Project Design Team
We assembled a core team from N.C. A&T State University (NCA&T), N.C. State University (NCSU), Appropriate Technology Transfer in Rural Areas (ATTRA), Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA), American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC), Operation Spring Plant (OSP) and the North Carolina Goat Cooperative. All members of the team provide vital input, including key leadership by the project manager, program materials and workshop coordinator and the evaluation coordinator.
The team then compared that list of components to a manageable mix of topics in a workshop. Team members reviewed available materials and developed other materials. Responsibilities for each topic were assigned to people competent in the subject. John O’Sullivan is coordinating these tasks with a core team of extension staff and a curriculum design consultant to design an effect program. We are now in the process of assembling the program materials. These include some materials that are specific to each location (slaughter regulations for any specific state or territory). Part of the design to be included therefore will not just be focused on specific regulations but on how to find out what are the relevant regulations and how to meet them.
The main effort of the SARE PDP project is a workshop scheduled for Sept. 13-15, 2005 in Greensboro, N.C. Workshop presenters will address issues of producer-managed processing and slaughter, and marketing. Handouts, web-resource links and other training materials such as slides and power point will be provided.
The workshop will be presented in six sessions, designed in a train-the-trainer model. Participants are expected to take the materials and information they get in the workshop and use them in their respective states and territories, to train agents. By using the workshop information in their own work, the participants are helping complete the crucial final step of this project. A program evaluation will be conducted to monitor actual project impacts
Objectives of the Program
1. By participating in the SARE PDP Workshop Producer Managed Marketing of Livestock Products, in Greensboro September 13-15, the 60 program participants will be knowledgeable in the topics presented and will return to their states and territories and conduct in-service training for local extension agents, farmer educators and not-for-profit group partners across the Southern Region using resources from the workshop.
2. Of the 60 participants attending the workshop, at least 10 Extension faculty, 15 farmer partners and three not-for-profit group partners work specifically with limited-resource farmers. Approximately, 2,000 farmers are projected to ultimately benefit from the expert knowledge provided at the workshop; and of those 2,000 farmers, 100 are limited-resource producers.
3. After participating in the workshop, and after in-service training is conducted by the 60 program participants in the states and territories across the southern region, at least 2,000 farmers will be able to market livestock and livestock products in a more knowledgeable way and will be able to discuss issues of livestock marketing with regulators and legislators and other interested parties.
4. Evaluations will be conducted to address each objective and to monitor for unexpected outcomes. The project organizers will help program participants monitor and report outcomes in their states and territories to the extent possible. Indeed, training in the use of the Program Logic Model and evaluation planning are integral to the train-the-trainer sessions and implementation across the south.