 My name is Joan Benjamin and I coordinate the Youth Educator Grant Program for the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program or NCRSAIR for short. So these youth educator grants are to provide opportunities for the youth in the North Central Region to learn about sustainable agriculture and for this program the way we define sustainable agriculture is that it's ecologically sound economically viable and socially responsible. So these grants aren't for teaching general agriculture. We have limited funds and the focus of SARE is on sustainable agriculture so it really needs to include those elements but I'll tell you more about that as we go through this. So SARE is a national program and for the North Central Region we have offices in Minnesota and Missouri. SARE is a part of USDA and it's funded through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture or the NIFA program and the purpose of SARE is to provide grants and outreach to advance sustainable agriculture to the whole of American agriculture or sustainable agriculture innovations. It is a very different kind of a grant program because it is decentralized and a grassroots program which means that each of the four regions that make up SARE make their own funding decisions including what type of grant programs they're going to offer in their region. So the North Central Region is made up of 12 states. There's also a Northeast, South and Western region and each of those regions is guided by a volunteer administrative council and they make the grants and set the regional priorities. Our review teams and administrative council are all made up of farmers and ranchers, educators, researchers, personnel from state and federal agencies as well as business people and we have a strong commitment to diversity so in proposals that involve farmers and ranchers and youth from historically underserved populations are encouraged. So the 12 states that make up North Central Region are Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin and if you're outside of those states then you can look to one of our other regions. We also have a national staff and the SARE outreach program is the arm of that national staff that produces the outreach materials that that SARE has because a big piece of these grants is sharing information with others so they produce books and bulletins and videos and other resources like online resources like topic rooms and these can be on everything from cover crops to soil health to managing water resources. We also have specific topic room in the North Central Region on youth education that you can access and I'll tell you how to do that in just a minute but these resources are free to you and you can access them online for free if you want to purchase books there's a cost for those but the bulletins are free so even if you wanted to order a number of the bulletins on a specific topic for a class you can do that and they will send you those for free. So what SARE outreach does is take the information that is produced through the different grants that our program offers and then puts them into these bulletins and books and things so that other people can benefit from the research and education efforts. So if you want to see the grant project reports and these resources you can go to www.sare.org you can view projects funded projects by just clicking on the projects button. So if you're going to apply for a youth educator grant the thing that you want to do is make sure you have a clear project goal and explore previous research or education efforts first so that you're not reinventing the wheel. So that's why we recommend that you look at previously funded projects especially ones that might be similar to something that you might be trying to carry out through our website. So let's go on to the next slide. So as I mentioned when I started SARE's focus is on sustainable agriculture and that means it's ecologically sound, economically viable, and socially responsible. They're not for everyday expenses or startup costs. They're not for teaching general agriculture. So if you have a question if your particular project is going to fit with the SARE program feel free to call and talk to me about it because if it isn't a good fit then it's not going to be funded and so you don't want to spend your time on it but instead look for other resources that might be a better fit. The youth educator grants are grants of up to $6,000 where that are set up for educators to teach young people about sustainable agriculture practices and to see sustainable agriculture as a viable career option. And so we look for hands-on projects, projects working with farmers and ranchers. There are no matching funds required for this grant program. The way we define youth educator is someone who teaches young people about sustainable agriculture. So it could be someone who is engaged in formal education like a teacher, but it doesn't have to be. It can be a homeschooler. It could be a farmer. So basically anyone who teaches young people about sustainable agriculture. So that is a wide open definition. We fund about 15 projects each year. So it is a limited amount of funds and that's why you really need to emphasize the sustainable agriculture practices that you are going to be teaching young people if you want to be funded through this program. So when you write up a youth educator grant you don't want to just say we're going to be teaching sustainable agriculture but instead go into specific detail about the sustainable agriculture practices that you are going to be teaching. Whether that's soil health or crop rotation or whatever it might be so that the reviewers can say okay they really understand what sustainable agriculture is and the young people are going to learn what that is. If you need help with grant writing you can with putting your grant together we have SARE state coordinators in each state in our region. So if you go to our web page northcentral.sair.org where you'll see where this arrow is pointing where it says SARE in your state. When you click on that it will open up a list of all 12 states in our region and it will show you the contact information for each of the state coordinators and you can find the ones in your state so that you can speak with them and they often put on grant writing workshops which might be helpful to you. As you'll notice from this page there's to the left of the arrow it also says project reports so you can also access project reports from our home page at the north central region. The resources and learning tab is a place where you can find the youth education topic room and there are specific resources for youth educators including a sustainable agriculture poster, a list of sustainable agricultural programs from around the country that might inspire you or give you some information that you might be interested in and also could provide other resources. Another source of help if you're looking for help while you're trying to put your grant together is the grants advising program of Michael Fields Agricultural Institute and they provide free grants advising services to youth educators who are applying for north central region SARE grants. Ren Almitra is the grants advisor and she's on this call so I'm going to ask Ren if she would just take a minute and tell you a little bit about the services that they can offer. Thanks Joan yeah so we provide additional guidance outside of what your state coordinator could do we can get a little bit more in depth with you so if you are looking for a particular program through SARE and you're not sure where your idea fits we can talk about best fit with which what program SARE has available. We can also talk about your project idea in more depth kind of teasing it out if it's just kind of in the infancy we can make sure that again this is all a good fit for you. We can also review your applications give you feedback do some editing we don't do any writing but we could certainly do some editing suggestions and then just an FYI too outside of SARE grants we have other grants that we could recommend and work with you that might go well with SARE grants in tandem so contact information is there we'll get back to you soon as we can once you reach out. So if you're wanting to apply for one of these grants the first thing to do is go to the north central SARE home page which is northcentral.sare.org and you can see that address up at the top arrow scroll down this is a list of the open grant programs under our grant programs and scroll down to the youth educator grant program and click on learn more this is where you'll find the call for proposals and you'll also find the instructions for applying the call for proposal is simply the instructions and the application so this is what you're going to want to read before you get started and before you click on that applying it now button all right let's go to the next page and I'll show you how you get into this system and how you work with it so when you click on the learn more button you'll see that it takes you to this page about the youth educator grant program and it gives you some of the details for instance that you have up to 23 months to complete a grant project and it gives you the timeline for the grants and then on the right hand side you'll see there is the call for proposals and you can download that as a word document or as a pdf file but do read that first it's really important it has all the instructions plus tips on applying you'll see that the proposals for this year are due by november 9th 2023 at 4 p.m central time and so you have to get your application in by then if you're unable to use the online system for some reason we will accept proposals by mail or email but they are also due by that november 9th 2023 deadline at 4 p.m to be fair to others who are applying so if you're mailing for instance you would need to make sure you mail it in time to get it into the program but we do encourage you to use the online system if at all possible because that's how we best communicate with you by sending you emails through that system you want to be sure and use this current call for proposals if you have a call for proposals from previous years we make changes every year so be sure to use this current one that's that's posted we do not accept faxed proposals because they are too hard to read so fax is not an option all right let's go to the next slide when you click on download the call for proposals this is what the call for proposals looks like it's several pages of giving you background about the grants what they're for the criteria that are used to judge to review them and how the process works plus the application questions that you're going to be asked and where the arrow is pointing is a link where you can submit your proposal and this is one option or you can also go to the apply now button that's on the on the webpage when you're looking at this call for proposals like I said you want to make sure this is a good fit for you so one thing that you can do is look at page four of the call for proposals and there you will find a sampler of project ideas so that just is a list of some of the ideas that to help you think of what might work so for instance the first one is to organize a tour of sustainable farms or ranches where youth can interact with farmers and ranchers and see smell feel and taste what sustainable agriculture is all about include beginning farmers and ranchers and have students find out how they got started and why we really encourage this hands-on interactions with farmers and ranchers and if they can do something while they're on the farmer ranch that's great or bring farmers and ranchers into the classroom so that the youth can actually see what this is all about and how sustainable agriculture works in the real world often people do things like have the youth see what's happening on a farm and maybe try to replicate some of that in a garden at their school then perhaps even serve some of that food in a in the cafeteria or develop a farmers market where they can sell food so there's all kinds of options for you you'll see 10 ideas listed there you aren't limited to those but it's just to help spark your imagination and get you thinking about the things that you could try to do with this grant program so when you're starting out and you first go into the system and you click on that submit a proposal or apply for a grant you're going to see one of these two pages so if you click on the link in the copper proposals you'll see you get to the SAR grant management system if you've not had a grant before you'll need to create an account so you simply click on the create an account button if instead you click on the apply for a grant button you will see a similar page which you see here in the right bottom corner and again there's the link to create an account so that you can get started when you do that you're going to see this request for information from you this is your contact information that we're asking for the email that you put in here is what we're going to use to contact you if we have questions about your grant or to notify you if you've been funded or not so be sure that that's an email that you use when you fill out all the information here name address email all those things then click on register at the bottom and that will be what you need to get started we do request demographic information and the reason for this is the north central region SAR program is committed to an ethic of openness inclusiveness and diversity in all of its programs policies and procedures and this is one way we can monitor how we're doing in these areas by collecting demographic information and we do appreciate your help with this this information is not linked to your proposal you do have to answer the demographic questions but each one has an option that says prefer to not answer so if you do not want to add this information you can just go through and answer all of them as prefer not to answer but if if at all possible please do fill out the demographic information because that really helps us to do a better job so once you've completed all that information and it gives you your login information you can log in and you'll see this page the SAR grant management system start a new grant proposal and that's what you want to click on we have a question that we mentioned homeschoolers are eligible to apply does the organization applying to be have to be a nonprofit it does not all right so once you have created an account log in click on start a new grant proposal and you'll see the next page it says apply for a grant first you want to choose the north central region by clicking on that plus sign plus sign for our region north central region and then you'll see the box on the right where it lists all the open grant programs in our region and you'll want to choose the 2024 north central youth educator grant that's the one you're applying for then click on begin a new proposal so the first items that you need to fill out are listed as missing so it says missing title missing description and what you'll do to fill those out is click on edit title and edit description when you click on edit title it'll open up a box you can put a title in and then click on save title as you see in the right hand box these are limited on size and we'll tell you what the limits are for each question in for the title it is limited to 150 characters that's about 35 words so it's not a lot and we want you to focus on something that's going to if people were searching doing a website search for your project it would help them find out what your proposal is about and it would also help reviewers remember oh yes this was the proposal about the herb farm so when they're talking about the all the proposals it'll be a good clue for them as well whenever you enter information click save to save the information and then if you decide you want to make a change later that's fine you simply click on edit title again and you can change your title just be sure to save it again all right and next is the description so you would click on missing description and we'll see the next page here it shows you that for this description you have 300 characters or less and that's about 35 words so it's not a lot this is just if we need if you're funded and we need to use something to publicize your grant this is a descriptor that's going to tell people what your grant is about so make it so that if someone who wasn't familiar with your grant could look at this and go oh okay this is what this grant is about and you'll see that there's also where the circle is it tells you how many characters you have used so you don't go over so in this case you've used 234 out of the 300 characters that are allowed when you're done click on save description all right and let's go to the next slide and now you're ready to move to the first part of the grant application and that's general information and you'll see that next to each of these sections the general information proposal budget and livestock care plan there's a red asterisk and that means that has not been completed yet so you're going to go through each of these sections and complete them and that will complete your grant application all right next slide please so you click on general information and you'll see a series of questions to fill out if you have co-coordinators we ask you to add those in so the applicant is a you needs to be a youth educator and the co-coordinator if they're different from the applicant you'll just add them by clicking on add a cooperator this is the person who signs the contract if you're funded whenever you answer a question be sure to click on save in some questions like this one on the state the primary state where most of the project work is taking place there's a drop down menu so on the right hand bottom where you see the arrow you'll see it says select one and if you click on that little carrot to the right it will give you a list of all the states in our region so you can choose one and then click on save when you've answered a question and saved it then a green check mark appears next to your answer so then you know that one's done but as I said before you can always go back in click on edit and change your answer just be sure to save it so once you've answered all the questions in this first section you have the choice of going to next section which is the arrow on the bottom right or to the proposal overview the proposal overview shows you all the sections you still need to complete so we're going to go to proposal overview and show you what that looks like so in the proposal overview you'll see that it lists all of the sections again but that the general information section no longer has a red asterisk by it that means that section's done and you can now move on to the proposal itself so you'll answer each question in the proposal section and here it switches from characters to words so for instance the abstract which is a summary of your grant proposal you have 100 words that you can use to describe it and you'll see here as before it's telling you you've used 72 words out of the 100 words possible when you're done click on save and complete all of the questions in this section all right and then return to the proposal overview and now you'll see that you and the left hand side you've successfully completed the general information and the proposal and you still have the budget and the livestock care plan to go up at the top where the arrow is pointing you'll see it says view draft and that anytime you want to see what your proposal looks like so far you can click on view draft and also in the view draft section there's a link so if you want to share your proposal with someone else that you're working with you can send them that link and they can view what what you've written and help evaluate it so for instance if you are working with ren elmitra from the michael fields institute wanted her to see what work you've completed you can send her that link the view draft opens up in a separate window so you can just close it when you're done and go and you'll be back in your proposal all right so next we are going to move on to let's see go ahead and advance the next slide it shows you the link to the next to the when you click on view draft and you'll see where it says link to share if you copy this link you can send it to anyone that you want to share your proposal with you can also download a pdf of it all right so then you just close this window or click on edit proposal the button up at the top to go back to your proposal next slide the next is the budget and this is where you enter your budget information you'll click on budget and see what appears in the next window all right so there's budget instructions listed there be sure to read those for instance it tells you what mileage rate to use if you're going to be having travel as part of your project it goes over how what we think you should pay personnel we like to see that people are paid fairly so you know if you're working with farmers or ranchers or other people we've at least $25 an hour or more for their labor is certainly fine to include if you're working with them on the project all right so when you're trying to add your budget items you'll see here under the budget where it says answer you're going to click on add a budget item and that allows you to add to and start adding the items specific items for your budget the reviewers are looking for realistic budgets so use the real cost of items don't just think of whoa I think it costs this instead actually look it up go online and see what it's going to cost or or check with a local store to see what what the actual cost is of the seeds or the tools that you're going to be purchasing for your that you want to purchase for your grant okay let's go to the next page so when you click on add a budget item you'll see this you need to select a category and these are the categories that you can choose from looking at the little box that the long arrow is pointing to so you're either going to have materials and supplies other direct costs personnel or travel so you pick which category and then you fill in a brief description of that item and then the details and justification is how you came up with that figure so that's an important piece we want to know how you came up with the money so let's look at the next page and that will show you how you enter this information so here's an example so this is the category that the person chose was personnel and this says Laurel Green is going to design conduct and analyze pre and post surveys of students to measure their learning so how did you come and then the amount that you want to pay Laurel Green is $300 so how did you come up with that $300 and you'll say there's in the justification there's six surveys at two hours each was 12 hours at $25 an hour is 300 so we want you to show your math how did you come up with that figure when you have it filled in click on save and then you'll see this box where the lower arrow is pointing this is what it looks like once you've entered a budget item and you can go in and change these so don't worry if there's something that you need to correct later you can see the edit buttons there where you can go in and make changes at the top it says add a budget item and you can continue to keep adding budget items to your budget and the system will add them up for you be sure you do not go over the $6,000 limit for the grant program if you are contributing more which people often are to their to their project that is shown in the budget you can explain that in the narrative but don't put it in the budget the budget gets looked at by accounting people and they only want to see how you're spending the grant funds if you have additional funds don't mention how much you're adding just say that you may have maybe you have additional funds that are being provided to you by a non-profit organization or a volunteer group or by the school or whoever but you don't need to mention the amount and here's a sample budget so this shows it's got all the descriptions at the top it's got the details and justification listed it's got the categories and the amount and it shows you all right the total that you're asking for is $5,577 when you're entering amounts in your budget round them because the system only accepts whole numbers so you can't put dollars and cents you just need to put whole numbers in but you'll see here under the details and justification how they've come up with all of the things that are listed here so for instance at the top it says organic herb seed for student demonstrations and hands-on planting workshops so that's two packets each of these different herbs at $5.80 a packet that's $34.80 plus the sales tax and the shipping that all comes to $52.45 and that's rounded to $52 so that's what you put under amount when you're done with your budget you can click on proposal overview or next section let's see the next slide this took us back to the proposal overview we have a question for transportation using bus services for school children visiting farms you have amount parameter limits no we do not it is going to depend on the costs in your area so as long as you can provide a justification for the cost in your area that's fine so just tell us what it would cost to rent a bus for your particular area and it's also going to depend on how far you're traveling okay so the next item to complete and the last item is the livestock care plan even if your project does not involve livestock you need to open this up and answer the first question and the first question is does your project involve livestock if it doesn't simply answer no and click on save but if it does involve livestock you do need to click on yes and answer the questions for the purpose of this grant the only things that we consider livestock are vertebrate animals so these are things like cows and sheep and poultry and fish animals or insects that do not have a vertebra such as bees and shrimp are not considered livestock for this program so if you're working with bees you would say no this is not a project that involves livestock save when you're done and then you come to this next page back to the beginning where you can view a draft and or submit your proposal and recommend that you view a draft before you submit go over it let other people read it and make sure it makes sense to them because any questions they have might be questions that reviewers have as well so make sure they understand it and make sure they really understand what the sustainable agriculture focus of your project is what are the young people going to know about sustainable agriculture and what will their parents know by the time you finished your project there's also an outreach section and that is very important because we want to know how you're going to share this information from other with other ag educators we have a question how do you address the bees and insects that build into the program how are they to be listed i'm not clear on what you're asking there they they bees and insects are not considered livestock so you would simply list them as materials and supplies if you are purchasing them for your project if you have other questions you can just contact me specific and ask that about that specifically but to continue with the outreach piece so sometimes people get confused about that because of course these youth educator grants are a lot of it is about outreach and reaching out and talking to students talking to parents but for the outreach questions what we're asking is how are you going to share this information with other educators so they can learn from what you accomplished so after you've carried out your program are you going to go to a conference perhaps or are you going to have a newsletter or something where you can share the information that you've learned about teaching these young people about sustainable agriculture with other educators so they can benefit from it so we have a question that asks a very important question is our newly established projects supported by this grant they can be so there is actually a question in the call for proposals is if this is a new project or if you are building on a previous project so you'll need to explain what you're going to be doing is it a new project if so the question will ask you to provide details on that and if you're trying to build on an existing project it will ask you for more details about that and why these why this is particularly needed and what you'll be able to accomplish by having these grant funds all right so once you've reviewed your draft checked your spelling made sure the the numbers in the budget add up correctly make sure that someone else has read your proposal and knows that and has answered and you've answered any questions they have so reviewers can really understand what sustainable agriculture practices the young people are going to learn about then you're ready to submit your proposal so when you come when you are ready for that then go ahead and click on submit proposal and you'll see the next window which again says submit proposal and this is just a check to make sure you're ready to submit so if you are click on submit proposal again and you'll see the next page so it says it shows your status that you submitted the proposal on what date and at what time and you will also get an email confirming that your proposal was submitted and received if you do this and then you say oh no I forgot a budget item then simply go up to the arrow at the top where it says unsubmit proposal unsubmit your proposal make the change be sure to save and then resubmit you have to resubmit before the deadline so that we know your proposal is there and then you can do that as many times as needed our hydroponic systems for classrooms and acceptable proposal there has been a lot of discussion about using hydroponics and so what you need to do if you are wanting a hydroponic system for your classroom is really explain how is that teaching young people about sustainable agriculture and so you have to go through the ecological economic and social pieces and really justify it to make a good argument they certainly have been funded in the past but if you're just if you know if you just turn in a proposal and says we want to buy a hydroponic system that would not be funded you have to take it further than that and say here are the sustainable agriculture sustainable agriculture practices we are going to be teaching using this hydroponic system here's why we want to use a hydroponic system to teach this and give the reviewers the reasons why you feel it's important and how you think it can be used successfully to teach those practices and this is the last slide this is my contact information and feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this and if you have questions now feel free to put those in the chat and I'd be glad to answer those for you but if you have specific questions that are very specific to your proposal you can contact me separately you can contact Ren and you can also contact your state coordinators all right here's a question if presenting at an educational conference is required when receiving a grant can the cost of attending be included in the budget yes it can so if you're going to be doing some kind of outreach that requires attending a conference go ahead and put those conference expenses into your budget that's perfectly fine and reviewers like to see that all right what if the students will be participating in the aquaculture curriculum in the classroom and then attending the conference also you can also put the cost of of the instructor and the students attending the the conference as well that can be part of it and and sometimes those have made really great presentations where an educator has gone to a conference of educators and taken some students with them to show how their specific project worked and what the students thought of it and and they add their input so yes that's perfectly fine um I have one sorry I can't um good evening everybody um my question is um do you know of any like national or regional uh certifications that any of the that youth can earn as it relates to agriculture um I add to that because I want them to earn like a certification or some type um only thing I've been finding that's close to what our project does is like a food handler serve safe type of thing but um anything else is like for the organization like organic certified or something like that but I was wondering if it was any like individual things that the students can earn to say hey I don't know about agriculture that's not just like a school class like um because we're in Michigan so like um Michigan state has like an agriculture course but it's not like a certified you know training but all right and in the chat box someone has mentioned the junior master gardener program that might be an approach to look to some programs like junior master gardener or naturalists and things like that might be one possibility I'm not aware of other certifications um that young people can have but um if you look at the youth educator topic room there are a lot of programs around the country that are listed and it's possible some of those might offer some kinds of uh certifications but I don't know if other people on the call know of any please go ahead and and let us know about them thank you thank you Jessica um I have a question so what if your the entire part of the youth grant is focused around aquaculture so literally all aspects of aquaculture and engaging them and bringing them into awareness so like if they're being taught um via zoom some parts of it and then they're getting to go and then actually participate in in person with the things that they're learning in addition to um like was just mentioned a certification opportunity or training like that um how how does that work because I know you said some of the if it's not a vertebrae but if it's a part of aquaculture and they're learning every aspect of that um in building into that aquaculture and then um potentially taking that information and then building via the farm grant their own system so they're starting out with systems they're learning the systems and then they'll build their own system and that would be fine I think the only question there is are they working with fish which do have us have a spinal column or vertebrae and so in that case it would be considered a livestock project and you would need to complete the livestock form or are they working with something like shrimp that doesn't have a vertebrae in which case you would not have to complete the livestock form but we can talk about that separately if it lists on you if you have specific questions about your project okay all right okay and then uh would the grant cover curriculum yes people have used these grants to develop curriculum uh to teach a specific sustainable ag topic to their students does this program fund urban and rural locations yes it does so it your location any location is fine urban and rural projects have both been funded does the program fund container growth at residents as long as they have an sf fsa number you don't need an fsa number for this program this program is quite different you uh you don't you just need to be a youth educator by our definition which is someone who teaches young people about sustainable agriculture so you don't have to have uh any specific type of um fsa number or anything along those lines and container growing is fine if that's what is needed in your situation uh it's great if if young people can learn to grow things in the ground but we know that isn't always possible especially when you're limited to a classroom so container growing is fine as well as long as you can teach the sustainable agriculture principles I have another question sorry so if you're working with a homeschool like if the you're working with a homeschool co-op and you're um like i'm the farmer part of it but there's the parents that are also contributing to teaching and they're a part of that how how do you address those aspects and I know I was going to ask the other but then for those conferences are there any stipend kind of things or if there's in learning do you do we need to incorporate stipends for some of the these teaching experiences like how does that work so if if you need to pay farmers or ranchers or other educators put that in your budget and explain what's being taught and the number of hours that are being taught or if there's a specific cost per session or however it works in your particular situation but it is fine to pay people for their efforts in helping to teach young people about sustainable agriculture so whoever's involved whether it's a cooperative or whether it is a you know a group of homeschoolers or whether it's through a school it's fine either way just explain what the expenses are and why you need them and how they directly in are related to the grant so in your budget anything you put in your budget you should explain how that is part of the grant so if there's something in there that you've never mentioned in the narrative reviewers are going to look at that and go well what's this for they never said they were going to use a video camera and there's a video camera in the budget so if you're putting something in the budget make sure you've explained why you need it and how you're going to need it for this project and we have a question here can we share the recording of this meeting to interested people who didn't attend this meeting absolutely we will be sending you a link tomorrow so that you can access this it will be posted on our website as a youtube video and we will also post the powerpoint slides as well as the notes that go along with them so you can have all that information and you're welcome to share it with anybody all right thank you everyone appreciate your interest