CREATING A REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ON-FARM AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED YOUTH

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1027534
• Grant No.: 2021-70026-35875
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $215,327.00
• Proposal No.: 2021-08091
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2021
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2024
• Grant Year: 2021
• Program Code: [FASIP]- Food Agriculture Service Implementation Project

Recipient Organization
OURSPACE WORLD, INC.
10602 FITZGIBBON CT
BOWIE,MD 207211849

Performing Department
(N/A)

Non Technical Summary
This project seeks to address several intersecting short- and long-term community-identified needs, including:limited opportunities for socially disadvantaged African-American youth to participate in on-farm experiential learning and related off-farm activitiesrelated to agriculture, gardening, nutrition, and where food comes from;limited capacity of small-scale socially disadvantaged African-Americanfarmers to host and provide on-farm educational experiences for youth;lack of culturally-centered agricultural educational materials thataffirm the historical contributions of Africans and African-Americans to agriculture;limited access to fresh produce for youth andfamilies in socially disadvantaged communities in both urban and rural settings, especially those grown by socially disadvantaged farmers;andchallenges in the pipeline of the farming workforce, particularly thosefrom socially disadvantaged backgrounds.This project will establish a Mid-Atlantic regional partnership infrastructure to link small-scale socially disadvantaged farmers with socially disadvantaged youth and their families through on-farm education related to agriculture, food, and nutrition. A secondary goal is to develop, pilot, and disseminate the Africulture curriculum, a culturally centered stand-alone K-12 agricultural education curriculumthat will be made available for use by farmers, parents, and educators seeking to provide culturally centered agricultural education to supplement and enrich in-class, home-school, or farm-based instructional opportunities.The goals of the project are: 1) to enhanceawareness, knowledge, and skills in K-12 Black youth around culturally-centered agricultural practices, food systems, and nutrition; and 2) to enhancecapacity for socially disadvantaged small-scale Black farmers to host groups of Black youth for on-farm experiential educational experiences. Ultimately, the project seeks to expand the benefits of farm-to-school programs to meet the needs of socially disadvantaged farmers and youth, thus beginning to address historical challenges related to health disparities, food apartheid, and disconnection from food and land.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
703	6099	3020	10%
802	6099	3020	10%
805	6050	3030	25%
806	6030	3020	10%
805	6050	0001	25%
806	1499	3020	10%
806	6030	3040	10%

Knowledge Area
703 - Nutrition Education and Behavior; 805 - Community Institutions, Health, and Social Services; 806 - Youth Development; 802 - Human Development and Family Well-Being;

Subject Of Investigation
1499 - Vegetables, general/other; 6099 - People and communities, general/other; 6050 - Communities, areas, and regions; 6030 - The farm as an enterprise;

Field Of Science
0001 - Administration; 3040 - History; 3020 - Education; 3030 - Information and communication;

Keywords

african-american youth

agriculture

curriculum

education

socially disadvantaged farmers

Goals / Objectives
The primary goal of this project is to establish a Mid-Atlantic regional partnership infrastructure to link small-scale socially disadvantaged farmers with socially disadvantaged youth and their families through on-farm education related to agriculture, food, and nutrition. A secondary goal is to develop, pilot, and disseminate a culturally centered stand-alone K-12 agricultural education curriculum that will be made available for use by farmers, parents, and educators seeking to provide culturally centered agricultural education to supplement and enrich in-class, home-school, or farm-based instructional opportunities.

Project Methods
Efforts:Outreach through 2-3 listening sessions with a minimumof 4 socially disadvantaged host farms and 12 homeschooling parents in the DMV to gather data on host site capacities and gaps around youth-focused hands-on experiential educationDevelop the Africulture curriculum (a culturally centered stand-alone K-12 agricultural education curriculumto supplement and enrich in-class, home-school, or farm-based instructional opportunities).Pilot certain components of the Africulture curriculumDisseminate the Africulture curriculumImplement a minimum of 15 hands-on (half-day or full-day), on-farm experiential educational sessions hosted at socially disadvantaged farms in the Mid-Atlantic region, targeting a minimum of 100 socially disadvantaged homeschooling K-12 youthEvaluation:To evaluate the capacity of social disadvantaged farmersto host on-farm experiential education opportunities for youth, pre- and post- surveys will be administered (prior to listening sessions and after on-farm experiential education sessions.To evaluate the impact of experiential learning sessions, pre- and post- surveys will beadministered to older youth (aged 13-17) and the parents/caregivers of younger youth (aged 5-12). Surveys will measure knowledge related to agriculture (and its cultural relevance), gardening, nutrition, cooking, and where food comes from.For older youth, a skills assessment checklist will be used to document new skills gained during on-farm experiential learning.To evaluate the Africulture curriculum pilot,pre- and post- surveys will be administered to older youth and the parents/caregivers of younger youth. Surveys will measureknowledge related to agriculture (and its cultural relevance), gardening, nutrition, cooking, and where food comes, and attitudes toward farmingTo evaluate the impact of the project over time, after the conclusion of the project:Number of downloads of the Africulture curriculum will be tracked through web use analytics, along with characteristics of downloading individuals whose work is connected to youth education (through data collection form)Number of on-farm experiential learning sessions, number of new farm host sites, and number of socially disadvantaged youth reached will be tracked through a project database

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Socially disadvantaged farmers/farms (host sites),socially disadvantaged K-12 homeschooling youth (and families) in the Mid-Atlantic Region (DC, MD, VA), and socially disadvantaged educators / youth programming facilitators. Changes/Problems:In initiating the development of the culturally-centered agricultural enrichment curriculum, it became clear that the effort would take longer than expected and pre-pilots and continued pilots of certain components were neededto inform the process and the curriculum's scope and framework. Determining the format and direction of the curriculum also took longer than expected given changes we made to our approach after testing things out with the youth in the outdoor setting. These delays resulted in the need for a no-cost extension, which we were granted. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During Summer 2023, the project supported annother 8-week undergraduate summer intern from Princeton University through its RISE (Recognizing Inequities and Standing for Equality) fellowship program. The RISE fellow supported curriculum development activities virtually and also spent 2 weeks in person assisting with 1 summer garden-based program and a future college-aged youth alternative spring break program (piloting March 2024). The curriculum designer who joined the team did not have a background in science education nor agriculture, but the project allowed her to learn a lot through curriculum-related research, and opened up opportunities for reconnection with her own family's land and legacy. Through the pilotCamp EarthPact Leadership Lab, we facilitated a virtual portion of the program which included presentations, working labs, written and collaborative work, one-on-one and group coaching. Program participantsreported increasedknowledge and skill sets related to facilitating outdoor youth programming, many in partnership with Black land stewards. As a result, 7 camps were hosted from June-December. Beginning in August of 2023, we welcomed a year-long PrincetonProject 55 fellow to join our Teach22 team. Her role has been to expand upon our nature-based youth educational programming through a new pilot -- Earth School. Building out foundational components of Earth School has been a tremendous professional development opportunity for this young professional. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Thus far, project happenings have been disseminated through the sameproject-specific landing page created at the beginning of the project that also invites email subscribers to stay in touch with the project. Project-related updates have also continued to beincluded as part of organizational email newsletters. In April 2023, OurSpace retooled its website to include an "events" page to better communicate the Teach22 Journeys events occurring on farms and streamline the registration processes through eventnoire, our event platform. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have requested and been granted a no-cost extension for this project. Thus, during Year 3 of the project, we will launch various aspects of the curriculum and solicit feedback from those who use it in order to refine and improve it.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The established communication infrastructure has expanded to include several WhatsApp groups and a loose network of supporters on social media (Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn) who always cross-post and amplify our offerings -- on the farmers' side as well as on the youth/families side. We have tripled the number of partners/organizations/land stewards in our "Black youth * Black farmers"network. We hosted listening sessions with parents in January of 2023 to solicit feedback and insights from parents and educators, which we then incorporated into our on-farm activities, the Camp EarthPact summer program leadership lab, and aspects of the curriculum design. Through thispilot Camp EarthPact Leadership Lab (held Februay 2023-Summer/Fall 2023), which we were able to launch thanks to success of our on-farm youth focused summer program pilot in 2022 (a direct outgrowth of the work of this project), werecruited 15 leaders and retained 12. Of that 12, 9 completed the 4-week coaching module, resulting in 7 camps hosted from June to December 2023, reaching 78 additional youth. Development of the culturally centered stand-alone K-12 agricultural education curriculum continued during this period andelements of it continued to betestedwith target audience members in various learning settings. We enlisted the help of an author and curriculum designer to enrich the curriculum with structured lessons, tiered "cross-pollination" activities and age-appropriately written biographies. During the summer of 2023, we had another undergraduate intern assist with the organization, layout, and design of a selected subset of modules that we plan to launch in Fall of 2023. In October 2022, the Project Director prepared and presented a project update for the Project Director meeting held virtually and made a couple of connections with other first-time FASLP grantees.

Publications

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Socially disadvantaged farmers/farms (host sites) and socially disadvantaged K-12 homeschooling youth in the Mid-Atlantic Region (DC, MD, VA). Changes/Problems:In initiating the development of the culturally-centered agricultural enrichment curriculum, it became clear that the effort would take longer than expected and pre-pilots of certain components would be needed to inform the process and the curriculum's scope and framework(see Events/Activities in "Other Products" of this report). Staffing changes were also made to accommodate the curriculum development process in collaboration with Africulture (subawardee) and instead of hiring assistants at the beginning of the project, a curriculum developer and author was hired to assist with the project in July of 2022. This meant that we did not fully spend down Year 1 funds. We will continue to evaluate our progress to determine whether a no-cost extension will be needed to spend down all funds by the end of Year 2. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During Summer 2022, the project supported an 8-week undergraduate summer intern from Princeton University through its RISE (Recognizing Inequities and Standing for Equality) fellowship program. The RISE fellow supported curriculum-related enrichment activities through the OurSpace's pilot summer Earthpact program, which reached 26 socially disadvantaged youth (aged 4-15 years) and taught hands-on skills related to preparing agrowing bed, harvesting, weeding, planting crops from seed,transplanting seedlings, as well as basic carpentry/construction skills (youth were involved with helping to build Little Free Libraries to be installed on partner farm sites). The intern was able to learn invaluable on-farm youth education skills. During this same program, two educators were able to gain agricultural and natural building skills through one-on-one training with the project's co-director, which empowered them to teach these skills to the participating youth. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Thus far, project happenings have been disseminated througha project-specific landing page that also invites email subscribers to stay in touch with the project. Project-related updates have also been included as part of organizational email newsletters. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During Year 2 of the project, we will engage in outreach activities to both socially disadvantaged host farms and homeschooling parents (both via surveys and via listening sessions),pilot and disseminate various aspects of the curriculum, and implement a minimum of 15 hands-on (half- or full-day) on-farm experiential educational sessions hosted at socially disadvantaged farms, targeting socially disadvantaged youth. We will also gather data to evaluate the following: - our efforts in building capacity of farmers to host on-farm experiential education opportunities for youth, -the impact of experiential learning sessions - curriculum pilot

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A communication infrastructure has been established to link small-scale socially disadvantaged farmers with socially disadvantaged youth and their families through on-farm education related to agriculture, food, and nutrition. The infrastructure is a combination of designated homeschooling email listservs, team communication channels (i.e., GroupMe, Slack, and MightyNetworks), and a newly-established landing page and email listserv for the project. Development of the culturally centered stand-alone K-12 agricultural education curriculum is well underway and elements of it have been tested with target audience members in various learning settings.

Publications