Monday, April 6, 2020

Demonstrating Value of Land-grant Extension Programs

The National Impacts Database Committee encourages all Extension colleagues to submit impact statements regarding COVID-19-related and other Extension programs. These impact statements provide the foundation for a special Content Writing Group that is commissioned each year to develop consistent statements to use in 1862 and 1890 Land-Grant advocacy efforts. The Group met January 31 - February 2, 2020 in Louisville, KY, and reviewed the 2019 peer reviewed impact statements that were submitted to www.landgrantimpacts.org. Their effort, financed by ECOP and ESCOP, produced 64 products including 49 fact sheets, 14 web stories, and the production of an animated video (see below).  Browse to “Areas of Impact” at the website to explore and widely share these products with potential stakeholders and social media outlets.




Celebrating 1994 Land-grant Programs - First Americans Land-grant Consortium (FALCON) is pleased to announce the release of a video highlighting three selected 1994 land-grant programs. This video found below was produced in partnership with RezKast Media LLC, a Native-owned small business, and three 1994 land-grant institutions:  College of Menominee Nation (Keshena, WI), Iḷisaġvik College (Barrow, AK), and Diné College (Tsaile, AZ). The participating 1994s were selected through an open process that included a survey of capacities, submission of story lines, and a final panel review that included criteria of geographic and programmatic diversity. FALCON considers this video as the first phase in a larger initiative to celebrate 1994 land-grant programs through video storytelling. Phase two will include securing funding to produce more 1994s’ video stories over the next year.




COVID-19 Resource Collection Grows - A comprehensive collection of COVID-19 resources developed by the Cooperative Extension System is available at  https://virtual.extension.org/extension-responses-to-covid-19. To date, 48 land-grant institutions have contributed to the collection with new items being added nearly every day. In addition to materials submitted by states, the site also includes a number of general resources that Extension professionals and others may find useful. Recently added were collections of materials related to farmworkers, food systems, and health insurance for farm families. Navigation of the site has been aided by the addition of labels indicating whether a particular link contains information regarding institutional policies and procedures related to COVID-19 or programmatic resources for engaging the public. Links to additional resources can be sent directly to contact-us@extension.org



eXtension Offers Connect Extension to Entire System - COVID-19 is driving a need for rapid connection and sharing among program leaders, multi-state, and institutional teams across the country. eXtension has obtained a commercially available technology solution, Connect Extension, that is contextualized in an environment that enables the Extension System to stay away from the noise of platforms in shared public spaces. It is an interactive and “living” virtual space, as opposed to being simply an online resource page. In one week, 1000 Cooperative Extension professionals joined the platform and 90% are actively participating. eXtension invites the entire Cooperative Extension Service to use Connect Extension for both accessing opportunities made available through the eXtension Foundation and across the system, and for program and project leaders to create specific groups for internal collaborations. Learn more here and visit Connect Extension here.