Demystifying Community Buy‐In for an Agricultural Health and Safety Intervention in Rural Wisconsin, USA

ABSTRACT Anthropologists and public health professionals have long recognized the value of people‐centered, community‐based interventions. Securing community buy‐in is an essential precursor to any successful community‐based intervention. We describe the adaptation of pile sort methods to understand existing community relations, establish community buy‐in, and design and implement a community‐based intervention in agricultural health and safety. Participants’ responses led to the development of Rural Firefighters Delivering Agriculture, Safety and Health (RF‐DASH), a widely supported community‐based form of intervention originated in Wisconsin and now disseminated across the United States and Canada. We conclude that the adapted pile sort methods effectively elicited support for a community health program in a dispersed, rural population.