North Carolina

The North Carolina AgrAbility Partnership was proud to have representatives from all its project partners as well as four farm families in attendance at this year's National AgrAbility Training Workshop in Rochester, New York. NC AgrAbility unveiled a new state display with educational materials as well as six research posters on collaborative project efforts. Dr. Gary Roberson presented "AgrAbility in the Classroom" during one of the breakout sessions, highlighting student design projects of the NC AgrAbility Partnership. NC AgrAbility would like to thank all its partners and the NC AgrAbility farm families that made the long trek to New York for their efforts in representing our state program at its best!

Project Coordinator Michele Proctor was the guest presenter April 23, 2015, for the eastern regional training for the "Let's Talk About Arthritis/Hablemos Sobre Artritis" train-the-trainer at the NC Agromedicine Institute at East Carolina University. The group spent the day learning to use the curriculum materials, originally created by the National Farmworker Health Center and Missouri AgrAbility, and took a short break to watch NCSU student design project presentations via Skype. This training was made possible through a collaborative grant effort with the Arthritis Foundation-MidAtlantic Region through a 2014 ASHCA Safety Grant. Thank you to all the participants who made these trainings a success and to the Arthritis Foundation-MidAtlantic and Missouri AgrAbility for their collaborative support.

The NC AgrAbility Partnership extended its Peer Farmer Lunch series to the western part of the state April 28th in Hickory, NC. Though the group was small, this was the first step to establishing peer support opportunities and resource outreach in western NC. The Peer Farmer Lunch series was established in 2013 in Eastern NC and has grown in popularity since. NC AgrAbility would like to thank the farmers who attended our Western and Eastern Lunches this year and look forward to connecting with them again soon in the future.

Submitted by Michele Proctor