Increasing Volunteer Rates through Raising Visibility of the UW Student Farms
Summary: Urban farms in the past have been underrepresented and underutilized because of the lack of noticeability from the public. Those farms can provide services such as the study of environmental issues and food security. The purpose of this capstone project is to find the potential barriers that hinder people noticing the UW farms. From my results, the lack of promotion and guide seem to be some of the most common reason for the lack of participation. My goal of this capstone is to make UW farms the models of other urban farms to make those farms more noticeable.
Why I did it: The reason why I did this capstone is that urban farms are underutilized and people may lose the services simply for not noticing them, and not disinterested. Many people underestimate the consequences rise from environmental issues and food securities, and people may not realize how prevalent those issues are. With historically low participation rates from public, there may have enough people acknowledge the importance of urban farms and amend the currently ongoing concerns. Urban farms provide services on mitigating those issues via educations and volunteer works. Those services should be available to everyone in the urban farm, and the farms have more potential to be fulfilled, and those possibilities may serve as foundations for other urban farms that face similar struggles with UW urban farms. If succeeds, urban farms may play more prominent roles in our community, and there may be a better chance of alleviating environmental issues.
How I did it: I created a short survey on Google Form along with my colleagues who also had capstone projects in UW urban farms, and the survey is only available to the past volunteers of UW urban farms. My colleagues and I revised the survey questions in response to our advisors’ feedback, and the survey contains eighteen questions and consists of multiple questions and free-response questions based on volunteers’ backgrounds and interests. Volunteers are not required to complete or answer any questions on the survey, and they had until September 14 to complete the survey. Furthermore, the reason for the survey being anonymous is that I want to yield as many honest feedback as possible. After revisions of the survey were completed, my site supervisor sent out the survey to past volunteers via email, and we later analyzed the data for future interpretations on improving UW farms.
What I discovered: I learned that most volunteers learned about programs from campus-related areas, such as in classes, faculty advisors, or experiences from their friends. It also implies that many volunteers are students because the information is more easily accessible to the students on campus. Few people learn about the farms from off-campus methods. Also, many volunteers think UW farms are underutilized and need more promotion. Many people want a new map available on site or social media advertisement, stating that information can make things more clear for those who want to attend UW farms. On-site signages are some common recommendations from the volunteers because people were confused by lacks of clear instructions and maps on the UW farms. Some other feedback includes more on-site tours from the campuses and farms are also very common among past volunteers, and the limited numbers of tours may also hinder people from noticing the farms.
What I learned:
- Becoming more Flexible: I am able to adapt to changes in schedules more fluently such as changing the directions and objectives of my project.
- Problem Solving: I learn to value which work is more important and has better organizations, and I learn how to address the problem more directly.
- Interpersonal Skills: Become better with relationship building such as building closer relationships with other volunteers and advisors, especially with colleagues.
- Leadership Qualities: I started the survey and helped my other colleagues (who also had their capstone project in UW urban farms) in collecting data.
The Big Picture: Urban farms are underutilized because lack of promotions and clear guide to direct people to the farms. Low participation lead to people not aware the food security and environmental issues. UW urban farms may serve as a model for other urban farms to make urban farms more noticeable.