7:15-8 am – Breakfast
8-8:15 am – Welcome: Introductions & overview of the day
Mary Peabody, University of Vermont Extension Professor
and director of the “Enhancing Educational Programming for Women Beginning Farmers and Ranchers” project.
8:15-8:45 am – Setting the Stage: Why focus on women farmers and ranchers?
Carolyn Sachs, Pennsylvania State University Professor of Rural Sociology and Director of the Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network
8:45-9:15 – Defining Challenges, Building Connections
Networking activity facilitated by Beth Holtzman, UVM Extension
9:15-10 am – What does success look like to beginning women farmers & ranchers?
Nadia Navarette-Tindall, Lincoln University
10:15-11:30 – Best practices for supporting learning for
beginning women farmers & ranchers
Sandy Bell, University of Connecticut
11:30-12:15 – Energizing our Practice.
Group activity, facilitated by Sandy Bell
12:15-1 pm – Lunch & Informal Networking
1-2:40 pm – Matching Educational Approaches with Audience Needs & Preferences
- Making Space for Innovation (1:10 pm) Small group activity
- Designing Successful Programs (1:30) Small group activity
- Group reports/sharing (1:50) Full group
- Design Principals for programs for beginning farm and ranch women (2:10)
2:55-3:45 pm – Application to Your Practice Concurrent breakout sessions.
- Barriers Limited Resource and Underserved Women Face. This session will address barriers beginning women farmers / ranchers face including language, culture, ethnicity, social and family issues, immigration status, and ability. Several assessment methods will be discussed, including surveys, focus groups, interviews, and PhotoVoice. Facilitators: Karen Funkenbush & Nadia Navarette-Tindall.
- Exploring Our Assumptions About Beginning Women Farmers and Ranchers. This highly interactive session will offer a safe space to explore assumptions about beginning women farmers and ranchers, and how those perceptions may impact our work. Facilitator: Sandy Bell.
- Evaluating programs for women beginning farmer and rancher audiences. What should we be measuring? What questions should we be asking? This session will consider various approaches to measuring – and communicating – program impacts. We’ll consider how grant frameworks affect these decisions, and look at some example surveys and reports to glean ideas for improving our evaluation efforts. Facilitator: Beth Holtzman
- Growing Programs for Farm and Ranch Women. Bring your success stories, challenges and questions about establishing and sustaining women in ag programs. This facilitated round table discussion will provide opportunities to share ideas with with colleagues engaged in similar efforts in other parts of the country. Representatives of three well-established women in ag programs will facilitate, briefly sharing their experiences. At the end, we’ll brainstorm some ways to enhance learning and sharing between our programs networks. Facilitators, Lisa Kivirist, Patty Neiner & Mary Peabody.
3:55-4:20 – Debrief on Approaches, Tools & Techniques
Facilitators and presenters will discuss and answer questions about several of the tools and techniques we used during the workshop and how you might adapt them for use in your programs.
4:20-4:30 – Closing remarks & next steps Mary Peabody
4:30 pm – Adjourn