NTAE 2021-22 Quarterly Reports - Quarter 4
Funding Opportunity Number: USDA-NIFA-OP-006747 Award Number: 2019-41595-30123 Awarded to Oklahoma State University Total Award: $3,408,000.00
Reporting Period: June 1, 2022 to August 31, 2022 (Year 3, Quarter 4) Date Submitted:
Prepared by: Extension Foundation (Dr. Beverly Coberly, Extension Foundation PI and Tira Adelman, Extension Foundation Grants and Program Manager) ℅ Bryan Cave LLP One Kansas City Place 1200 Main Street, Suite 3800
Submitted to:
Dr. Thomas Coon Dr. Damona Doye Oklahoma State University OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
139 Agricultural Hall Stillwater, OK 74708
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Project Narrative Summary
The NTAE project, under the leadership of Oklahoma State University, will continue to build upon the strengths and capacities of the Extension Foundation, including its experience providing technology tools for Cooperative Extension professionals and catalyzing professional development innovation in Year 3. NTAE funding allows OSU and its partners to advance the Strategic Goals and ECOP Program Priorities. Additionally, the NTAE project is designed to achieve the objectives of the New Technologies for Ag Extension initiative and to align with USDA FY22 Priorities which are: A. Addressing Climate Change via Climate Smart Agriculture & Forestry
B. Advancing Racial Justice, Equity and Opportunity C. Creating More and Better Market Opportunities D. Tackling Food and Nutrition Insecurity
Key Strategies: Technology Learning and Networking Platform NTAE Competitive and NIFA NTAE Preselected Projects
The key strategies for achieving project objectives and strategic goals include the following:
❖ Technology for CES : Partnering with Eduworks and North Carolina State University (NCSU) to enhance existing functionalities to increase the amount of content available and improve access to content. The most significant enhancement involves building Artificial Intelligence into Extension’s Ask Extension tool. The current version, Ask an Expert, is a searchable repository of 50,000 questions posed by the public and answers supplied by 2,600 Extension educators is now replaced by Ask Extension. ❖ National Program and Asset Registry: Another significant accomplishment is theNational Registry of Cooperative Extension Programs and Assets launched to house searchable program information and resources such as presentations, information sheets and evaluation tools for CES. This tool was developed with a CDC/NIFA program called Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching and Engagement (EXCITE) and enables Cooperative Extension to create a dynamic geographic map about the work happening system-wide on immunization education and show the strength and value that Cooperative Extension brings to our communities.
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❖ Learning and Networking Platform for CES: Connect Extension is a co-learning environment that expands professional development opportunities to all Land-Grant Universities, NTAE partners, and their constituents. Launched in response to Covid-19 in March 2020, the platform currently has 5,063 Extension users participating in subgroups from Health, Urban Agriculture, to Climate. The accounts represent 4581 from 1862 institutions, 370 from 1890 institutions, 25 from 1994 institutions, 84 from federal agencies (USDA, HHS, EPA, NIH), and three from USDA-NIFA certified NLGCA's. Since September 1, 2021, there were 562,123 users representing 700,954 sessions. 88.6% were new visitors to the platform. 54.7% were on mobile, 43% on Desktops and 2.3% were on tablets. They represented a total of 1,074,073 pageviews since September 2021. The Hubspot platform was added in Year 3 Quarter 1 to further enhance communication and connectedness with CES. ❖ USDA Related NTAE Projects: Research and Extension Catalysts mobilize talent among networks within Extension and from private- and public sector partners. The Catalysts recruited projects from across the Land Grant system. Project teams submitted an online nomination form. Projects that applied went through an application process where the projects were scored in a vetted rubric by outside reviewers. Final selection for projects rested on the scored rubrics and advice from catalysts about project readiness. All NTAE project topics related to the USDA Strategic Goals. Catalysts provide a lead mentor role with projects. Additionally, in Year 3, NIFA identified a number of preselected projects to fund that are placed in our project accelerator for Catalysts to mentor and Key Information Services to provide additional resources to. Catalysts serve as program advisory support past senior program or administrative CES personnel. Catalysts have many years of experience with programming and networks across the country. Catalysts are: Dr. Scott Reed, Dr. Fred Schlutt, Dr. Rick Klemme, Dr. Chuck Hibberd, Dr. Jimmy Henning, Dr. Dawn Mellion, Dr. Chuck Ross, and Dr. Dyremple Marsh. ➢ Communication and Marketing: Targeted communication and marketing strategies to ensure resources are available to CES professionals to create a national network of CES involved in a focused effort and provide greater visibility for CES. The Extension Foundation now uses HubSpot as the customer resource management tool and as a platform for communications and email. ➢ NTAE Competitive and Preselected Project Information: These strategies are described in length in this report starting on page 14. ➢ Partnerships for Expansion and Sustainability: Leadership by individual stakeholders is necessary but not sufficient to drive transformational and systemic change. Collective action and collaboration is essential. It is needed among projects themselves, in specific sectors, around specific issues and locations. It is also needed on a cross-sector or multi-stakeholder basis between companies,
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governments and organizations like the Cooperative Extension System. Projects expand current partnerships and organizational networks for the CES system by connecting the fellows to various public, private and corporate partners. Extension Key Informant Services Extension provides a menu of “key informant services” designed to accelerate innovative projects. The services and Extension lead staff are: ● Program Design and Educational Technology encourages all projects to share their processes and products via Connect.Extension.org. Professional development is about a learning process for the projects and CES. Fellows share their learning through social media and virtual Professional Development. This is led by Molly Immendorf, WI. ● Digital Publishing and Engagement support for digital learning and instruction used by the project is needed and also for Extension professionals to share the process and learnings which are expected to be shared digitally from each project. Each project is expected to use Connect Extension. This is led by Ashley Griffin , KY and Rose Hayden-Smith, CA. ● Leadership and Leadership Development support and training for adaptation to a digital environment is provided (helping Fellows be leaders in a digital environment) as well as team building for each project is a part of this support system. Leadership learning is embedded in each project. This is led by Karl Bradley, CO. ● epub publishing or Flipping Books of resources and processes used by the project are important for sharing content and processes. This publishing process allows the content and process of the project to be documented and researchable by others to support project expansion and project adoption. This is led by Ashley Griffin, KY. ● Market research, and/or strategic messaging strategies are provided as needed for projects to better understand their audiences and increase participation in their program. Market research, media audits and strategic communications are a part of this accelerating strategy. This is led by Aaron Weibe, NC and Melanie Pugsley, TX. ● Partnership and Development works with fellows and projects by assisting with early partner development for co-creation of ideas and implementation where possible. This effort seeks to develop partners for early stage co-creation and long term support of the project. This is led by Megan Hirschman, MI and Hellina Tadesse, NY. ● Evaluation is embedded in each project to help ensure impact data is gathered about the outcomes of the project itself. Evaluation for understanding growth and development of a project is expected learning of each project. This is led by Ashley Griffin, KY, Marie Ruemenapp, MI and Paulina Velez, OK.
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● Grant Reporting and Administrative Support is provided by Tira Adelman, NC and Brenna Kotar, TX.
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Advancing Technology for CES
Objective 1. Foster opportunities for innovation by connecting CES personnel with new and innovative technologies that engage a wide array of learners. ● Enhance and upgrade existing functionalities ● Provide customer support, including help-desk staffing, web hosting, training and software licenses. ● Provide infrastructure support for technical and architectural standards. Why is this important? Advancing technology for CES databases and for CES program delivery is critical for CES professionals to have access to newly developed information and to advance on critical issues and educational endeavors. ● Ask Extension is redesigned to replace Ask An Expert. This redesign is built to use artificial intelligence to provide additional power for database searches and the ability to answer and respond to customer questions across the US. Ask Extension is a national initiative that leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to pull together data sources from the Extension ecosystem to answer questions directly and accurately and connect to local citizens with their local Extension professionals, products and services. ● Ask Extension-Continued bug fixes and maintenance for Ask Extension. Implemented Mindbreeze search functionality on the front page of the site for general use by experts and the public. ● Ask Extension experts are pleased with the performance updates on the site and we feel system performance and speed is no longer a lingering issue for users. Experts gave positive feedback on the Mindbreeze Search implementation. We also shared a survey with all Ask Extension experts and the results were generally positive with 80% of those surveyed felt that Ask Extension is either a critical or important part of their work and the same percentage feels that AE is critical or of great value to the public. ● Anticipated work for the next reporting period (Year 4, September 1, 2022 - November 30, 2022): ○ We will be creating a new instance of the chatbot that has Ask Extension data feeding the back end. ● Helpdesk ○ In the specified date range, we helped 427 clients and received a 79% satisfaction rating from those. We resolved 45% of the requests in our first response and
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typically responded within 16 hours from the time a request was first submitted.
○ Significant Results: ■ The number of clients helped remained steady from the previous quarter.
○ Anticipated work for the next reporting period (Year 4, September 1, 2022 - November 30, 2022):
■ Continue to maintain high-quality service to help desk customers. No other major objectives or goals are needed at this time.
● Search.extension.org - ○ MindBreeze was utilized to build out the custom search engine and provided access. ○ Significant Results: ■ Two NTAE staff with North Carolina State, completed the introductory MindBreeze Connector course. ■ Eduworks implemented a sitemap XML for Ask Extension to allow MindBreeze to efficiently crawl the ~500k pages on the site. ■ The Search tool has been embedded on Ask Extension and we are currently testing it. ○ Anticipated work for the next reporting period (June 1, 2022 - August 31, 2022): ■ Replace the existing search function on Ask Extension with the MindBreeze instance. ● The Artificial Intelligence work continues with the California Integrated Pest Management. Eduworks is working with California Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to triangulate questions/answers and images used to answer IPM questions, making sure the correct data tags are in place for machine learning. AI efforts are also underway with the University of Georgia Food Preservation NTAE Project. ○ California IPM Chatbot - ■ Updated the QA server for the chatbot (https://qa.chat.ask.eduworks.com/) with backend performance improvements and front-end UI updates: ● The updated Scout avatar is in place. ● More revisions to the chatbot’s dialog responses have been incorporated based on UC IPM feedback. ● The new chatbot search results visual component has been integrated and is ready for review/feedback.
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● A temporary URL-replacement script has been put into place so that UC IPM images that are still on the HTTP server can be viewed while Chinh gets a proxy set up to support HTTPS. ( Note there are still some images that are being blocked by browser security occasionally in our data, such as those that are being directed to a UC Davis server. We have also put in a “Missing Image” placeholder that appears when this happens. ) ● UC IPM’s feedback on the test set has been integrated into our evaluation cycles. ● Since our last report, numerous iterations were completed on the backend, represented by the following gains in our performance metrics.
Baseline Metrics for Valid Responses Top 1 result - 33% Top 3 results - 40%
Top 5 results - 44%
Top 10 results - 53%
Recall for NA - 67%
Metrics as of June 22 Top 1 results - 36%
Top 3 results - 63%
Top 5 results - 67%
Top 10 results - 74%
Recall for NA - 79%
● Web Hosting continues to be an important aspect of NTAE/Extension for managing access to content through technology. ○ Currently hosting 95 websites. Continuing to monitor sites for routine issues along with maintaining uptime. With Ben's (web engineer) departure we created a job description for a WordPress Support contractor and received quotes from three different firms. We decided to go with Belay based on their emphasis on making sure we would get a single individual that would be fully vetted and would do both the website maintenance on the existing websites. ○ Significant Results: ■ All applicable sites have been updated with GDPR compliance plugin deployment and a new Web Developer Contract is in place. ○ Anticipated work for the next reporting period (Year 4 September 1, 202 - November 30, 2022): ■ Our new contractor should start soon with a priority of beginning to update WordPress sites from PHP 7 to PHP 8 along with other general maintenance tasks.
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Learning and Networking Platform for CES
Why are these important? A co-learning environment is needed for CES to be a system response for national issues that make impact at the local level.. Networking, sharing information through educational offerings (webinars, blog posts) and learning in groups of similar interest advance the development of content, curriculum and processes for CES to utilize across the nation. ● Connect Extension is a co-learning environment that adapts existing Extension technology to expand professional development opportunities to all Land Grant Universities, NTAE partners, and their constituents. Connect Extension was implemented in Year One and is powered by a commercial tool called Crowdstack. The main features include the Learn Calendar for Cooperative Extension to advertise online events to the public, a blog for amplifying the reach of Cooperative Extension professionals, and subgroups (NTAE project groups) for Cooperative Extension to collaborate internally. In the 1st quarter of year 3 new subgroups were created for Broadband Access and Digital Literacy, Tourism/Recreation/Hospitality. Additionally, the creation of a new Publication database for NTAE Projects within Connect Extension.
○ Significant Results:
■ 593 new accounts created (5651 total) ■ 82 Events Advertised on Connect Calendar ■ 314,825 Page Views
● National Registry: ○ There were no major updates or improvements to the national registry during the Fourth quarter. ○ Significant Results: ■ 15 New Submissions to National Registry, 238 Total ■ 552 Visitors ○ Anticipated work for the next reporting period (Year 4, September 1, 2022 - November 30, 2022): ■ Coordinating with David Warren and Mark Locklear on the second version of National Registry. Currently demoing new software possibilities or a Wordpress custom-build. ● Social Media Presence: ○ ExF communication channels include a large social media presence. Here is social media data from June 1, 2022 through August 31, 2022:
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Social Media
Audience Published Posts
Interactions Clicks
Shares
Impressions
Facebook 3499
59
26
264
27
7972
2339
105
62
570
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LinkedI
1609
62
253
233
33
6137
Sessions total: 10,754
● Additional exploratory work underway: ○ Established health.extension.org and pats.extension.org to serve as a landing page for ECOP PATs, and beginning work on individual PAT websites. ○ Completed subgroup and website for nuel.extension.org. 700 new subscribers. ○ Partnering with ASRED on the development of a subgroup and website to replace their existing website.
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NTAE Competitive and NIFA Preselected Projects
Why are these important? NIFA funding allows various types of projects to be developed through teams to serve important local and national issues across the country. Projects are led by Fellows who are lead educational efforts regarding the issue. Fellows demonstrate enhanced leadership and advanced project efforts to develop content, curriculum, delivery methods, partnerships and learn about additional methods to understand audiences. They fine tune their marketing strategies extends the use of federal dollars applied to projects related to USDA and ECOP priorities brought to local issues. This leads to increased impacts of CES efforts across the country. These combined objectives and efforts represent the acceleration of NTAE projects. Projects may use some or all of the NTAE funded resources to accelerate their project. NTAE Projects include a total of 20 competitive projects that went through an application selection phase, and projects preselected by NIFA. Research and Extension Catalysts mobilize talent among networks within Extension and from private and public sector partners. The Catalysts consulted with Land Grant Institutions and their networks to identify topics related to the Strategic Goals, and located resources that address each topic to encourage applications for the competitive NTAE projects. Project teams submitted a nomination form, the application was reviewed by a team of outside scorers through the use of a rubric and once applications were selected by the outside team for the NTAE Project, the Catalysts provided insight as to project readiness. Year 3 Catalysts include: Dr. Scott Reed, Dr. Fred Schlutt, Dr. Rick Klemme, Dr. Chuck Ross, Dr. Dyremple Marsh, Dr. Jimmy Henning, Dr. Dawn Mellion and Dr. Chuck Hibberd. Catalysts assisted with the following:
1) Identifying topics for publishing. 2) Refining unique value statements and project roadmaps for project implementation
3) Providing support for expanding project networks 4) Providing input for selected Fellows for each topic 5) Working with Key Informants and projects:
Identifying key partners and building relationships with projects Conducting surveys and working with the evaluation of projects Advising the Audience Engagement Initiative and projects timing Connecting team building and leadership building strategies with teams Seeking to embed evaluation into projects
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Assisting with connecting with digital engagement and professional development strategies with project teams.
Selected projects work with the Extension Foundation “Key Informant Services” to enhance, expand, and accelerate the projects. Extension Foundation Key Informant Services include the following: ❏ Program Design and Educational Technology encourages projects to share their processes and products via Connect.Extension.org. Professional development is about a learning process for the projects and CES where Fellows work through digital and online methods to network and share their newly developed content and processes. If a team’s project calls for producing events such as a conference, we can also help with objective and agenda creation. If a team’s project is developing a curriculum (especially an online curriculum), we can also consult on adult learning theory and instructional design. ❏ Molly Immendorf, WI serves as lead. ❏ Digital Engagement and Publishing support for digital learning and instruction used by the project is needed and also for Extension professionals to share the process and learnings which are expected to be shared digitally from each project. Each project is expected to use Connect Extension. The Digital Engagement KI service helps teams use technology tools and strategies to engage, inform, deepen learning, and increase connections. Specific advice around successful ways to engage peers virtually may include developing engagement objectives and outcomes and then matching educational technology tools and techniques to achieve those outcomes. Example tools include Connect Extension Virtual Chats, using Zoom tools effectively, and using third-party engagement tools (Mentimeter, Quizizz, Google Suite, Mural, etc.) ❏ Ashley Griffin, KY; Rose Hayden-Smith, CA; and Heather Martin serve as leads. ❏ Leadership and Leadership Development support and training for adaptation to a digital environment is provided (helping Fellows be leaders in a digital environment) as well as team building for each project is a part of this support system. Leadership learning and team building are embedded in many of the NTAE projects. ❏ Helps combine the ability of self-awareness with social awareness to think and act strategically. ❏ Supports a healthy environment as it relates to interactions between individuals and teams inside the system in which they operate. ❏ Assists individuals and teams with challenging environments defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Develop agility for continuous observation, learning and adjusting. ❏ Balances experiential learning includes but is not limited to: ❏ Connection to purpose
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❏ Relating experiences in dialogue and reflection to elevate levels of thinking ❏ Work on values/beliefs to support authentic behavior change ❏ Leadership as a relationship ❏ Positive transformation with sustainable changes in attitudes, behaviors & performance should be the minimum expectation ❏ This is led by Karl Bradley, CO. ❏ Flipping Book/s or epub publishing of resources and processes used by the project are important for sharing content and processes. This publishing process allows the content and process of the project to be documented and researchable by others to support project expansion and project adoption. In year 3, publishing Key Informants, alongside team Catalysts, will identify Published NTAE projects from the recent past can be found on the Extension Foundation Bookshelf. This bookshelf is evolving so updates will be expected. All publications that make the bookshelf have been peer reviewed. Details in regard to contributor rights for author contributions are summarized from the foundation Terms of Use. A summary for Catalyst convenience and talking points has been compiled in the Extension Foundation Publication Contributor Terms of Use. ❏ This is led by Ashley Griffin, KY. ❏ Market research, and/or strategic messaging strategies are provided as needed for projects to better understand their audiences and increase participation in their program. Market research, media audits and strategic communications are a part of this accelerating strategy. The marketing and communication Key Informant service works with projects to identify strategies for better connecting with your target audiences, assessing digital presence, assististing with creative projects, and helping equip teams with skills and tools needed for successful audience engagement and marketing and communication campaigns. ❏ This is led by Aaron Weibe, NC and Melanie Pugsley, TX. ❏ Partnership and Development Partnership and Development works with fellows and projects by assisting with early partner development for co-creation of ideas and implementation where possible. This effort seeks to develop partners for early stage co-creation and long term support of the project. Projects develop case statements during the year to be ready for partnership development beyond the NTAE Project year. Partnership and development strategies help strengthen teams effectiveness for fostering new partnerships and innovations ❏ Prepares teams to engage with key organizations, and successfully cultivate new funding opportunities. ❏ Empowers NTAE Teams to develop new program possibilities, new funding and new partnerships ❏ Identifies and shares funding opportunities through grant resources
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❏ Elevates projects at the national level through internal (to CES) and external organizational collaborations. ❏ This is led by Megan Hirschman, MI and Hellina Tadesse, NY. ❏ Evaluation and Evidence Based Programming is embedded in each project to help ensure impact data is gathered about the outcomes of the project itself. Evaluation for understanding growth and development of a project is expected learning of each project. NTAE Team projects/programs that are demonstrating Evidence-based Programming (EBP) to be shared with CES through an ePub publication. Publishing will also consider how integration of digital engagement strategies can enhance these publications, and to incorporate any digital content/assets created through work with the Marketing and Communications and Program Design and Educational Technology. A systematic approach guided the evaluation support for year 3 that began with each team’s Impacts Worksheet submitted during application. From a team’s initial worksheet, in combination with catalysts input and project evolution with Key Informants, the Impacts Worksheet will be updated to guide project evaluation. ❏ Support is provided to each team in developing their evaluation methods and instruments with input from evaluation specialists used as reviewers (ie: peer reviewers) to hone these methods and instruments for implementation. Key Informants work with teams in evaluation and bring in assistance and reviewers as needed, based on speciality, to fine tune instruments and methods for collection. The process of pairing teams with evaluation specialists with appropriate expertise may be expanded whereby assignments to specific teams may occur based on evaluation needs. ❏ This is led by Ashley Griffin, KY, Marie Ruemenapp, MI and Paulina Velez, OK. ❏ Grant Reporting and Administrative Support is provided by Tira Adelman, NC and Brenna Kotar, TX.
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An Extension Implementation Toolkit for the Diabetes Prevention Program
Fellow: Vanessa Da Silva, University of Arizona Roadmap
Fellow Report: Meetings: ● 06.06.2022 Meeting with Roger, Kerry, Megan, Hellina
● 06.06.2022 NTAE Expansion planning ● 06.10.2022 NTAE Expansion planning ● 6.13.2022 - Vanessa Ali Soghra Carlin Rick Chuck Kerry Hellina Tira, discussed Expansion application ● 07.08.2022 – Meeting with Diana Urieta/JUNTOS, also included Vanessa, Scott Reed and Rick K. ● 07.11.2022 NTAE team meeting, discussed NEAFCS webinar, website. Vanessa, Carlin, Ali, Soghra, Jennifer ● 08.22.2022 Meeting with Extension Foundation and HabitNut re: third party billing ● 8.31.2022 Meeting with Extension Foundation and Welld Health re: third party billing Presentations: ● Whole team: NEAFCS webinar Aug 24th ● Vanessa: ASRED/AEA presentation to Extension directors and administrators Proposal to NTAE Year 4 Expansion project submitted (not awarded). ● 07.12.2022 Monthly NTAE Catalyst meeting – Vanessa, Tira, Rick ● 07.22.2022 Meeting with Ron Brown/ASRED, Vanessa and Rick ● 08.08.2022 NTAE team meeting ● 08.09.2022 Monthly NTAE Catalyst meeting FINAL MEETING
www.preventdiabetesAZ.org https://connect.extension.org/g/national-extension-diabetes-prevention-program Experience(s) working with your Catalysts and Key Informants:
Rick and Chuck have been great. They are responsive and readily available, and their perspective as former Extension administrators enriches our discussions. Rick’s ability to reach out to other Extension directors/administrators was key to allowing our team to make connections at a higher level. Looping in Roger has been a game changer. The key informants have been wonderful to work with, and we are so thrilled that many key informants as well as our catalysts are interested in keeping our conversations going despite the end of our official term together.
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Significant Results: ● NEAFCS webinar was great for our visibility and we had new people join our coalition ● Presentation to Southern Region directors and administrators was an excellent way to raise awareness to the public health issue of diabetes and to the solution of which Extension can be a key player ● Conversations with third party billers and Extension Foundation were very encouraging. This could be huge for the DPP! Does your project work with veterans or veteran farmers? No Does your project work with diverse, under-served, and underrepresented audiences? Yes Please explain briefly how your project works with these audiences. Diabetes disproportionately affects certain race/ethnicities, as well as people with limited resources. This makes the role of Extension in diabetes prevention even more pressing, as we are uniquely positioned and experienced in reaching diverse and medically underserved communities.
Key Informant Services Reports:
Digital Publishing and Engagement Draft publication reviewed, edited, formatted, and published in Extension Foundation library. Publication entry made on national registry, and on Connect Extension. Marketing blurb published on website and Connect Extension.
Significant Results: ● Publication completed: https://online.flippingbook.com/view/866753537/
Partnership and Development The Extension Foundation Partnership and Development team coordinated and had meetings with the Extension Health Director, the Health Program Action Team Fellow, the Diabetes Prevention Program team and a couple of third party vendors to discuss opportunities for Extension Foundation to potentially serve as an umbrella billing hub for states.
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UNH Engagement Hub Fellow: Cathy Leach, University of New Hampshire Roadmap
Fellow Report: 1. The Hub vendor completed API connections to the UNH Master Calendar and Salesforce. 2. Progress was made on the Destiny One API. 3. UNH Team and vendor further developed design of Hub main page. 4. UNH Team and vendor further refined Hub filters, categories, opportunities, and persona 5. development. 6. Flip Book publication published in the Extension Foundation Library. 7. Wiese Research conducted marketing research through a phone survey conducted with over 400 NH Residents. 8. Hub Case Statement was finalized, including additional statements for different audiences. 9. UNH Team created an infographic based on the case statement. 10. Submitted a Year 4 NTAE Grant proposal.
Flip Book Publication: https://bit.ly/3QNh7Dp
Experience(s) working with your Catalysts and Key Informants: Our experience with our Catalysts continued to be outstanding, as was our interactions with Aaron Weibe throughout the EG Integrated/Weise Group marketing research project. We relied on all three of these professionals for input, expertise, and helping us to see the bigger picture and potential impacts of our Hub project. We also worked closely with Rose Hayden-Smith and Heather Martin this reporting period. Due to competing job responsibilities on our end, we were unable to put the time in we hoped to for our publication. Heather and Rose took the project on and created an initial draft that we provided input to. It was extremely helpful for us to work from that draft. The publication most likely would not have happened without their leadership.
Significant Results: 1. Very significant results and knowledge were gained through the marketing research work
undertaken by EG Integrated and Wiese Research. Highlights: a. Current state of awareness of UNH Outreach activities b. Strong support for the concept of an Engagement Hub
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c. Data provided on those most likely to explore the Hub and Why or Why Not d. Importance of specific Hub features Items to consider moving forward, including: e. Persona/audience development f. Effective messaging & continued engagement strategies The data and recommendations from the survey results are integral to our current and future Hub planning. 2. Flip Book Publication completed and published in the Extension Foundation library, National Extension publications registry and the Connect Extension publications listing.
Does your project work with veterans or veteran farmers? Yes
Please explain briefly how your project works with veterans or veteran farmers. UNH offers programming and support for Veteran's through its veteran's affairs office. These offerings will be part of a future Hub implementation iteration.
Does your project work with diverse, under-served, and underrepresented audiences? Yes
Please explain briefly how your project works with these audiences. UNH is committed to work with these audiences. In this project, our initial hub implementation will include programs for UNH Extension 4-H and adult audiences, as well as non-Extension youth programming that includes these audiences, particularly Educational Talent Search, Upward Bound, and others. Faculty and staff engage in numerous outreach to educators and students in school districts from underrepresented communities in the State, particularly those in rural communities. It is a goal that all of these activities will be included in the Engagement Hub to raise awareness and create higher collaboration and participation.
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Key Informant Services Reports:
Leadership and Leadership Development One-on-one coaching session with team Fellow.
Partnership and Development Partnership and Development Key Informant reviewed updated the case statement and provided suggested edits.
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Oklahoma Master Irrigator Program Fellow: Sumit Sharma, Oklahoma State University Roadmap
Fellow Report: All components of the program were achieved during the last year from planning to execution in February. In the last quarter we created an evaluation report of the program. Experience(s) working with your Catalysts and Key Informants: This reporting period I tried to learn from the experience of my catalysts, and also discussed any other ways we can improve our extension outreach. Significant Results: ● The impact generated was included in the evaluation report, which has been uploaded as a separate document.
● Total 19 people participated out of a program capacity of 25. ● These participants represent a total 13000 acres in SW Oklahoma.
Does your project work with veterans or veteran farmers? Yes Please explain briefly how your project works with veterans or veteran farmers. I have several producers who have served in the military.
Does your project work with diverse, under-served, and underrepresented audiences? Yes
Please explain briefly how your project works with these audiences. The audience consists of first time farmers, small farmers or those who have moved their land.
Key Informant Services Reports: Program Design and Educational Technology Curriculum advisory board was created
Leadership and Leadership Development One-on-one coaching session with team Fellow.
Partnership and Development
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Partnership and Development Specialist reviewed the draft case statement and provided suggested edits, and discussed opportunities to utilize the case statement at upcoming conferences and meetings with stakeholders. Discussed exploring partnership opportunities.
Evaluation Reviewed and provided feedback for their impact statement submitted to OSU administrators.
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New American Farmer
Fellow: Jeff Young, University of Kentucky Roadmap
Fellow Report: The three deliverables - Annotated Bibliography, Literature Review and Journal Article are 95% complete.
Significant Results: Recommendations:
In this study, we have briefly described the history and current standing of Extension’s involvement in urban agriculture. Looking to the future, we close with priority recommendations for Extension’s urban food production efforts. Recommendations are detailed under three action clusters: 1) Complicate the Rural/Urban Dichotomy, 2) Tackle Structural and Institutional Power Dynamics, and 3) Intensify Strategies for Community Resilience. These findings and recommendations are not issued for purposes of uncritical application but rather to inspire localized adaptation. Indeed, if one theme has proven constant, it is that the urban, like the rural, is heterogeneous and evolving, requiring dynamic approaches suited to the local. ● Complicate the Rural/Urban Dichotomy ○ The assumed divide between the urban and rural rarely leads to productive discourse. Reliance on the rural/urban distinction eclipses local circumstances and needs, which could inhibit effective policy and public investment in food production (Campbell & Rampold 2021). Extension must be aware of other social-ecological dynamics operating within food systems, namely those existing between organic and conventional producers, full-time and part-time farmers, and profit-centered and social justice-centered models (Colby & Kennedy 2017; Diekmann et al. 2017; Carolan 2018). ○ Encourage Multisectoral and Transdisciplinary Collaboration
■ Collaboration between urban, suburban, and rural geographies is a critical piece in building resilient food systems, particularly in our increasingly polarized socio-political context (Roman-Alcalá, Graddy-Lovelace & Edelman 2021; Mettler & Brown 2022). Extension must be critical and creative in outreach, programming, and networking efforts, cognizant of shifting perspectives of what constitutes so-called “urban” agriculture
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(Dobbins et al. 2021). There is great potential within Extension to develop urban/rural partnerships (Van Sandt & Carpenter 2022). ● There are several approaches Extension offices should consider for building urban/rural partnerships: offer venues for rural and urban growers to network and advertise together, aid in establishing supply chains for value-added products, institute farmer mentorship programs, offer peer-to-peer learning opportunities, leverage virtual spaces for communication over geographic distance (Parikh 2022), and encourage alternative avenues for land access and resource sharing via collaborative farming. These connections may serve shared economic goals as well as efforts to combat perceived and real socio-political divisions between rural and urban communities. ● Identify formal and informal leaders in local urban agricultural spaces, a.k.a. “gatekeepers,”(French & Morse 2015) and within Extension. Extension staff often are well-positioned to serve as connectors or coordinators rather than primary provider of services. These inter- and extra-Extension networks are vital to connecting communities to appropriate resources, as well as working to avoid redundancy and competition between similar services. ● Transdisciplinary is key in urban and local food production work (Fox et al. 2017). A whole foods system approach, considering production and business, but also health and community development, is key (Fox et al. 2015). For instance, agriculture staff may collaborate directly with family health staff on projects with shared goals. ● Within the urban sphere, we encourage Extension educators to collaborate with diverse stakeholders- including governmental organizations, nonprofits, neighborhood associations, religious groups, local businesses, and university administration. Constant communication with diverse stakeholders are key to Extension’s social, political, and technical success in urban agricultural spaces (Fox et al. 2017; Campbell 2021; Campbell & Rampold 2021; personal communication, July 2022). ○ Refresh Marketing and Branding to Increase Accessibility and Relevance ■ Scholars have documented a mutual disconnect between Extension staff and urban growers (Harder & Wells 2017; Rangarajan & Riordan 2019; Dobbins et al. 2021). In some urban communities, Extension still presents
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a predominantly rural and conservative image which inhibits urban participation and engagement (Dobbins et al. 2021; personal communications, June-July 2022). Further, the culture of local Extension offices may lean toward conventional agricultural practices, dominated by agribusiness farming strategies related to row crop and large-scale livestock production. As a result, Extension’s urban-focused staff commonly find themselves defending the validity and value of their work, as colleagues, rural stakeholders, university administration, government officials, and various funders question the legitimacy of urban agriculture as true ‘farming’ (personal communications, June-July 2022). ● Extension offices are still largely located in rural or suburban areas and are not accessible for urban farmers. Additionally, urban extension educators sometimes live far (over an hour) away from urban centers (Ruemenapp 2017; Dobbins et al. 2020; personal communications, June-July 2022). Thus, Extension offices should consider relocating or opening up satellite office space in easily accessible, urban-centric locations near public transportation. ● With this context in mind, Extension must also update their language surrounding urban and rural food production. Alternative descriptors such as “local,” “agroecological,” or “innovative” may be more relevant and attention-grabbing for marketing and knowledge dissemination purposes in certain social and spatial circumstances (Dobbins et al. 2020). ● We find that the majority of urban agriculture programs are less than five years old, and many are currently in their pilot year (personal communications, June-July 2022). While these programs are new, educators must remain open and adaptable in order to capitalize on their courses’ growing popularity. That is, educators should allow programming to be reflexive and responsive to community needs and interests. Program evaluation and adaptation is key. ○ Implement Data Collection and Program Evaluation at the Rural-Urban Interface ■ In order to navigate relationships between the urban and rural, Extension must pose research questions, collect data, and evaluate programming with the complex realities of this spatial interface in mind. And although the urban and rural are porous categories, it is still useful to employ these markers to compare data. The USDA views agriculture as consisting of “even small plots of land - whether rural or urban - growing fruit, vegetables or some food animals...” (USDA 2022). However, the Census
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of Agriculture does not categorize data by rurality or urbanity (USDA 2017a; USDA 2017b). Some rural-urban differences may be deduced, however, since urban farmers are likely to be beginners, younger, and more racially and ethnically diverse than their rural counterparts (Pressman, Oberholtzer & Dimitri 2016; USDA 2017c; Whittinghill & 2021; Sanders et al. 2022). Still, urban evaluation and data collection are neglected in many Extension offices around the country. ● Extension offices should specifically track urban programming, allowing for descriptive data on what Extension is currently doing in urban areas. ● Comparative data analysis at the rural-urban interface is essential for mapping the growth of urban agriculture alongside the changing rural agricultural sphere, understanding demographic shifts taking place among the farming community, and translating historically rural programs to urban spaces (personal
communications, June-July 2022). Rural-Urban Continuum (RUC) Codes may serve as a useful guide in comparing county-level data (USDA 2020). ● Tackle Structural and Institutional Power Dynamics Like any institution, Extension is shaped by societal and structural power dynamics. Any recommendations for strengthening Extension’s urban programming must be placed within this context of racial and economic inequity and explicitly aimed at facilitating just and collaborative community engagement. ○ Critically Evaluate Hiring Practices, Staff Retention, and Training ■ Extension staff across the country share challenges concerning hiring practices and retention (personal communications, June-July 2022). In particular, educators named high-turnover, burnout, work overload, and low diversity as the most immediate obstacles they face in their respective offices (personal communications, June-July 2022). At the same time, many staff identified their peers in Extension and university faculty as their greatest resources for knowledge and guidance (personal
communications, June-July 2022). We observed several postings online for urban-specific positions in Extension offices around the country; however, they are reportedly not being filled quickly enough or at all (personal communications, June-July 2022). ● Extension should offer positions specifically geared toward urban outreach and agriculture, volunteer information regarding salary and the duration of the position, and consider candidate experience beyond higher education.
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● Root hiring practices in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to foster welcoming and supportive work environments. Racial and ethnic minorities, non-English speakers, and sexual and gender minorities are often clustered in urban centers (Parker et al. 2018). Employing a diverse staff is an early and essential step to effectively engaging with such diverse audiences. ● Mentorship, professional development, and open communication have all been shown to be effective strategies for staff retention (Besnilian, Goldenberg & Plunkett 2016; Friedman et al. 2021;Javier et al. 2021). ● All Extension staff should be required to complete DEI trainings. These trainings should increase cultural competence and humility and take care to not reinforce stereotypes. DEI trainings should support educators in their internal efforts as well as their community work. ● Due to the growing interest in urban agriculture, Extension offices
should offer internal training and instruction in urban food production methods and technologies (Diekmann et al. 2017). Urban-orientedfaculty and/or Extension staff should communicate, formally and informally, with their colleagues in order to bridge knowledge gaps and reinforce the validity of urban food production strategies. ○ Engage Communities in Program Planning Process & Prioritize Youth and Young Farmers ■ Researchers broadly suggest that adaptation of pre-existing Extension programming for the urban individual- and community-level context should engage the local population directly in collaboratively defining shared terms, priorities, and expectations (Alkon et al. 2013; Christy & Williamson, 1992; Dickman et al. 2017; Fox et al. 2017; Bovitz et al. 2018;Smith, 2016). Youth involvement specifically is key to improving recruitment for urban agricultural programming. Utilizing the established collaborations created by the 1890 Land-Grant Institutions should be seen as a potential solution. Regarding their commitment to aid marginalized producers within urban, as well as rural agricultural areas, these historically Black colleges/universities (HBCUs) have modeled the concept of helping people help themselves advance forward (Christy & Williamson, 1992). Many have successfully recruited and trained students from underserved communities who, in turn, are afforded the capacity to return to their neighborhoods to tackle issues of food insecurity, health
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disparities and other social ills (Smith, 2016). ■ The majority of urban growers are beginners and are less likely to come from a lineage of farmers (Pressman, Oberholtzer & Dimitri 2016). Therefore, internships, apprenticeships, and 4H programs are indispensable resources for burgeoning food producers (DeMarsh 2022). ● Urban community members bring their own foodways, needs, and desires particular to their context to the table and should be central actors in programmatic decision-making and development. Community-based participatory research is one avenue in support of shared decision-making, as is involving community in needs assessment and evaluation. ● Programmatic recruiting should be geared to a diversity of audiences, including youth. ● Involve elementary, middle, and high school students in urban food production. Extension educators have also seen success in engaging at-risk youth in community gardening and commercial food production (personal communications, July 2022). ● Provide college students from 1890 Institutions with community engagement and outreach experiences, thus preparing them through opportunities that will promote the proliferation of urban agriculture ● Offer internships and apprenticeships to urban college students and other young people looking for new career paths (personal communications, June-July 2022).
● Intensify Strategies for Community Resilience ○ Adapt to Changing Climates
■ Climate change is a present and growing threat to food production, social solidarity, and ecological well-being. It is negligent to do anything but center this reality in Extension programming. ● Extension must invest in horticultural research concerning food production in arid zones and regions where the climate is recognizably changing. Urban growers face unique environmental challenges, including soil, air, and water contamination, urban heat effects, and various pests. Research is needed to inform adaptable urban food production strategies given this context. ● Extension staff must incorporate climate adaptation and mitigation strategies into their workshops and training courses.
○ Consider the Context of the (Post-) COVID-19 Era
■ The Covid-19 pandemic forced Extension staff to adapt as their
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