CONCLUSION
In recent years, Cooperative Extension began to emphasize health and well-being, policy, systems, and change initiatives. Using forums to educate and engage professionals and interested community members to create change would align with these system priorities. To make sustainable change, it will be imperative to engage community members and key stakeholders to address complex issues; Extension alone cannot. And yet, we are positioned in our communities and trusted by constituents to assist in making a difference. Our goal for this guide was to help you understand theory and processes that will allow you to address challenges affecting the farm population - individuals, families, organizations, and communities from an integrated, holistic perspective. This guide is your tool to plan, facilitate, and evaluate issue-to-action forums. The guide offers key strategies for planning and implementing a successful community engagement and change process. These include: ⮚ Choose the type of forum based on desired outcomes. ⮚ Give yourself and team plenty of time to prepare and conduct successful engagement processes – before, during and after the forum. ⮚ Name and frame the issue in ways that are inclusive and compelling to diverse audiences and multiple Community Capitals sectors. ⮚ Use techniques to engage key community members from planning and implementing the forum to post-forum activities. ⮚ Document and evaluate your processes and successes. ⮚ Keep engagement going through activities that complement traditional Extension educational programs. We hope you will use the content of this guide to develop strategies to address critical issues at the community and policy levels. We hope you found Our Story useful. You will create your own story.
And finally, we invite you to reach out to the authors (our emails are at the beginning of this document) if you have questions, would like some guidance, or want to share Your Story.
Our Story -- The end or a new beginning?
Ultimately this project was about building resilience at multiple levels of the socio-ecological model. By using forums, we extended our knowledge about farms, farm families and communities to increase the awareness, understanding and actions of key stakeholders and decision makers. We wanted to make a deeper impact that would improve their well-being. Though we may not have used the word “resilience” as we designed the forums, it is our
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