method commonly used in communi- ty-based research. It combines photos and quotes or stories from a priority group to illustrate a particular topic or point, making the content more authentic and relatable for other people from that group. The conversation guides aren’t prescriptive, says Dr. Abby Gold, a UMN Extension specialist on the project. Rather, they combine “what works for me” content from CSP clients, with open-ended questions that lead to reflections on choices about nutrition, physical activity, and mental well-being.
ers how to teach those skills to their children.” “Kinship” and “Nourish” have been tested in the field and have either made or have plans to make changes to subsequent iterations. For exam- ple, the UMN team recently created digital versions of the guides so that staff can pull them up on their phones, something many said they prefer to do. The PSU team has piloted its pro- gram in primarily rural, white com- munities, so future pilots will include support groups that serve People of Color in urban settings. Doing so will ensure that the curriculum is cultural- ly relevant to diverse audiences.
MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS The New Technologies in Ag Extension grant program has funded several mental health-fo- cused projects in the last five years. They Can Do Hard Things Breaking the Cycle Wellness in Tough Times Toolkit Building Farm and Farm Family Resilience in Our Communities Opioid Response
The University of Minnesota (UMN) team used a method called photovoice to create its mental health conversation guides. The method combines photos and quotes from a particular audience about a certain topic to make the content more relatable to other peo- ple in that audience. In the UMN project, they asked participants for pictures and stories about activities (like playing music) that help them feel a sense of calm and well-being. Our curriculum has the potential . . . to lessen the negative impact of parental substance use on children. —Kristina Brant, Assistant Professor Penn State University “
RESONATING WITH AUDIENCES
“SHINING LIGHT”
Team members from both projects say that creating train-the-trainer content is a complex process, one that has to consider the trainer and the end recipient. “You have to take into consideration the presenter’s voice,” Gold says, “W hen we participated in the Extension Foundation’s ‘Impact Collaborative’ we completed an exer- cise imagining the persona of a typi- cal staff pe rson to build empathy and therefore imagine how they might say something to a client.” The “Caring for Our Kin” curricu- lum, likewise, has to account not only for how facilitators present the ma- terial but how the caregivers they’re teaching will translate and implement what they’re learning. “Facilitators are teaching the caregiv- ers skills for their own benefit—like how to care for themselves so that they can be at their best to care for their kids,” Brant says. “But the facil- itators are also teaching the caregiv-
The leaders on both of these proj- ects say they are serving constituents whose needs often fall below the ra- dar in the overall health care system. “Our population is neglected,” says Gold, who worked for several years at federally qualified community health centers. “They don’t alway get access to dietitians and other professionals who can help them with health needs.” The needs of kinship caregivers also are not well-known, Brant says—in large part because they may not seek support. For those kinship caregivers who are not part of the foster care system, there may be fear of connect- ing with mental health professionals or a lack of knowledge about how to connect with others caring for kin. These programs are great examples of Extension’s ability to shine light on unmet needs, Gold says. “We are re- ally good at bringing people together to solve complicated problems.” ·
caregivers, but also to lessen the negative impact of parental substance use on children by increasing support for families caught in the crossfire of the epidemic,” Brant says. Similarly, UMN Extension Educator Kelly Kunkel and her colleagues have created content for professionals who work one on one with a key demo- graphic—in her program’s case, the staff at community support programs (CSPs), long-term treatment and rehabilitation services for adults with severe and persistent mental illness. Kunkel’s “Nourish and Flourish” team has created a set o f conversa- tion guides to help CSP staff have spontaneous, meaningful conversa- tions about the connection between physical and mental well-being. What’s unique about the guides, among other things, is that they were created via photovoice, a qualitative
TEACHING TEACHERS Dr. Kristina Brant, a PSU assistant professor, has been studying kinship care for several years, drawn to it because of her own family history of mental health and substance use dis- orders—two primary reasons children can be in the care of a grandparent, an aunt and uncle, or other relative. “I’ve seen how these things are expe- rienced by whole family units,” she says. “It has shown me how import- ant it is to make sure that kinship caregivers—who are suddenly raising children they didn’t expect to raise— are connected to the support they need so that they can care for the children with fewer stressors.” Brant, her PSU colleagues, and faculty from West Virginia Univer- sity Extension developed “Caring for Our Kin: A Curriculum for
Kinship Caregiver Support Groups” as a resource for support groups for kinship caregivers. “Facilitators in the kinship care space told us that they needed educational content to use at their meetings, but the content they could find was either too expensive or not tailored closely enough to the needs of kinship families,” Brant says. “Caring for Our Kin” contains research-based educational content and activities for group facilitators to use, addressing such things as using positive discipline, understanding youth development, strengthening family communication, and support- ing a child’s education. Brant and her team also developed a how-to guide with best practices for creating and sustaining successful support groups. “Our curriculum has the potential not only to create meaningful expe- riences for facilitators and kinship
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2023-2024 YEARBOOK | EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE
EXTENSION FOUNDATION/NTAE | 2023-2024 YEARBOOK
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