Hafa is, at its core, a social justice organization, started by and are led by members of the immigrant community

We use an intensive organizing approach to work with our members and other farmers in the community to access land, equipment, capital, research and training so that the farmers can improve their farming operations, and thereby, lift themselves and their families out of poverty. There are other beginning farmer training programs that currently exist in MN as well as other states, but none of them have the linguistic and cultural competency, comprehension or capacity of hafa's. Indeed, one of the core reasons for expanding our programs beyond MN in this grant is that we are constantly getting requests from hmong farmers outside our area who are seeking farmer training that is appropriate to our culture. Other organizations may hire a single immigrant staff member for the duration of a grant cycle, but hafa has full time staff members who are BI-lingual, BI-cultural andexperienced in farming. Other programs may organize conferences and offer 45 minute training sessions that draw a large number of attendees, but after the conferences, those organizations do not have the resources or programs to deepen or expand the learning. Hafa has the experience and direct connections to long term farmland access, value-added production and marketing opportunities, as well as relationships with educational and financial entities offering expertise, microloans and other financial resources that immigrant farmers can use. Moreover, none of the other programs follow a cohort of farmers and their families literally for years the way hafa does, both inside the classrooms and on the fields, to make sure that their training programs have the desired result of ultimately benefiting low income, immigrant farmers.hafa's training programs are unique compared to others in a number of distinct ways:hafa's beginning farmer training programs was conceptualized and refined over a six year period by hmong trainers with a strong emphasis on traditional hmong farming practices integrated with contemporary agricultural methodology. The end result was a curriculum that now includes, per module, a power point, a train the trainer guide, a list of hmong words and phrases associated with the topic, a series of worksheets to apply the knowledge and short quiz to evaluate the learning; hafa is membership-based, thus we have a long-term relationship with our constituents and provide them with year round, active, post-training support with in-field demonstration and technical assistance to address their concerns; lastly, our training curriculum has a strong focus on forming cooperatives to give small farmers more tools and opportunities to be successful through collaborative action. In hafa's training approach, we begin with an assessment of what immigrant farmers already know, and build on that knowledge. The learning is interactive, culturally presented and uses relevant case studies. Focusing on interactions and one-to-one tutorials we believe yields a much higher rate of participation from minority farmers, a much higher rate of completion from those who do participate in the trainings, as well as a much higher rate of overall success as measured by the increase in farm income and family wealth for training graduates over the long term. The long term goal of this project is to help younger and beginning hmong farmers to start farming and stay farming in a sustainable manner. This can be achieved by increasing immigrant and second generation farmers' ability to make a successful living from farming while respecting traditional methods of learning and cultural practices. By working simultaneously on building financially viable farming operations while also connecting to multi-cultural hmong immigrant farming communities, the long term goal of hmong farmers starting and staying in farming can be achieved. Our plan is to train 480 farmers per year, and increase farm income by 15-20%.