“We created the Incubation phase to nurture teams to think through their ideas, plans, audiences, and intended outcomes. Like fuel for a rocketship, the Incubation phase gives time, space, and support to take off!”
—Molly Immendorf, EXF Design Strategist & Incubation Program Lead
The Impact Collaborative The Extension Foundation’s Impact Collaborative is an EXF signature program that provides a unique opportunity for Extension teams to create meaning- ful results at the local level by increasing Extension’s organizational readiness and capacity for innova- tion and change. The Impact Collaborative process uses a unique skills-based curriculum—the Innova- tion Skill-Building Experience—to help Extension professionals think about program development in a new way, sparking ideas, increasing innovation, and turbocharging project implementation. As part of New Technologies for Ag Extension’s work, EXF’s Impact Collaborative convened a national three-day project acceleration summit in January 2023 focusing on climate resiliency. The summit’s aim was to raise awareness about climate resilience and catalyze capacity to increase pro- gramming in the communities that Extension serves. At the event’s conclusion, a Summit Showcase pro- vided an opportunity for participants to share their project or program with fellow participants.
130 Participants 28 New project and program teams 34 Land-grant universities represented 28 Key Informants working as team consultants on topics such as stakeholder engagement; program development and evaluation; marketing; engaging in difficult conversations; diversity, equity, and inclusion; renewable energy opportunities; and more; daily “team time” for participants to collectively work on projects with coaches keynotes and speakers from United States Department of Agriculture and United States Department of Energy
Incubation projects
EXF awarded $5,000 Incubation project awards to 19 teams in year four of the New Technologies for Ag Extension grant program. Incubation projects are still in the idea and pre-planning stages, so the winning teams used their funding and access to EXF expertise and resources to create pilots for their projects. These teams received hands-on support from the beginning, working with EXF team members to complete their NTAE application and to create a unique value proposition.
Throughout the year, they had access to a variety of training and development sessions and other resources, including the following: • a customized Impact Collaborative program and team development process that included mentors, Key Informants, and focused cohort events • training in the Impact Collaborative Innovation Skill-Building Experience workbook and activities in the Fall Summit • the Impact Collaborative Summit in January 2023 • the NTAE Incubation Spring Summit, “Next Steps and Beyond: Taking your Incubation Project into the Future” During both summits, teams were given resources to move their projects forward and access to mentors trained to facilitate the Impact Collaborative process.
= Team members discuss their projects.
11
10
EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE | 2022-2023 YEARBOOK
2022-2023 YEARBOOK | EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE
Powered by FlippingBook