Collaborative Approach to Local Food Systems Projects

1. Collaboration & Community Team Building Approach to Local Food Systems Projects Presentation by Warren Miller, Fountainworks www.fountainworks.com

2. Webinar Objectives Understand a process for designing collaborative local food system projects Learn techniques to define your team’s project goals and strategies Learn techniques for managing collaborative meetings

3. Overall Objectives Teams are able to develop and manage food systems projects that utilize a collaborative and community based approach. Teams are able to share this information and train others

4. Guiding Principles For collaboration and community team building Engage the wider community Build a strong collaborative partnership Integrate social, environmental and economic concerns in the development process Source: Growing Home, Green and Hilchey

5. Assess Your Readiness Assess your community’s food system Identify potential partners What is their capacity to act?

6. Assess Your Community’s Food System Source: Growing Home, Green and Hilchey

7. WHO ARE YOUR STAKEHOLDERS CURRENT Network Citizens/Community Citizens/Community FUTURE Network Identify Gaps Middle Businesses/ Markets Middle Businesses/ Markets Food System Leaders Food System Leaders Project Team Project Team Producers/ Distributors Producers/ Distributors Alliances Alliances

8. Readiness Checklist Your team’s readiness Your partners’ and sponsors’ readiness Your community’s readiness Major initiatives require that busy people care enough to spend time and resources to create change. Multiple Sources

9. ENERGIZING OURSELVES: Building and equipping a leadership team Bring together a leadership team for your project A diverse core group of people with talent, relationships, resources and credibility is needed to facilitate and lead the charge. Source: Facilitating Community Change, Darvin Ayre, Gruffe Clough & Tyler Norris

10. Hold a Project Launch MeetingWhy? • Get project off to a good start • Demonstrate importance and buy-in • Clarify roles and responsibilities • Communicate, allay fears, instill confidence • Make “it” official – no more just tinkering around the edges

12. Using Team Performance Principles… …in a typical meeting Purpose Why are we having this meeting? Team Why has this particular team been pulled together? What are the roles? Meeting Goal What do we need to accomplish or decide by the end of this meeting? Commitment How will the agenda enable us to accomplish our meeting goal?

13. Organize the Project Establish the project roles/ responsibilities Define project parameters Plan the project framework Assemble the project definition document (this can be a 1 pager!) Source: IPS Associates, Inc., Project Management Manual

14. What Does Success Look Like? What’s your wow?

15. Is/ Is Not Exercise A group exercise to clarify scope and objectives

16. Classic Project Objective Statement Put a man on the moon and return him safely by December 31, 1969, at a cost of $9 billion Create a Fully Operational Farmers Market within 8 months at a cost of $xxx Source: IPS Associates, Inc., Project Management Manual

17. Challenges Facing Project Teams Setting clear, compelling purpose Agreeing on specific goals Others???

18. Project Management Skills HARD SKILLS 15% • SOFT SKILLS • 85%

19. Create a Project Management Roadmap (Logic Model) • Documents • Often one page (a one-page strategic plan?) • Maybe all text, maybe with diagrams, maybe both • Can be text, table, chart, etc. • Various levels of detail articulating multiple components of a project • Consider possibility that a project may need more than one flow chart

20. Why do we use them? • To map a process or part of a process from beginning to end • To ensure common understanding of where we are now (at the beginning) and where we want to be (at the end) – mission, goals, outcomes, and strategies for achieving them • To document the plan for all stakeholders • For communications and PR purposes (buy-in?) • For all of the above to ensure common language

21. Logic Model Template A You may reduce the font size in the table . Assumptions: Optional Goal(s): Optional Source: USEPA http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/ECOCOMM.NSF/webpage/measuring+environmental+results#LOGIC%20MODEL%20TEMPLATES

23. Get Early Wins Consider selecting an initial idea or a project that you and your leadership team can accomplish quickly

24. ENERGIZING The Community: Building Knowledge for Action Effective collaboration and stakeholder engagement is a critical success factor for local food system projects. Source: Facilitating Community Change, Darvin Ayre, Gruffe Clough & Tyler Norris

25. Guidelines for Community Engagement Give the public a sense of how involved they will be in the process before the meeting takes place. Source: Fountainworks

27. Facilitating Community Change Before Prepare the Community/ Participants Prepare the Space Prepare Yourself

28. Community Engagement How to Manage the Experience  Establish a Clear Context for the Project Hold the meeting in a safe and comfortable environment Set a tone for mutual trust and respect throughout the meeting Educate participants in the discussion topic (as needed)  Ensure every person participates Keep the conversations focused  Ensure conversations are rich in content and ideas

29. Community Engagement How to Manage the Experience

30. Community Visioning Begin by identifying the assets in your community

31. My Community’s Asset MAP Distributors Producers • Asset 1 • Asset 1 Governmental Markets • Asset 1 • Asset 1 • Asset 1 • Asset 1 • Asset 1 • Asset 1 Consumers • Uncertainties • Uncertainties • Uncertainties • Uncertainties • Uncertainties • Uncertainties • UNCERTAINTIES Other Partners

32. Cover Story Vision Exercise

33. YOUR IDEA’S SPOT OPPORTUNITIES STRENGTHS OPPORTUNITY + Strength + Strength + Strength + Strength + Strength + Strength + Strength + Strength OPPORTUNITY OPPORTUNITY • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description OPPORTUNITY OPPORTUNITY OPPORTUNITY • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description • Description CURRENT/INTERNAL FUTURE/EXTERNAL THREATS PROBLEMS Threat Threat – Problem – Problem – Problem – Problem – Problem – Problem – Problem – Problem Threat Threat Threat Threat Threat Threat

34. Categorizing Project Ideas HIGH Golden Nuggets Prickly Pears II IV I III IMPACT Low Hanging Fruit Stone Soup LOW LOW DIFFICULTY HIGH Source: Adapted from multiple sources

35. Facilitating Community Change After Make time to analyze data with your team immediately following the data collection step (community meetings). As a team, summarize community data, determine its implications on your project/decision and decide what to do next. Be respectful of all community input, even if you do not agree with it. Decide how you will share you findings with others in your organization and with the community.

36. Monitoring, Control and Evaluation These are critical components of community initiatives and often don’t get the attention they deserve.

37. Developing Evaluation Questions · Identify key stakeholders and audiences · Formulate potential evaluation questions · Define outcomes in measurable terms · Prioritize and eliminate questions Source: 2002 User Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation

38. A Quick Review First, plan it. Then do it! High performance teams succeed Meetings matter Work with your assets

39. Be passionate • Be a Problem Solver • Be a Skilled Facilitator • Be an Effective Communicator Ingredients for Success

40. Collaboration & Community Team Building Approach to Local Food Systems Projects Thank Your for Participating! Please Share Observations and Ask Questions