On November 19th, Care Farming Network and seven mentees and mentors celebrated their completion of the CFN Mentorship Program. In its inaugural year, the program provided beginning care farmers the opportunity to enhance their business and farming practices while increasing employment opportunities for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (I/DD) on care farms. Supported by a Northeast SARE grant, the 2025 program served care farmers in the Northeast US.
The Mentorship Year
The Mentorship Program kicked off in January at the first annual Care Farming Network National Conference. Mentees connected with their mentors in person while while building community with care farmers nationwide (and beyond!)
Mentors and beginning farmers were matched based on farm type, learning goals, and location. Over ten months, they visited each other’s farms and met for virtual consultations and check-ins.
From February through November, the mentee cohort met monthly to ask questions, share successes and challenges, and learn from one another’s experiences. The CFN team was present to guide the conversation and provide resources.
Grant Writing Project
In the fall, CFN provided a grant writing workshop for mentees, sharing best practices for creating a compelling and fundable grant proposal. Using an application created by CFN, mentees wrote grant proposals and budgets for a project at their care farm.
Mentees reviewed one another’s grants and met to share feedback. Mentees were awarded a $1000 mini-grant for their efforts, which included $250 travel reimbursement for their mentor farm visit.
In thanks for their participation and mentee support, mentors were also awarded $1,000.
CFN’s Takeaways
We’re grateful for the invaluable feedback shared by mentees and mentors in program evaluations. We learned:
- Overall, mentees found the guidance from experienced care farmers invaluable. One-on-one mentorship helped mentees gain clarity, focus, and confidence.
- The peer cohort created a sense of community, encouragement, and shared purpose among beginning care farmers.
- The grant-writing support helped mentees strengthen their proposals and feel more prepared to pursue additional funding.
Suggestions to Improve the Program:
- More structure for mentor meetings, such as themes or guiding questions, would be beneficial.
- A longer mentee introductory period to cover basic concepts could lead to more focused, high-quality conversations with mentors.