified additional projects and highlighted any that resulted in a well-developed curriculum, and/or included quality resources related to land access for beginning farmers; and/or covered specific topics, demographics, situations or other factors believed to be important. Five EET members provided in depth feedback and additional members were contacted for responses to specific questions. At the same time, AFT took a closer, more qualitative look at the 175+ projects on the list and narrowed it down based on their depth and breadth, the relevancy of topics covered and the suite of available deliverables. This resulted in a list of 24 projects, which were shared with the EET and independent evaluator. Based on their feedback, staff selected 19 land access projects with curriculum content and resources for external evaluation. The evaluator started with 19 projects but ended with a final sample of 18 (N=18) as one was delivered through electronic videos (webinars) and thus could be assessed. 3. Summary of Statistics: The independent evaluation included a content analysis to inform curriculum mapping and an assessment of the effectiveness of each project. He evaluated and rated the effectiveness of each project using an assessment instrument developed by Finkbeiner and Braun (2013). In the end, he analyzed and described 24 sections, evaluated and assigned them values of 1 to 4 (1 = ineffective, 2 = fair, 3 = good, and 4 = effective). He ran descriptive statistics to describe the findings including Means (M), Standard Deviations (SD), and Modes (MO). Overall, the evaluation found most projects were rated as fair, resulting in a mean = 2.42, (SD = 1.01). Based on the five constructs (Content, Audience, Readability, Utility, and Evaluation) the content construct produced a mean of 2.47 (SD = 1.01), and the construct of audience a mean of 2.82 (SD = .98). Readability revealed a mean score of 3.19 (SD = .92) and produced the highest rank of the five constructs. Utility was evaluated at a mean of 2.08 (SD = 1.04) with evaluation producing the lowest construct score mean of 1.38 (SD = .81). 4. Key outcomes or other accomplishments realized. AFT used the findings from the evaluation report to create a curriculum map and outline for a new national curriculum on land tenure and access which addresses the major recommendations of the report. These included: Including meaningful and measureable learning objectives for the curriculum. Including instrumentation and assessment measures to evaluate the knowledge gained and impact of the curriculum. Creating an instructor's guide with sound information, resources and instruction on educationally sound practices that can be adapted to address diverse needs - agricultural, demographic and regional. Noting references and integrating them as seamlessly as possible to aid the instructors and learners to validate materials and to allow for further knowledge acquisition. B) Creating, testing and validating a comprehensive national land access curriculum Major Activities: Developed a draft core curriculum Data collected: AFT identified, reviewed and vetted 175+ projects which addressed land succession, access and tenure and selected completed projects with deliverables that were readily available for further review. AFT with input from the EET the reduced the list to 18 for independent evaluation. Summary statistics and discussion of results: With input from the EET, the initial list of main topics was reduced to four and the topics and subtopics are prioritized using a Delphi process. AFT then worked with a curriculum developer to transform the topics into performance-based competencies with related learning objectives. AFT created a five-part core curriculum. Key curriculum materials include a Course Outcome Summary, Student Learning Plan, Teaching Plan, Storyboard (content for presentations), Worksheets, Assessment Tools and Resource lists. Key outcomes or other accomplishments realized. We conducted two webinars and a two-day in person training to test and validate the initial draft curriculum with the LATs. The trainings included instruction on the learning cycle, learning methods, on how to use the curriculum and materials, and training on the subject matter content. Based on this we expanded the curriculum to cover eight core competencies and began to revise materials to reflect them. C) Building the capacity of agricultural educators and service providers working with BFRs to provide continuing education Major activities: Identify and select Land Access Trainers (LATs) Data collected: We conducted a competitive national search to identify potential LATs. Interested individuals submitted an electronic application and questionnaire to provide information on the follow kinds of qualifications: Type of organization applicants work for; Years of experience working with BFRs; Years of experience working on land access; Areas of expertise; States/regions served; Demographics of the BFRs they serve; Type and size of operations they work with; and Types of trainings they conducted and relevant networks/affiliations that could help extend the work. Summary statistics and discussion of results: Among the 101 applicants, 45% were from non-governmental organizations, 32% were from community-based organizations and 25% were from Cooperative Extension. Much smaller percentages worked for state agencies or local governments. More than two-thirds of the applicants had more than five years of experience working with BFRs but only 47% had more than five years of experience working on land access issues. Individuals applied from all 10 USDA production regions. AFT received the most applications from the Northeast (20); the Pacific (19); Appalachia (14) and the Corn Belt (14). Key outcomes or other accomplishments realized: After a careful and comprehensive review process, we invited a core group of 25 candidates to participate in the project. Theyrepresent all 10 USDA production regions, reflect substantial diversity in agricultural production systems - from livestock, specialty crop, dairy and grain production, to conventional and organic management systems. The selected LATs have experience working with diverse populations from traditional farm families, to refugees, from veterans to black family farmers in the south to Native American ranchers in South Dakota, to Latino farm workers in the Central Valley. Nearly all (93%) reported working with young farmers; 89% work with women; and 82% serve limited resource farmers. Large percentages reported that they work with veterans (58%); African American producers (46%) and Hispanic farmers (43%) specifically. These highly qualified people reflected the geographic diversity we sought and also reflected/represented agricultural and demographic diversity.

PUBLICATIONS: 2016/09/01 TO 2017/08/31
No publications reported this period.

PROGRESS: 2015/09/01 TO 2016/08/31
Target Audience:The first full year of the project was devoted to collecting and evaluating existing curricula and resources related to land access and farm transition. This evaluation will provide the basis for a new, comprehensive, national curriculum intended to serve diverse beginning farmers and ranchers from across the country. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?American Farmland Trust created the opportunity for Beginning Farmer and Rancher educators and service providers who are identified as leaders in their regions or with specific populations to become Land Access Trainers (LATs). LATs will help us pilot the new curriculum and improve content through an iterative process. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?To date, we have only presented preliminary findings at the BFRDP PI meeting in August 2016 and at a meeting with USDA on land tenure in July 2016. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period we will finalize the evaluation report by and select the LATs by the end of the calendar year. We will complete the first iteration of the national curriculum and hold an in person training in for the LATs in June. We will solicit feedback and make revisions to the curriculum in anticipation of their first round of trainings with beginning farmers and ranchers.

IMPACT: 2015/09/01 TO 2016/08/31
What was accomplished under these goals? American Farmland Trust (AFT) created and convened an Education Enhancement Team of 16 leading experts in land access and beginning farmer issues to advise us on the project. AFT also completed a review of 175+ USDA-funded projects that address land access to inform the development of the new, national curriculum. AFT prepared a draft evaluation report that summarized findings from a content analysis of a subset of training projects/curricula and evaluated their effectiveness.

PUBLICATIONS: 2015/09/01 TO 2016/08/31
No publications reported this period.