Building Bridges at the NY Land Trust Alliance Conference
May 28, 2025
By Leslie Salmeron
Outreach and community engagement can sometimes feel daunting, but they are also where some of the most meaningful connections and growth occur. Earlier this month, Leslie Salmeron, Marketing and Communication Associate; Dan Heston, Director of Agricultural Programs; and Jackie Wilson, Senior Manager of Agricultural Programs, presented at the NY Land Trust Alliance conference in Glens Falls. They shared our journey in addressing some of the challenges of diversifying our community engagement and the rewarding outcomes that followed.
In our session, we highlighted how meaningful partnerships, persistent outreach, and a willingness to learn helped us build trust with local community partners such as OLA,CAST,CCE Suffolk, and Cornell Small Farms Program. Our efforts began with fully translating our Farms for the Future Initiative application forms and 13 of our preserve signs into Spanish. We are now working on translating our entire website. Building this foundation would not have been possible without the support of our partners. We were pleased to present alongside one of them.
Cornell Small Farms Program's Mildred Alvarado, Associate Director of Research and EFFI Program, and María José Ovied, Bilingual Agricultural Educator, joined us on stage to discuss the incredible work they have been doing with the Latino community across the State of New York. Thanks to our partnerships, we have welcomed our first Latino farmer group into the Farms for the Future program. This collaboration has opened up new pathways to reach and support Latino farmers in our region—an audience that had not previously been involved in our programming. With Cornell’s support, we were able to provide relevant resources, translation services, and trusted connections to community leaders who could help bridge the gap between our organization and Latino agricultural workers.
We extend our gratitude to the Land Trust Alliance for providing us with the platform to discuss our community engagement efforts and partnerships.
Interested in learning more? Please contact Leslie Salmeron at LSalmeron@PeconicLandTrust.org.
Leslie Salmeron
Digital Communication Associate