Local conservation districts are broadening their outreach and diversifying their clientele, trying to reach people who are new to conservation planning and share the many benefits of engaging with their local conservation district and NRCS. However, getting started can be a challenge for districts that have yet to engage with various populations of producers and communities in the past. These tips below can help guide you while shaping the outreach strategy for your location, realizing that outreach strategies are not one size that fits all.

Tip 1: Be open. Have an open mind and as you engage with different communities, come from a place of learning and understanding. Assume nothing. Be open to learning about cultures and struggles; go with a listening ear to find out how our program and resources can best fit the conservation goals they have in mind for their land.

Tip 2: Identify your producers. Access the USDA Ag Census Database to determine where historically underserved and socially disadvantaged producers are in your state, county, and location. You can access that information here.

Tip 3: Identify producer organizations. Identify those producer organizations that work with historically underserved and socially disadvantaged producers in your state, county, or location. You can find this information by contacting your NRCS State Conservationist and Outreach Coordinators. They can provide the organizations contact information and make an initial introduction. Please research the organization’s mission, work focus areas, constituents, and current and past projects. Ask your colleagues, primarily if they work in the same geographic area, if they have any experience communicating with this organization, and familiarize yourself with any recent news involving this organization. If possible, work with a diverse mix of producer organizations to avoid relying on one organization to speak on behalf of a particular group or community. Doing your homework and understanding a producer organization before you contact them saves time and helps you ask more informed and directed questions.

Tip 4: Form a relationship. Form a relationship with those organizations and host a listening session to understand their cohort of producers’ needs, issues, and barriers. Having a listening ear can go far in building that initial cooperative relationship. Remember the needs, issues, and barriers will be unique for each state, county, location, and population of producers.

Tip 5: Explain the process. Explain your organization and office’s roles and responsibilities, the eligibility and approval process for resources and programs, and any limitations. Ensure that the producer organization understands your intake process for grants and resources and the typical timeline from application to approval. If you are working with multiple federal agencies, distinguish your organization’s role and how it may (or may not) differ from the other agencies.

Tip 6: Listen. In rural or remote locales, communicating with you may be the first occasion that a producer organization, producer, or community has interacted with organizations like NACD or the government. Consequently, you may hear complaints or concerns unrelated to the matter or outside your office’s jurisdiction. Be open-minded to the topics that may arise, the conversational style, or the number of conversations that may occur before you can elicit information helpful for your information intake. For some producers, communities, and producer organizations, you may remain their only connection to their local district or the federal government. Listen patiently to their concerns, explain your process, and, if possible, refer them to the appropriate government agencies for issues/matters that your office cannot address.

Tip 7: Speak their language. Effective communication can only occur when both parties understand each other. If you know or suspect that you will be speaking with community members who are limited English proficient or are persons with a disability, have a plan in place to ensure that you have interpreters (live or via telephone) or assistive technology in place to ensure that you can bridge any communication barriers and that the meetings take place at a location that is accessible. Refrain from relying on the organization to provide you with interpreters or to serve as interpreters in any meeting. It is essential that you use neutral and accurate parties as interpreters.

Tip 8: Respect people’s time. Allocate enough time for conversations. Make sure to schedule conversations at a time and place that is accessible and convenient for your producer organization or community contact. Be on time. Establish a point of contact and communicate any delays or time constraints. These simple courtesies can go far in creating a positive, inclusive environment.

Tip 9: Update your community outreach database. Keep the information about a producer or producer organization up to date by entering data about new findings as soon as you return to your office. Maintaining accurate information about your contacts will make it easier for you (and your colleagues) to keep in touch over time. For developing or maintaining contacts in remote locales, make sure to attend nearby events to stay abreast of issues that continue to affect those remote areas.

Tip 10: Stay connected. Eliminate having your colleagues recreate or reestablish contact with your connections by maintaining a community outreach database and staying in touch with your producer organizations and community contacts. To the extent possible, update the organization and community contacts even after the initial conversation whenever significant developments occur. Staying in touch with producer organizations and community contacts throughout the relationship-building and application process will be helpful and make it easier for future interaction and build trust.

Please reach out with any questions, or if you have already been engaged with outreach to diverse communities, share your success stories with loutrina.staley[at]nacdnet.org.