This USDA Southern Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education (SARE) Professional Development Program grant funded project aims to expand the Agroforestry Regional Knowledge (ARK) Exchange Network in Virginia using a collective impact approach to strengthen, solidify, and anchor this informal network of farmers, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, governmental agency, and non-governmental partners across the state through enhanced train the trainer programming and coordination of on-farm agroforestry demonstrations. This project is led by Dr. Katie Trozzo and represents a collaboration between our Center, Virginia State University (VSU), Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE), Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD), the Virginia Association for Biological Farming (VABF), and farmers. Project objectives include:

Objective 1: Foster communication, coordination, and peer-to-peer learning between educational and technical assistance partners as the ARK Exchange Network to enhance collaboration, permanence, and lasting impact of agroforestry TtT professional development programming in Virginia.

Objective 2: Provide coordinated agroforestry TtT professional development programming to foster peer learning, information sharing, and network building among agricultural educational professionals and farmer mentor-leaders.

Over the course of the project (July 2023-June 2025), partners will conduct  following activities: 

  • Winter Webinar Series 2024
  • VSU Small Farm Outreach Program Led On-Farm Demonstration
  • 2-Day Agroforestry Field Intensive at the VT Catawba Sustainability Center
  • 1-Day Agroforestry Field Intensive at VSU Randolph Farm
  • Conference Tracks and Panels
    • Virginia Association for Biological Farming/ VSU-SFOP Summit 2024!
    • VSU’s Small Farm Conference Fall 2024
    • Virginia Cooperative Extension Winter Conference