JA:2021-27. Identifying Future Areas of Focus for the Grain Handling Safety Coalition

Purpose: Moving grain into and out of storage is recognized as highly hazardous, resulting in hundreds of injuries and deaths. The Grain Handling Safety Coalition (GHSC) has been providing safety and health training to agricultural workers and farmers since 2010. As the agricultural industry evolves and changes, so do the agricultural safety and health training needs. In response, the GHSC is conducting a formal needs assessment of training end users to identify the current and projected agricultural safety and health training needs in the agricultural industry. Methods: A needs assessment protocol was developed to identify: 1) ways to further engage and serve the following stakeholder groups; youth, industry, farmers, and extension/education; 2) geographic areas or regions to expand GHSC’s reach; and 3) opportunities to expand GHSC’s capacity for training. A survey was developed to inform the first two objectives. The survey is being pilot tested among representatives of the four stakeholder groups and will be administered in late spring. Survey sections include attitudes towards safety trainings, barriers to offering safety training, and preferred topics and modalities of training. Three focus groups will be held of different audiences with representatives whom the end users trust for information to include 1) industry (commercial & agribusiness, insurance, safety managers, etc.); 2) youth; and 3) agricultural industry. Findings: Results are pending. The findings will discuss the needs assessment methodology, results from focus groups, and preliminary survey results. Translation to Practice: Needs assessments are important to providing relevant and practical information and training to end users. Our findings will inform needs assessment protocol for the agricultural industry and agricultural safety and health programming. The goal is to help identify and build a network of trainers that is accessible to employers, producers, and ag safety and health professionals across the nation.