Case Study: Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers

Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers (SETNYF), is a chapter of the National Young Farmers Coalition, focused on increasing equitable farming and agriculture practices and leveraging the unique skillsets, perspectives and needs of young people to drive the sector forward. SETNYF was originally formed as a chapter in 2019 and they’ve hit the ground running with some notable events like Farm Olympics, community potlucks, Ag Day on the Hill and farm walks across TN, GA and AL.

Their pain points:
❎ Struggle to diversify the leadership team, members and event participants
❎ Unclear on how to develop a strategy to compel policy shifts that would impact more farmers, growers and gardeners
❎ As an all-volunteer organization led by farmers, progress is made at the speed of availability, which means less time to apply for grants, less time to work on content creation, and less time spent on network building

What they hired me for:
✅ Design and lead a strategic planning process for SETNYF that uses social permaculture principles, biomimcry principles and nonprofit management skills in order to identify gaps with clear, sustainable solutions
✅ Facilitate a visioning session for the SETNYF leadership team
✅ Create a strategic plan focused on equitable actions the org could take over the next 5 years, including some worksheet and sections for growth/reflection

💥 How I overdelivered on my brand promise: No down time in the process, in spite of my personal impact by Helene; a 50+ page document that will serve the organization for many years to come; provided dozens of resources, innovative ideas, and facilitation tools to help support the people behind the work

Organizations like SETNYF remind us that when it comes to farming and ag, the best seeds we can be planting are those that make it possible to advocate for ALL farmers, preserving their dignity and protecting the investments they make into providing local foods and farmgoods, allowing us to take care of ourselves, our employees and our families in a real way. If you’re in the Southeast TN region (GA & AL included), checkout what SETNYF is doing and help them harvest something good – https://southeasttennesseeyoungfarmers.com