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Annie’s Project Provides Answers for Farm Women
By
Carol
Spence
LEXINGTON, Ky., (Dec. 20, 2006) – Annie never lived in Kentucky,
but her story is the story of farm women around the state. It’s
a story of hardship, of trying to eke out a living on the farm
while raising four children and keeping a marriage together.
It’s a story of hope, adjustment and sacrifice. And more than
anything, it’s a success story that has inspired a popular
workshop series called Annie’s Project.
Annie was Annette Fleck who was an Illinois farm wife for 50
years. When she died in 1997 she was a wealthy woman, due in
large part to the management skills she acquired over decades as
a farm wife. Her daughter Ruth Fleck Hambleton works for
University of Illinois Cooperative Extension as a Farm Business
Management and Marketing educator. Recognizing the diverse
backgrounds of farm women and the isolation and insecurity that
some of them feel, Hambleton began Annie’s Project, a risk
management education program for farm women. Since its inception
in 2002, Annie’s Project has spread beyond the borders of
Illinois to most of the north central United States. And now
it’s moving into the South.
“We were challenged in early summer by the Southern Risk
Management Education Center to develop a planning committee to
discuss the potential of bringing Annie’s Project to Kentucky,”
said Jennifer Hunter, senior University of Kentucky Cooperative
Extension Service associate in agricultural economics. “The
committee was excited about the results of Annie’s Project in
other states and wanted to pursue the possibilities of launching
the program in Kentucky.”
A pilot project has been planned for three areas of the state:
in Shelby County to serve the surrounding area, including Henry
and Franklin counties; the Purchase area, including Marshall,
Graves, Calloway and other Purchase area counties; and the
Henderson County area, serving Webster, Union and Daviess
counties. The workshop is set up as 18 hours of instruction over
six weeks. The classes will focus on five areas: production
risk, financial risk, management risk, legal issues and human
resources risk.
Hunter, who is coordinator for the project, says the program has
two goals.
“Obviously, one of them is for the women to learn more about the
farming operations that they’re involved with. If their husband
is the primary operator or if it’s a family operation, we want
the women to feel more involved and more like a partner,” she
said.
Hunter said the second goal is for participants to network with
other women who are facing some of the same challenges and in
some of the same circumstances that they are. And when they
complete the course, they will be aware of resources that can
help them with some of the situations they might face in their
farming operation.
Lee Meyer, UK Extension professor in agricultural economics,
likens the structure of the workshops to that of the Master
Cattlemen program. In both programs, sessions are taught by a
variety of experts in a range of fields. But Annie’s project is
designed to be much more interactive.
“It’s focusing on some questions and issues that might not get
credibility in other venues,” he said. “Family goals and
personal finance and insurance and things like that are things
that we’ve touched on (in other programs), but we really haven’t
presented a solid program on, in Extension.”
“Extension offers a lot of programs for women, but I think we
have unintentionally left women out when it came to our
agricultural programming,” Hunter said. “It’s not that women
were never welcome, because they were, but it does not seem that
we have a pattern of a lot of women attending the traditional
agriculture meetings.”
She stressed the hands-on learning style of the workshop as
something that might be appealing to women.
“We want the participants to feel as if they can guide the
class,” she said.
Hunter went on to say that classes, which will be limited to 25
people, could be structured based on participants’ level of
knowledge. Sessions will also be designed around the
agricultural activity in that particular part of the state. In
central Kentucky there might be a greater emphasis on livestock,
whereas in western Kentucky the focus might be on grain.
“If all goes well, we’ll come back and revamp from the comments
and suggestions that we’ve had from the pilot program,” she
said, “and then we hope to launch the program statewide in fall
of 2007.”
Those who are interested in participating in the pilot project
can register by contacting their local county Extension office.
The registration fee is $50. Included in the registration fee
are a portfolio notebook, jump drive, two software packages and
curriculum materials. |
Contacts: Lee Meyer,
859-257-7272, ext. 228
Jennifer Hunter, 859-257-7272, ext. 246 |
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The UK College
of Agriculture, through its land-grant mission, reaches across
the commonwealth with teaching, research and extension
to enhance the lives of Kentuckians. |
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Copyright © 2001-2006 University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture,
Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service |
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