JFAO Junior Farmers – Building Tomorrow’s Rural Leaders
Project Overview
At WeGo, we are exceptionally proud to showcase our decade-long partnership with the Junior Farmers’ Association of Ontario (jfao.on.ca), an organization dedicated to empowering young people between the ages of 15 and 29 — particularly those in rural Ontario — to discover their potential, develop their leadership skills, and strengthen their communities. JFAO’s mission, “To Build Future Rural Leaders, Through Self-Help and Community Betterment,” is one that resonates deeply with our own values of community and service.
Client Collaboration
JFAO operates with a remarkably lean team. On the staff side, we work closely with Stacey Leppert in Office Administration and with Susan Elliott, the Accountant. The organization’s executive and director positions — including the President, Past-President, Director of Programming, and Director of Communications — rotate annually and are held entirely by dedicated volunteers. Every single person we have worked with at JFAO has been exceptionally friendly, engaged, and genuinely committed to making the website the best it can be for both visitors and members. It is a privilege to support their work.
Design and Development
JFAO came to us as a website rescue. Their previous site had been repeatedly hacked and hijacked, putting both their content and their members at risk. We salvaged what we could and completely redeveloped the site on our WordPress technology stack — prioritizing security, performance, and long-term stability from the ground up. The result is a robust platform capable of supporting the full scope of JFAO’s digital needs.
Challenges and Solutions
Beyond the immediate security crisis, JFAO required a website that could handle real organizational complexity. We integrated a third-party member management plugin that allows all current members to renew online and new members to register seamlessly. A separate third-party event and ticketing solution manages ticket sales for several major annual events held across the province. Given the rotating nature of the volunteer executive, the site was also built to be easily handed off year to year without technical disruption.
Results and Impact
Since the redevelopment, the site has remained secure and stable — a dramatic contrast to its compromised predecessor. Member management and event ticketing now run smoothly online, reducing the administrative burden on a small staff team that supports a provincewide volunteer organization. We have had the pleasure of attending several JFAO annual events as guests and have provided photography services for the organization, giving us a firsthand appreciation for the incredible energy and leadership these young people bring to rural Ontario.
Reflecting Agency Excellence
Our relationship with JFAO since 2014 is among our most meaningful. Supporting an organization that invests so wholeheartedly in youth leadership and rural community development is exactly the kind of work that reminds us why we do what we do. JFAO members excel at leadership — and we are honoured to help tell their story online.