Monday, October 12, 2020

Action Plan for Brand New Strategic Directions

Each year, the ECOP Chair establishes goals for their 1-year term. 2020-2021 Chair, Chris Watkins from Cornell University states, "My vision as Chair of the Board on Agriculture Assembly Cooperative Extension Section is to ensure that the ECOP Strategic Directions is a living document. The Strategic Direction document will will ECOP to enhance its relevance to Members of the Section, and provides outcomes for the Cooperative Extension System that advance delivery of evidence-based education to all." Find the Action Plan Overview here and stay tuned for the release of the full plan which details the action steps to be taken. 



2020 APLU Annual Meeting Registration Now Open
- For the first time in its 133-year history, the APLU Annual Meeting with the theme Resilience & Equity will be held virtually, from November 9-11, 2020. According to APLU President Peter McPherson, while the world is rapidly changing, the APLU Annual Meeting is still here to provide higher education leaders with an opportunity to strengthen our community with opportunities to share best practices and strategies and make lasting connections with colleagues from across North America. Click Here for the Cooperative Extension Section’s Guide to APLU/FANR Events which includes links to register for the APLU Annual meeting.  



County Connectivity Landscape Dashboard
 - COVID-19 has sped the adoption of virtual programming in Cooperative Extension across the nation and has highlighted a need for information about connectivity at the county level for use in planning virtual programs. A new tool developed by a team at Purdue University may help. With funding backed by the New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) cooperative agreement with USDA-NIFA through Oklahoma State University, the team received a grant from eXtension to create a County Connectivity Landscape Dashboard to help inform Cooperative Extension professionals as they plan online programming and outreach methods. Users can quickly identify a range of county-level statistics. Learn more here.



Webinar on Social Determinants of Health in Rural Populations - Social determinants of health are defined by the World Health Organization as "the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age." For rural populations, many of these conditions are not conducive to achieving optimum health and well-being. Building on work conducted by the Rural and Minority Health Research Center, this presentation will review some of the key elements associated with health across rural White and minority populations, such as education, income, and health facility availability. Join Jan Probst, PhD, of the Rural and Minority Research Center for a deep dive into how social determinants are influencing rural health on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 at 1:00 PM Eastern. For more information, visit https://www.ruralhealthresearch.org/webinars/sdoh-in-rural-populations.



CECE Enhances Online Communications - The Commission on Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) was established to lead and coordinate APLU's mission pillar of "expanding engagement." CECE convenes senior university economic development and community engagement administrations, presidents and chancellors, provosts, senior research officers, Cooperative Extension leaders, communications and government affairs administrators, and others across APLU member universities and university systems across North America who maintain responsibility for planning, executing, or communicating their institution’s work in economic development and public engagement. A new opt-in Listserv platform is available to CECE members to share resources, opportunities, and relevant news directly with one another. To become a member of CECE and opt-in on the ListServ at no cost, complete this form today.