Illinois

The staff members of AgrAbility Unlimited of Illinois are thrilled with their experience at the 2019 National Training Workshop in Nebraska this year. They are already planning how they can share all of the new adaptive technology, marketing strategies, and client stories they heard at the conference with their local Illinois Ambassadors at their annual ambassador meetings coming up in April. Illinois has a unique model of outreach, using volunteers representing all counties in the state of Illinois to do outreach.

Kelly Gagnon, the AgrAbility IL communications coordinator, presented in partnership with other AgrAbility program marketing professionals at the NTW to share about the importance of client storytelling and marketing for the AgrAbility program. She shared insight into what, why, and how to share client success stories in order to grow a program's or small business's exposure to gain more donor and community support.

In the month of April, the AgrAbility Unlimited IL team is planning for three Ambassador training meetings in order to cover every part of the state, making attendance as accessible as possible for all of the volunteers. Along with discussions of industry advancements, program successes with clients, and new potential ways to support the program, ambassadors will be thanked for their hard work over the past year with a hot meal.

Submitted by Kelly Gagnon