Teach: Introduce and practice communication (interpersonal) tools and strategies
Preparation of coaches.
Coach orientation and team building
Learn about each team member’s skills and offerings
Learn about each team member’s challenges/growing edges
Learn about each team member’s life and work
Skill building: Based on assets identified above, individual coaches (or the whole team) might attend a workshop, discuss a paper, article or book to gain more skills in a particular subject area
Discuss as a team the various pertinent modalities: mediation, teaching, modeling, support, providing resources, coaching, referrals.
Decide on a working definition of “coach” for this program (see key competencies above)
Discuss as a team how the coaches will:
plan
collaborate
communicate
offer feedback
handle conflict
Farmer Recruitment. Our project used these (not exhaustive) efforts, all of which were effective:
Offer 1-3 hour communication workshops and recruit participants who were interested in a deeper dive into this work
Promote coaching through list-servs and existing service provider networks
Direct referrals from the Maine Beginning Farmer Resource Network network of service providers
Coach-to-Farmer Matching. We considered:
Conflict of interests between coaches and farmers (e.g. same markets, towns, or industries)
Farmers’ goals
Coaches’ experience
Geographic location of farmer and coach(es)
Logistics.
One coach makes all scheduling calls/emails based on a shared online document that had all coaches’ availability
Download and familiarize coaching team with Zoom (or other videoconference) platform
Scout meeting places should farmers prefer to meet off-site
Acquire flipcharts, markers
Develop farmer intake form
Request that farmer complete intake form by mail, email or phone
