Monday, May 20, 2019

Connecting to Opportunities and Resources

The next post will occur on June 3, 2019. Please remember and honor persons who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces on May 27. Thank you.

This blog is designed to succinctly communicate with the Cooperative Extension Section (CES) to share member-driven opportunities and resources that appeal to the work of Cooperative Extension Directors and Administrators. To compliment the ECOP Monday Minute, nearly every month Learning for Leaders, 1-hour interactive Zoom sessions, occur first Fridays, 3-4:00 PM ET. Soon ECOP will engage CES members in the topics of pesticides policy impacts, consumer perceptions on agriculture and food, the emergence of industrial hemp, adapting to climate change, and much more. All members are encouraged to contribute and stay informed! Use the full website view to search this blog and use the links found in the right-side menu. Contact the National Office for more information.


Video Textbook: National Leadership-Partnerships and Advocacy in Action - During the Public Issues Leadership Development (PILD) Conference in mid-April, Extension Administrators, Directors and Other Leaders participated in a session about federal budgets and legislative activities. Jon Boren (New Mexico State University), ECOP Budget and Legislative Committee (BLC) Chair, moderated the enlightening event that was filmed and produced by eXtension's Aaron Wiebe. The recording is archived in an ECOP YouTube playlist. All are encouraged to review and widely share:
 => Extension Leaders Consider PILD Participation (22:51) - Save the date April 5-8, 2020!
 => JCEP for the Nationally Engaged Extension Leader (11:40)
 => ECOP BLC Role of Extension Colleagues in the National Budget Process (14:24)
 => Federal Budget Process Explained by the Experts (19:12)
 => Land-grant Leaders' Guide to 116th Congress 2019 (40:32)
Contact the National Office for more information.


eXtension Seeks Input - As a member-based entity, eXtension is studying ways to improve its value to both on-going and potential member institutions. To that end, all Cooperative Extension professionals of member and non-member institutions are asked to take a 10-15 minute assessment. This feedback will be used to assess the system’s needs for current and future offerings by eXtension in the areas of organizational/professional development to increase local impact, online tools to support local solutions, innovation, and accelerating the use of technology. Use this link to learn more about eXtension’s history and respond to the assessment. Please share this information broadly. Additional contact is CEO Dr. Chris Geith at christinegeith@extension.org.


ESP Offers Innovation-related Webinar - On Thursday, May 30, 2019 @ 12:00 PM ET, Epsilon Sigma Phi (ESP), an affiliate of Joint Council of Extension Professionals (JCEP),  will present a professional development webinar, Augmented Reality, 360 degree Images and Virtual Reality, 3D Printing & Crowd Sourcing in Extension. Click Here to view promotional flyer and agenda for webinar details and agenda.

Monday, May 13, 2019

Rural Program Funding Opportunity for Cooperative Extension ONLY: Opioids

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), building on a collaboration with USDA, is accepting applications for fiscal year 2019 Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Grants (Short Title: ROTA). The purpose of this program is to develop and disseminate training and technical assistance for rural communities adversely affected by opioid use disorder (OUD). USDA Cooperative Extension Service grantees will facilitate the identification of model programs, develop and update materials related to the prevention, treatment and recovery activities for OUD, and ensure that high-quality training is provided. ROTA grant applications are due by June 7, 2019. Note: FY18 ROTA grantees are not eligible to apply. See https://www.samhsa.gov/grants/grant-announcements/ti-19-010 for more details.


Register for the CECE-CoR Joint Summer Meeting - Cooperative Extension Directors and Administrators are encouraged to attend the APLU Commission on Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) Summer Meeting, June 16-19, 2019. This meeting is an excellent opportunity to learn more about mutually beneficial Extension-CECE partnerships and the Council on Research (APLU VPs for research). The keynote speaker will be Antoine Van Agtmael, co-author of The Smartest Places on Earth: Why Rustbelts are the Emerging Hotspots of Global Innovation. In the book, Van Agtmael shows how onetime rust-belt areas in the U.S. and Europe are emerging as new centers for innovation - including sharing between research universities and corporations, physical spaces that encourage collaboration, and environments that attract talent. APLU’s 6th Annual Innovation & Economic Prosperity Universities workshop will also take place during the meeting. Learn more and register here.


Coming Together for Racial Understanding Pilot Initiative Survey Results - As reported earlier, on August 27-31, 2018, teams of three from 20 states participated in the first cohort group of Coming Together for Racial Understanding. The purpose of the training is to build capacity within Cooperative Extension Service (CES) to help communities engage in civil dialogues around racial issues. The week-long training was designed to prepare participants to build capacity within their home states’ CES, working across the borders of the Land-Grant Universities within a given state (where there are multiple LGUs within a state). Plans for a second workshop are underway; tentatively set for October 2019. Click Here for review survey results. This training initiative is endorsed and co-funded by ECOP ($12,000 spent in 2018; up to $20,000 pledged in 2019).


Land-Grant Impact Database Product Showcased - This week, ECOP showcases Minimizing Pesticides to Maximize Crop, Land BenefitsDirectors and Administrators are encouraged to download and share this fact sheet for institutional, state, and local marketing and communication efforts in communities that care about this topic. This fact sheet was developed from the impact statements that are submitted by the Land-Grant University Extension and Research community. "Environmental Stewardship" is just 1 of 6 areas of impact areas found on the website. An equally important way to maximize the investment into the Impact Database  ($15,000/year by Cooperative Extension Section; matched by Experiment Station Section) is to ensure that impact statements are submitted into the database. An excellent overview and training resource of how to do this is available at https://youtu.be/FNrU_qNXvk8.


eXtension Hosts National Impact Collaborative Summit - Twenty-eight Project and Program teams across Cooperative Extension representing 36 institutions attended the Impact Collaborative in Atlanta for a unique opportunity to create impactful results at the local level by increasing Cooperative Extension's organizational readiness and capacity for innovation and change. Teams were connected with skills, tools, resources, and partners that helped expand and deepen their impact. Six teams received pre-approved applications for a $5,000 grant to bring new capacity to their projects, and 22 teams have been invited to apply for a separate $5,000 grant. The next Impact Collaborative Summit will be held from October 15th - 17th, 2019 in Atlanta, GA. Stay tuned to the ECOP Monday Minute and eXtension.org/summit to learn more.

Monday, May 6, 2019

Health Program Funding Opportunities and Awards by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The recording of last Friday's Learning for Leaders, Well Connected Communities - Emerging Opportunities is available at https://youtu.be/0eY6NaWFVP4. Slides from the presentation are available by Clicking Here. These resources are available to help prepare applications for upcoming Wave 2 funding. The program equips volunteer leaders to help their neighbors be healthier at every stage of life and is ECOP endorsed and supported by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) in partnership with National 4-H Council.



Land Grant University System Culture of Health Awards were announced last week at the National Health Outreach Conference.  As a part of Extension's Well Connected Communities initiative the awards are made possible by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and focus on health equity and inclusion, address one or more of the social determinants of health, and successfully engage youth-adult partnerships. Monica Hobbs Vinluan, Senior Program Officer for the RWJF, presented the awards in 3 categories.
  • Land Grant UniversityUniversity of Arizona's Tucson Village Farm's FARMacy Program, to help underserved members of the Tucson community learn farm-to-table nutrition.
  • Adult Volunteer: Jacqueline “Jackie” Rhode of South Dakota, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe (pictured top left), serves as the Community Champion for the newly formed Crow Creek Community Wellness Coalition. Jackie assisted a local school with Smarter Lunchrooms, a program to encourage healthy choices. 
  • Youth Volunteer: Pearl Daskam, a 16-year-old from Ubly, Michigan (pictured bottom left), is the co-founder of a project called “Meating” the Need for Our Village. To address the a need in her community at the local food pantry where she volunteered, Pearl applied her knowledge of how to grow food. Starting at only age 12, too young to drive or hold jobs, she and her team began to raise chickens and donate the meat, and then added milk and eggs, to increase sources of high-quality protein for under-served populations. 
Stay tuned for details about this year's Priester Award.



Save the Date - Binational US and Mexico Extension Conference  The Second Binational Extension Conference will be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico, November 19-20, 2019. With the participation of USDA, APLU, U.S. Land-grant and Mexican Universities, Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), this conference aims to boost programs of university-based Extension in the border regions of the U.S. and Mexico. The conference is a product of the 2016 MOU between APLU and SAGARPA, Mexico's Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food, for increased collaboration in agriculture. This will be the second time that such a collection of U.S. universities, their Mexican counterparts and both federal governments will focus on the unique challenges and opportunities of food and agricultural systems in the border economy. Topics will include development and delivery of Extension programs, youth and community development, agricultural innovations, and case studies of binational Extension partnerships. Mexico will be holding three regional domestic Extension workshops this year and the Binational Extension Conference will also serve as an opportunity to discuss outputs from their regional meetings. Registration details will be provided in June.



Education and Workforce Development RFA - The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - Education and Workforce Development (EWD) focuses on developing the next generation of research, education, and extension professionals in the food and agricultural sciences. In FY 2019, EWD invites applications in five areas: professional development for agricultural literacy; training of undergraduate students in research and extension; fellowships for predoctoral candidates; fellowships for postdoctoral scholars, and a new program for agricultural workforce training. The close date for applications is Thursday, August 22, 2019. See EWD Request for Applications for specific details, https://nifa.usda.gov/funding-opportunity/agriculture-and-food-research-initiative-education-workforce-development.