New Entry Sustainable Farming Project
Location:
Lowell, MA
New Entry’s mission is to assist start-up farmers – primarily immigrants, refugees, and other socially-disadvantaged persons - to successfully begin farming enterprises in Massachusetts, and thereby help to (a) support the vitality and sustainability of the region’s agriculture; (b) build long-term economic self-reliance and food security among participants and in their communities; and, (c) expand access to high quality, culturally-appropriate foods through local production by members of these communities and sustain traditional healthier diets and more active lifestyles for these urban residents.
Project Description:
Our work to date has focused mainly in Eastern and Central Massachusetts due to a strong interest in agriculture among immigrant and refugee residents. Immigrant, refugee, and new farmers are the only expanding constituencies in American agriculture based on 2007 Census of Agriculture data. An estimated 60,000-75,000 recent immigrants and refugees own or operate farms in the U.S. At the same time, many more want to establish their own farming operations. By broadening access to our programs and services across a wider geographic region, New Entry has the potential to become a significantly stronger resource for underserved farmers nationwide.
Widespread access to computers among socially disadvantaged farmers has expanded opportunities to provide educational materials online. The New Entry website is currently used to post information about our training programs and resource guides. We have not yet tapped the potential of this site to connect with broader audiences for outreach and training through distance learning.
New Entry’s core training program in Lowell is inaccessible for many prospective participants who do not reside in the area. Furthermore, many potential beginning farmers are unable to participate in site-based training programs due to work responsibilities and time constraints. It’s critical for New Entry to develop ways to provide access to our training programs to meet the resurgence of interest in growing food, buying local, small-scale farming. Through utilization of communications technologies, New Entry can effectively assist larger numbers of limited resource and socially disadvantaged producers, particularly those located further away from where our project is centered.
We are aware that optimal learning for farmers takes place through visual and interactive processes. Development of enhanced digital media is currently an important New Entry priority for both training and outreach purposes in order for our program to expand. As a result, we have a need for a VISTA Member to manage all aspects of developing digital media in the three areas noted below: online courses, webcasts, and video clips.
On-Line Courses
Online learning opportunities allows potential producers with technology skills to learn at their own pace and convenience. New Entry has conducted classroom courses since 2004, and we currently conduct a Farm Business Planning curriculum, which includes six 3-hour classroom courses. The VISTA Member will convert this six-session training curriculum to an online self-paced learning format, as follows:
•Converting six training courses into digital format;
•Creating screen-friendly designs with added visuals to enhance the appeal to users;
•Adding links for more information;
•Developing an online evaluation component to courses.
Webcast
New Entry conducts Hands-On Field training workshops as a practical skills continuum of training for the Farm Business Planning Course students. New Entry currently conducts 10 workshops which take place throughout the growing season.
The VISTA Member will produce at least three webcasts based on Hands-On Field Training workshop content. Webcast topics will include (a) water and irrigation; (b) pest management; and (c) small-scale poultry production. Additional topics may be added as time allows. Webcasts will include film clips from the workshops, PowerPoints, charts, photos, and web links. New Entry staff will narrate the webcasts. The VISTA Member will promote the webcasts through multiple outreach strategies, including online lists and websites that reach thousands of potential users.
Videos Clips
Wider access to videos remains important as a tool for less literate producers, in particular with respect to New Entry outreach. Our goal is to promote interest in farming careers by promoting awareness of and access to resources available from New Entry and project partners.
Many socially-disadvantaged constituents are removed from mainstream agricultural outreach activities. Currently, all of our outreach is accomplished using paper materials and word of mouth. Though these approaches have worked well for us in the past, we would like to create outreach messages using digital technology in order to reach a wider audience. Videos will reach farmers and individuals who we are unable to learn about our programs through our one-on-one community outreach efforts. The VISTA Member will produce four 3-5 minute video clips, which provide an overview of New Entry programs offered. These videos will be uploaded to our website for broad dissemination.
This project will increase community engagement in our programs by creating greater awareness of the types of training programs and services we offer. We also hope to engage: (i) new landowners who wish to make their farmland available to newly trained growers, (ii) farm workers, (iii) farm business owners who are searching for employees.
Project Tangibles:
Tangible outputs will include:
• 6 on-line courses from Farm Business Planning Course content
• 4 Webcasts, integrating content from Hands-On Field Workshops
• 4 Video clips featuring various project components
• On-line feedback forms to evaluate user satisfaction of content and design of materials.
All outputs produced by the CTC VISTA will be web accessible and disseminated to beginning farmers with computer access. This is a new initiative which will involve pitfalls and challenges. The CTC VISTA will clearly document and evaluate both the unsuccessful and successful outcomes of the project. A training manual for future New Entry staff and interns to continue building additional training modules for online courses will be developed to share with the Field. The results from the project evaluations will also be summarized and made available to the CTC VISTA project and other organizations for their use on future similar projects.
Supported Projects
Online eLearning Tools for Farmers Development
John Dorman
7/2009 — 7/2010
Widespread access to computers among socially disadvantaged farmers has expanded opportunities to provide educational materials online. The New Entry website is currently used to post information about our training programs and resource guides. We have not yet tapped the potential of this site to connect with broader audiences for outreach and training through distance learning.
Optimal learning for farmers takes place through visual and interactive processes. Development of enhanced digital media is currently an important New Entry priority for both training and outreach purposes in order for our program to expand. As a result, the VISTA Member will manage all aspects of developing digital media in three main areas: online courses, webcasts, and video clips.
Goal #1 – Convert Six On-line Courses from Written to Digital Media
Goal #2 - Development of Three Webcasts
Goal #3 – Develop Video Clips for Low-Literacy Population in Areas of Outreach
Goal #4 – Evaluation of Process
In addition to completing most of the assignments originally envisioned for John’s year with New Entry, John completed assignments which went well beyond the stated goals in the original proposal. In addition to the three workshop videos to be included in the online curriculum, John developed a Seedling Training video for on-line curriculum use.
The sustainability of John’s contributions will remain significant, well into the future. In addition to developing solid working curriculum for on-line use, John developed important foundations upon which New Entry curriculum can expand. John established a formula for production of workshop videos, on-line curriculum videos, and Farmer-to-Farmer Moments. This formula will be repeated with each new video which is produced into the future. John also converted our lending library of VHS tapes into DVDs to both extend the shelf life of the videos and make them available to clients with DVD players. John also participated in outreach activities and made important partnerships throughout the area.