Completed Project Report


Risk Management Strategies for Female Agritourism Operators in Pennsylvania

  • Award Amount: $27,300
  • Regional Center: Northeast Extension Risk Management Education Center
  • Grant Program: 2019 Education Projects
  • Project Director: Claudia Schmidt
  • Email: czs786@psu.edu
  • Organization: Pennsylvania State University

Back to Search Results

Extension RME Regional Centers
Extension Risk Management Education Region Map

Project Overview

As small farms struggle to remain in business, interest in diversifying with agritourism options has increased in Pennsylvania. We have observed that agritourism enterprises are often headed by a female member of the farm family. This project addressed production, marketing, legal, and human resource risk as experienced by female agritourism operators. The risks addressed were chosen based on educational requests received, questions posed, and the existing literature on female agritourism operators.  A web-based video series featuring interviews with female agritourism operators discussing specific experiences with marketing, financial, legal, and human resource risk experiences was developed and published to the Penn State Extension website. By project conclusion, there were 447 unique views of the individual videos.  Due to COVID-19, in-person workshops were modified to a webinar format with accompanying materials provided electronically following each webinar session and at the conclusion of the complete series.  71 individuals registered for the webinar series and there were 83 webinar participants across the four sessions.  Five articles on relevant topics were published with unique views totaling 568.  17 webinar participants identified actionable risks for their farm operation during the workshops and 2 have implemented steps to manage these risks after three months of workshop completion.

Number of Participants: 83

Outcomes

Project Steps

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

There are no promotional materials available for this project.

EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

There are no educational materials available for this project.

REPORTS & EVALUATIONS

There are no reports or evaluations available for this project.

DELIVERY AREA

DESCRIBE ANY UNEXPECTED RESULTS OF THE PROJECT:

HOW WOULD YOU IMPROVE THE PROJECT IF YOU WERE TO DO IT AGAIN?

WHAT WERE THE KEYS TO SUCCESS FOR YOUR PARTICIPANTS?

INDIVIDUAL STORIES / EXAMPLES OF SUCCESS / QUOTES