Conferences
Heart of the Farm - Risk Management Education and Networking Opportunities for Wisconsin Farm Women
Joy Kirkpatrick
Summary
Heart of the Farm – Women in Agriculture (HOF) began providing risk management education and networking opportunities to Wisconsin farm women in 2002. Since then HOF has held 24 one-day conferences and reached over 500 women. In addition, HOF provides spin-off workshops to address specific requests of participants. Annie’s Project is also offered to Wisconsin Farm women; sixty-five women have participated in one of eight Annie’s Projects since 2004. Evaluations from the conferences and workshops indicate farm women attend because the topics are pertinent to their farm business; however once there the farm women appreciate the networking opportunities the conferences provide. Participants frequently request more time to network. Participants also request more in-depth education and skill development in regards to risk management topics. Heart of the Farm coordinators strive to improve the conferences and find more ways to provide education and networking opportunities to Wisconsin farm women. In 2007 a HOF newsletter was developed; new facilitated networking sessions were offered; and a pilot Google group for Wisconsin farm women was developed. In early 2008 a new approach to offer in-depth information was offered at two of the HOF one-day conferences. This session will provide an overview of the statistics gathered from the six years of Heart of the Farm evaluations, sample teaching outlines and ice-breakers as methods to facilitate networking. This session will also discuss the opportunities and challenges of starting a Google group for farm women.
Presentation Materials
Details
| Conference | 2008 National Women in Agriculture Educators Conference |
| Presentation Type | 60-Minute Concurrent |