Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the northern rhode island…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the northern rhode island conservation district (nricd) will collaborate with partner organizations to seek out limited resource and socially disadvantaged urban beginning farmers and gardeners in urbanized areas of northern rhode island (RI) to participate in a year-long urban growers leadership program (uglp). Long term goal: the urban growers leadership program is a multilingual training and technical assistance program that will stand as a long-term outreach and educational program through workshops, farm tours, and mentoring. As the program progresses IT will further support the program participants by developing video training resources for the participants and their communities. The uglp has been successfully operating for two years (2019 and 2020) through the national association of conservation district's (nacd) urban agriculture conservation grant initiative (UAC grant). The uglp consists of a cohort of 10-12 farmers and gardeners to provide a small interactive learning environment. Participants are typically adults with several years of gardening or farming experience but are still considered beginning farmers (under 10 years) according to the USDA. During 2022, 2023, and 2024 (2022-2024 programs), the uglp will expand its capacity to engage more limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers by providing farm tours to multiple bilingual cohorts of participants, and by developing public visual and video resources. Through the collaboration of nricd partners, the uglp addresses the needs of the community and assists partners with outreach and education goals they do not have the capacity to implement themselves.nricd serves providence county, RI, which contains several urban areas, including providence, north providence, east providence, pawtucket and central falls, RI. According to the u.s department of agriculture economic research service, food access research atlas 2015 data, sections of providence, north providence, east providence, pawtucket and central falls, rhode island are in food deserts - low-income areas with limited access to supermarkets. In the most recent data report from the 2018 rhode island food policy council snapshots, there are a total of 84,412 individuals on the snap program, 12,830 individuals on the WIC program, and 39,914 students eligible for free or reduced meals in the cities of providence, north providence, east providence, pawtucket, and central falls, RI. The RI food bank 2020 facts & figures states that 148,000 total rhode islanders are enrolled in snap. Comparing the RI food policy snapshot and the RI food bank information, 57% of the rhode islanders on snap are located in providence, north providence, east providence, pawtucket, and central falls, RI.food access in these areas has been heavily impacted by the covid-19 pandemic as well. Ecori, a local environmental news source, stated sections of providence, pawtucket, and central falls have the highest infection rates in the state, some higher than much-publicized covid-19 hot spots like bronx, N.Y., while brown university covd-19 data reveal that the highest cases of covid-19 in RI were in racial and ethnic minority groups'' and communities in poverty within providence county, RI. The rhode island race & ethnic origin demographics by county revealed that in 2010, providence county, RI held 59.5% of the state's population and was the most culturally diverse area in the state. Data USA profile indicates that as of 2018, approximately 29.2% of RI residents were born outside the united states - higher than the national average of 13.3% . Nricd's partners have found themselves working with many individuals born outside the country whose agrarian backgrounds draw them to participate in community gardens and agriculture organizations, and to grow for their own families in these urban, underserved/underdeveloped areas. Nricd's partners emphasize the need for bilingual, or multilingual programs for these communities to serve urban growing leaders who strive to learn more about environmental conservation and urban agricultural practices but have few resources available to them. Partners have also expressed that many urban farming and gardening programs offered in providence county consists of youth urban programs for ages elementary to early high school students, excluding youth ages 16-22. Nricd will collaborate with partners to meet this demand by incorporating a dedicated young adult cohort during the 2023 and 2024 uglp program years.local organizations have established more than 60 community gardens and urban farms in areas served by the uglp . A number of farmer's markets target these areas directly 9. Of the markets in providence, central falls, and pawtucket, the farm fresh rhode island document farmers markets in rhode island: pay with EBT/snap, shows that only 8 accept EBT and snap . There is a need for more trainers and leaders to guide community engagement in these garden spaces so that local farms and gardens will be equipped to help their own communities move towards food sovereignty. There are several organizations within providence county, RI that provide outreach and education programs, such as southside community land trust, groundwork rhode island, and farm fresh rhode island. These programs typically have low participation from limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers because of the limited resources these organizations can provide. Although these programs are great, there is a wealth of information that is not getting to beginning farmers and gardeners who have limited resources and are socially disadvantaged and are not able to participate in them due to barriers such as transportation, child care, or language. Farmanwers.ORG showcases three relative programs - farm beginnings whole farm planning course through grownyc, new urban/immigrant farming training program through ECO city farms in maryland, and southern illinois farm beginnings project through food works in illinois, however none of these projects serves the providence county growing community.nricd's project, the uglp, was initiated in 2019 after working with local partners to identify needs in the urban agriculture community in providence county, RI. By speaking with partner organizations, nricd learned that emerging leaders in the urban growing community, who are largely self-taught, could benefit from increased knowledge and resources that could be used to train their volunteers, mentees, students, and community members about urban farming and gardening operations. However, there are many factors that discourage limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers from participating in outreach and educational programs. Participation barriers cited by nricd's partners included 1. Financial, 2. Time, 3. Child care accessibility, 4. Transportation, 5. Language and literacy, 6. Learning, and 7. Resource barriers. The uglp sought to address these community participation barriers by arranging program elements around participants' needs, providing childcare, and supplying participants with a stipend to compensate them for time away from family, work, and growing commitments. Limiting barriers has allowed nricd to welcome limited resource and socially disadvantaged beginning farmers who seek to address knowledge gaps within their communities become community leaders and share their knowledge through the urban growers leadership program. The program evaluationswill evaluate the major elements of the program that reduce participation barriers and address additional needs, challenges, or modifications to the program to promote community program participation and limit these identified barriers.