Description Communities need new farmers but farmer training and resources are not always easy to locate, relevant or accessible for diverse audiences. A team of educators, organizers, farmers and a retailer leveraged existing networks and resources to co-create curricula to serve the needs of both formal beginning farmer programs and peer-to-peer learning. The group worked in teams to create participatory, hands-on learning modules on: land access, farm finances, soil health, integrated pest management, pollinators, produce safety, marketing, urban agriculture, mentorship, and working with diverse farmers. The curricula is stored in Airtable so it can be added to any website. How this project relates to the conference theme “Innovative Pathways to Thriving Communities: People, Technology, and Place-based Collaboration.” This project relates to all three sub-areas of the conference theme, though we have it slotted under “People-Driven Solutions” due to the participatory nature of writing and delivering the curricula. When assembling the project team, we not only looked for individuals with subject matter expertise, but also aimed to have representation from a variety of Michigan’s established beginning farmer education programs for both urban and rural farmers. All educational materials were written collaboratively by team members working together virtually. Farmers themselves were a critical part of the writing process, providing feedback via survey about how they prefer to learn and participating in the editing and piloting process to ensure the content was relevant and jargon was eliminated or defined. Guidance for curricula facilitators details strategies for empowering farmer learners as peer educators, sharing their knowledge and experiences to enhance the learning environment for all. With authors representing various geographies across Michigan, the content leverages place-based networks and resources, including city-specific policy guides and case studies. Emerging technologies were utilized for collaboration, including Canva templates for achieving a harmonious design and Google Drive and Airtable to store and share curricula and additional resources. Storing the curricula files and curated resources in Airtable allows us to build a main website for the project, but also for anyone to host the curricula files on their website by copy/pasting a bit of code or using a plug-in. Our goal was to make it simple for materials to be widely shared and accessed by anyone.
