2.6 Texas AgrAbility Project || Battle Ground to Breaking Ground (Grenwelge)
| TX-Center on Disability and Development, UCEDD | |||
| Program Type | UCEDD | Fiscal Year | 2020 |
| Contact | Cheryl Grenwelge, Ph. D. | ||
| [email protected] | |||
| Phone | 979-845-3727 | ||
| Project Description | |||
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The Texas AgrAbility Projects focus is on connecting, assisting, and empowering agricultural producers, their family members, and employees with disabilities and chronic health conditions to stay engaged in production agriculture. Agriculture work is considered one of the most dangerous occupations in the United States, with an estimated 50,000 disabled farmers and ranchers in Texas. Disabling conditions such as arthritis, amputation, back injuries, heart conditions, traumatic brain injury, and others impact a producer?s ability to perform many of the day-to-day tasks necessary to their operations. These disabilities are often the result of a dangerous work environment where workers often toil in conditions that contribute to or increase the risk of health problems. For example, risks associated with farm equipment operation, handling of livestock, exposure to excessive vibration and motions, potential for increased falls, respiratory hazards, and exposure to extreme temperatures contribute to the overall risk for farmers, ranchers, employees, and family members. There is evidence to suggest that some disabling conditions may increase the risk for secondary injury if preventative steps are not taken. It is estimated that each year, a disabling injury related to work in agriculture occurs on one in every 117 farms. Physical disabilities not related to agriculture increase the rate to one disabling injury for every 24 Texas farms. Overall Goals and Objectives The Texas AgrAbility ACE program goal is to connect, assist, and empower agricultural producers, their family members, and employees with disabilities and chronic health conditions to stay engaged in production agriculture. The project does so by: ? Assisting service providers to better understand the unique needs of the agricultural producers as it relates to acquired disabilities and chronic illnesses through training and technical assistance. ? Connecting individuals with a disability to resources specific to their individual needs and to their type of agriculture operation. ? Empowering those who need our services to better navigate the many systems for acquiring disability services and resources, such as assistive etechnology, to help them in their efforts to remain in production agriculture. Unusual Features The Texas AgrAbility Project assists individuals to overcome barriers that might otherwise impair their ability to remain in production agriculture by providing: ? Education to individuals with disabilities and their families engaged in production agriculture, as well as service providers who work with them, to increase knowledge about accommodating disabilities, improving function, and avoiding secondary injuries. ? Consultative assistance such as individualized farm and ranch assessment, home environment assessment, financial business analysis, and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers with disabilities and/or chronic illnesses to increase the likelihood that these agriculture producers will remain in production agriculture ? Networking and marketing of the Texas AgrAbility Project to build the capacity to deliver services to the agricultural production employment field through networking and marketing activities with include the dissemination of information, and the identification of AgrAbility clients. Additionally, project staff will forster linkages to disability and health resources. Expected Benefits By adopting AgrAbility?s recommendations, persons in the AgrAbility program will increase their ability to: o Retain/maintain employment in chosen profession o Manage their farm/ranch o Complete chores o Operate machinery o Gain access to their worksite Additional expected benefits include: o General population awareness of employment options for individuals with disabilities in production agriculture o Disabilities service providers awareness of employment options for individuals with disabilities in production agriculture o Positive economic impact at the individual, community, and state levels. ----------------------------------- FY 2020 Receive 52 client referrals for Battleground to Breaking Ground. There were 52 BGBG participants with 950 contact hours. Developed and distributed over 200 Beginning Farmer manuals. Increase planning small farm group members to 1274. Developed new newsletter and an online platform. 410 subscribers. We have 5 webinars posted online that we did in conjunction with partners like the local AgriLife extension office, Texas Department of Ag, and VetAdvisors. They are posted online on our YouTube channel PRODUCTS: 5 Webinars 12 Newsletters 34 Blog Posts 2 News Releases 2 fact sheets Brochure in Spanish 2 page brief EVENTS(ACTIVITIES) 8 Educational Trainings (Hands-on training for BGBG participants 1 BGBG one day workshop) 2 TWC AST &Counselor Trainings 2 OT Trainings NUMBER SERVED 200 Direct Served through AgrAbility Project 984 in attendance at workshops and trainings Over 1,250,000 reached through websites, social media, news releases, webinars, blogs, and distribution of brochures, etc. |
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