Laura Akgerman, Disability Services Coordinator, Ohio AgrAbility:
One of Ohio AgrAbility’s great strengths is its farmers and their families, and their combined experience, life stories, resilience and adaptation to farming with a disability. Every summer Ohio AgrAbility holds a meeting for the famers (Peers) and their families. They share information, ideas, struggles and triumphs, and help each other solve problems or suggest DIY fixes for equipment and tasks. You may have heard the expression that there is no one who can understand you like someone in your same situation, and this is true for the AgrAbility Peers, regardless of their disabilities or what they farm. The farmers are also our best resource for referrals to the AgrAbility program, and advice for other farmers about “working smarter (and safer), not harder.”
The Ohio AgrAbility Peer-to-Peer Network will be meeting every day at 1 pm in the AgrAbility tent, and farmers will be working alongside staff every day in the tent, answering questions, giving advice, problem solving, and talking about their AgrAbility experiences. Please stop by the AgrAbility tent on Land Avenue between Market and Kottman during Farm Science Review 2019 to meet our Peers and the staff.