History of WLL^SM

The Iowa State Outreach Council (SOC) was formed in September 1998. The SOC includes Federal and State Agencies and other partners of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). It also includes non-profit and faith based organizations. The purpose of the SOC is to work together on initiatives to identify and meet the needs of the underserved populations of Iowa.

In April 2003 SOC published a Resource Directory for Iowa and began to look for other initiatives that would meet their mission. A subcommittee was formed to make recommendations for an outreach project specifically addressing the needs of women. The initial subcommittee consisted of:

• Beth Grabau – Farm Service Agency

• Tanya Meyer-Dideriksen – Natural Resources Conservation Service

• Denise O'Brien – Women, Food and Agriculture Network

• Carol Smith – National Catholic Rural Life Conference

• Mary Swalla-Holmes – Ecumenical Ministries of Iowa (this organization has since closed)

• Dick Tremain – Natural Resources Conservation Service (now replaced by Stephanie Hill)

• Kay Triplett – National Agriculture Statistics

• Laurie Fredricks – Risk Management Agency

The subcommittee went through a process of deciding how outreach and information delivery could be done. Concepts such as county meetings, regional meetings and even a state meeting with speakers and experts were discussed.  These methods of information delivery are fairly traditional in the world of USDA.

The subcommittee was referred to the “Study of Cass County Iowa Women Farmland Owners” that was conducted by Women, Food and Agriculture Network and Iowa State University. This study used a participatory research model that brought together a local women’s advisory committee to find out, besides demographic information, what information women landowners desired to have and how they wished to receive that information. The study revealed among other things, that women liked to meet with other women in small groups, that they have a strong desire to be “good” managers of their farms and that they were not always receiving the information they needed to help them make decisions.

After looking at the Cass County Study the subcommittee decided to use the recommendations from the research and develop a method of outreach that had never been used before by USDA agencies in the state of Iowa. The subcommittee presented the idea to the SOC and was given the approval to develop “Women, Land and Legacy: Building Your Farms’ Future Today.^SM”

With SOC approval, the subcommittee tested the focused conversation model in a workshop at the Practical Farmer’s of Iowa annual conference in January 2004. The workshop was a success so the subcommittee began to develop a plan to do a pilot project in Iowa.

Over the next several months the subcommittee met regularly and picked five counties throughout the state to start the project. Lyon, Howard, Marshall and Wapello were chosen because one county was in the middle of the state and the others were in the outer reaches. It was decided that work in Cass County would continue to build what had been started there in 2000.

Local teams consisting of FSA, NRCS, Extension and other partners such as RC & D’s were brought together to implement the pilot project. The WLL^SM Committee (formerly the subcommittee) contacted the county agency staff to let them know they were “chosen” to be a pilot project and to set up a time when the WLL^SM Committee could meet with them to begin planning the county focused conversation.

Howard County was the first county to have a focused conversation. The local team sent out personal invitations to the event, distributed fliers, and had news articles announcing the meeting. Food from local producers was served and door prizes that had been donated from local businesses were used as incentives to bring women together. Sixty people, including two men, were seated at tables of six to eight each. The tables all had a flip chart and marker for writing ideas and comments.

Women of all ages attended this focused conversation. There were landowners, operators and specialty crop producers present. The meeting started with everyone introducing themselves and giving a couple of words that described their connection to the land. The participants found they had experiences and feelings about the land that were common to all generations attending this event.

The women then concentrated on answering the question: “What is the one decision you would like to make or one thing you would like to see happen for land and/or agriculture in Howard County?” The model of the focused conversation is to go around the table and give everyone a chance to answer the question while someone records the answers on the newsprint. The answers were then shared with the rest of the women in the room.

This process was repeated several times with other questions being posed to the small groups. The final question “What could you/we do to make these “best ideas” happen for women in Howard County?” The purpose of this question was for the USDA agencies to really listen to the needs of the women in order to respond appropriately.

The women suggested several things:

• regular meetings

• chat groups similar to what men have at coffee shops and grain elevators

• a variety of topics – not just USDA issue

• legal issues such as estate planning

• having a practice sign for complex governmental programs so they would know how to do them when they went to the agency

Women were encouraged to complete a card with their contact information if they were interested in having future meetings.

Evaluation forms were returned with the following comments:

• Let’s not drop this opportunity to support each other in good and bad times

• Workshop meeting on specific topics – stress women presenters to start

  • Farm programs

  • Land value

  • Rental options

  • Financing options

  • Small informational meeting

  • More meetings

  • The meeting tonight was good – repeat meeting would be good

  • Thank you for all the information you gave so far!

This was an energized meeting where one could feel the women becoming empowered. Women drove from other counties and one woman came in late because she had chores to finish before attending. This woman only stayed a short time because she had to pick up her children. This meeting was important enough to her to show up for at least a short time.

One woman stated that she had attended traditional information meetings after her husband died, but felt like people treated her as though she were there looking for a husband. She was looking for information about farming issues as she is now the owner/operator.

There were many times throughout the evening when women related their stories about not feeling invited or welcomed to most informational meeting. They were very excited about having meetings for women only and that this meeting was one where they were being asked what were their needs.

Women in Howard County who were not able to attend the focused conversation came in to the USDA offices to fill out cards to be put on the mailing list. The local team felt the event was a great success and were excited about this type of outreach to women. They felt a long term goal would be to have a strong network where USDA would only play a role when asked. This network will be a benefit to USDA when information about such things as County Committee Elections needs to be distributed.

As of March 2005 the five pilot county projects have had at least one meeting with some counties having additional meetings. All of the focused conversations have had an excellent turn out with expectations of more conversations to come. A couple counties were so excited about WLL^SM that they put together their own meetings.

Work continues in Cass County where women are meeting to design a farm calendar that will be a quick reference guide to things that must be done during the farm year.

Women, Land and Legacy: Building Your Farms’ Future Today SM has received good press coverage throughout the pilot project and an informational brochure has been developed. As a result, women from around the state have been calling to find out when a meeting can be held in their county. Beth Grabau of FSA emailed County Executive Directors about the project and has received positive feedback as to counties that are eager to become involved. A website domain has been retained for use in the future.

The SOC has approved that the project be extended to five additional counties. The WLL^SM Committee is excited about continuing to spread the program throughout the state of Iowa. The lessons learned from this project have shown that women desire a different kind of delivery method when it comes to receiving information they need to conduct the business of their farms. This project is a first step in that direction. It is believed that the format of focused conversation can be used with other underserved constituents.

This example of how governmental, non-profit and faith based organizations can work together is helping create new ways of learning.