Annies Project

Facilitator Training and Program Delivery: Four training programs in 2023 added 53 facilitators, who in turn conducted 48 Annie's Project Programs in 20 states reaching 534 farm women. Average size class is 13 farm and ranch women. APEFW moved to online delivery for training. Program delivery to farm and ranch women is a combination of in person and online delivery. APEFW works with a third party evaluator, Research Institute for Studies in Education, Iowa State University (RISE) to provide pre and post evaluations documenting program impact. The results show Annie's Project risk management courses were effective in achieving the goal of improving women's knowledge in all five areas of agricultural risk management: financial, human resource, legal, marketing and production. According to the post evaluation the top three areas of interest were marketing, estate planning and basic financial documents. The full pre and post reports can be found on the Anniesproject.org website. Another project, Rural Leadership Academy, was incorporated into the first Annie's Project Conference held in St. Louis Mo, in October of 2023. The conference was in conjunction with the 20th year of Annie's Project programming. Sixty persons attended representing board, committees and facilitators from around the country. Celebration of 20 years with all our state facilitators consisted of invites to different states to hold online public events sharing their accomplishments and successful programs. These online programs are posted to the Annie's Project YouTube Channel and are available to the public. In 2023 Annie's Project YouTube Channel was viewed by 586 persons for 110.3 hours.

Eight persons were required to take Farm Service Agency (FSA) Borrower training in order to qualify for USDA loans through FSA. Maryland and Delaware contract with Annie's Project to certify borrowers. Certification is offered online as well as through paper copy.

In 2023 Annie's Project entered into a partnership with USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) on a project called "Building Resiliency with a More Diverse Delivery Strategy, the Underserved Agent/Loss Adjuster Training Program Pilot Program" It aims to reach producers and individuals that have a livelihood in the space of agriculture. This collaborative pilot program's strategic engagement with minority-serving institutions and underserved stakeholder groups will establish a pipeline of crop insurance agents and adjusters within the underserved communities; increasing the underserved representation of insurance agents and loss adjusters providing service to underserved producers. Annie's Project in 2023 has thus far contributed 7 agents preparing for their licenses, and 11 crop insurance adjusters in training for their certification and job interviews with Approved Insurance Providers. This project ends in December of 2024 and the project's agreement number is 2022-RMAPILOT-2. In the last three months of 2023 Annie's Project started a second partnership with RMA to deliver crop insurance education for underserved audiences. This project will extend into 2024 when results will be presented. This Project's number is RMA23cpto013617.