The expansion of Annie’s Project in New York State (NYS) was for three primary reasons: 1) to meet a human resource need by engaging women in agriculture; 2) to enhance regional economic impact through agricultural risk management education; and 3) to introduce a risk management curriculum and program methodology simultaneously to Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) agricultural educators statewide to increase the opportunity for sustainability in program delivery.
New York women in agriculture had access to one of thirteen education centers across the state in which 144 women participated. Using an interactive communications system (WebEx), each site hosted a one-day program for six consecutive weeks, February through mid-March 2014, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., including the all-important one-hour lunch period in which to build supportive networks. Participants initiated skills on-farm, became more effective farm partners or owner/operators, and continued to seek higher levels of risk management education while connecting to local resources introduced during the training sessions.