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Colorado State Extension Mindful Engagement Project “Ready to go in a way we wouldn’t have been”, thanks to the Impact Collaborative Summit

“The Impact Collaborative Summit and process provided an important place for our Mindful Engagement Project team, led by Sue Schneider, to develop their concept and determine next steps. The ability to access expert key informants and resources, both pre- and post-summit, galvanized the team, enabling them to fully conceptualize and explore the potential of the project in a very short time. The pandemic has created many challenges for communities, and having this opportunity available in a virtual setting was incredibly important to moving the team’s work forward.” 

– Ashley Stokes, DVM, PhD, MBA – Associate Vice President of Engagement and Extension, Colorado State University

Mindful Engagement is a newly conceptualized project from Colorado State University (CSU), led by Sue Schneider, an Extension agent in Family and Consumer Sciences and Community Development based in Fort Collins. The team also includes CSU Extension’s Lisa Auer, who serves as the site coordinator for the Larimer County Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI); and Tony Lynch, a community champion who is a member of the 2020 FLTI cohort. The team was one of 25 groups from across the country that participated in the first ever virtual Impact Collaborative Summit, held in October 2020.

The Mindful Engagement project will leverage community champions seeking to affect social change, through mindful engagement practices geared toward individual and collective compassionate resilience. The community champions are alumni of a 20-week Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI). FLTI seeks to build individual and community capacity, bridge the gap between local residents and decision makers, and encourage the co-creation of programs and policies that reflect the diversity of community voices. 

The Mindful Engagement Team partnered with the eXtension Foundation through the Impact Collaborative Summit. Teams participating in the Summit were provided one-on-one coaching by the Impact Collaborative’s network of Innovation Facilitators. Innovation Facilitators are Cooperative Extension professionals who are trained to provide individuals with a new way of looking at program and project development, using the Innovation Skill-Building Experience (ISBE). ISBE is a methodology that helps new and existing programs across states and institutions identify gaps in their program planning and design, ensure they are most ready for implementation, and have explored all considerations to maximize their local impact

In addition, each team participating in the Summit had access to “expert” Key Informants from Extension and other external organizations. The Key Informants assisted teams on a range of topics, including catalyzation, innovation, program development and evaluation; community partnerships; communications, marketing and digital engagement; diversity, equity, and inclusion; educational technology and instructional design; visualization; and more.  

The Mindful Engagement project is responding to the need to provide additional training to FLTI alumni that highlights mindfulness and compassion in community work. The project team has identified – with the community – five pillars that they believe will elevate mindful engagement. They are creating curriculum, training, and a mini-grant program to support the project. The team’s coach was Karl Bradley, who serves as the eXtension Foundation Leadership Development Specialist. He is also a Colorado resident. 

When asked what it was like to have a coach embedded within the team, Schneider replied, “It was amazing…We were able to work through how we’re communicating around the program with him. He offered so many ideas about experts we might work with in the future, how we could  connect with eXtension Foundation resources in the long-term…he was really thinking into the future the next ten steps, and what might support our work and how eXtension Foundation could be part of that support.” 

Access to Key Informants also proved important to the team. Schneider noted that those conversations enabled the team “…to begin to grapple with complicated things, including curriculum delivery, what it is the longer-term vision, and what kind of funding sources should be thinking about…everything from solidifying our team and commitment to this to getting external perspectives on our process and methodology…”

Schneider indicated that the Summit “…galvanized our thinking.” She said that the Summit helped solidify the team, enabled them to realize the full potential of the project, and formulate ideas about next steps. Based on input they received at the Summit, the team decided to include a trauma resilience pillar in their work. They were also able to draft a project timeline and garner ideas about grants and fundraising through a post-event activity. 

Bradley – who was embedded with the team throughout the Summit – said, “The team’s expertise was only surpassed by their passion to help the citizens of Colorado.”

Schneider has positive things to say about the team’s experience. “The Impact Collaborative Summit was an amazing experience on multiple levels. Our team was able to put dedicated time into collectively thinking about how to develop a responsive and action-oriented mindfulness training program for community leaders. We had access to a set of brilliant thinkers and experienced Extension leaders who asked really tough questions and helped us explore a range of options for our program. And we were introduced to the vast resources that eXtension has to offer specialists in the field. This was a worthwhile investment of time that continues to reap benefits…We’re ready to go in a way we wouldn’t have been.”

To learn more about the Mindful Engagement Project and the team’s experience at the Summit, listen to this podcast interview with team leader Sue Schneider.

The eXtension Foundation’s Impact Collaborative is a results-driven program that catalyzes innovative ideas through a unique, structured, and supported process. The process enables Extension to work with community partners to find and implement the kinds of solutions that will result in the greatest local impact. The Impact Collaborative program is available to eXtension Foundation members. Learn more about upcoming opportunities with the Impact Collaborative program at extension.org or by joining Connect Extension at connect.extension.org. 

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Workforce Readiness & Makerspace Team from Oregon Brings Community Partners to Impact Collaborative Summit, Wins Seed-Funding Grant for Western Region

“The Impact Collaborative provided an ideal space for the Malheur Workforce Readiness team to work through a structured process that challenged their thinking and assisted them with building a strong, informed, foundation. It equipped them with critical insights on how to best evaluate their program and the potential impact, and better communicate and engage with their partners moving forward” – Anita Azarenko, Interim Vice President – Outreach and Extension, Extension Director, Oregon State University. 

Malheur Workforce Readiness is a project from Oregon that is a grassroots collaborative effort co-led by Barbara Brody, Extension Faculty, Oregon State University Extension and Nickie Shira, STEM & Innovation Coordinator, Frontier STEM Hub – Malheur Education Service District.The team also includes Erin Carpenter, Project Director, Eastern Oregon Workforce Board; Melodie Wilson, Education Technology & STEM Specialist, Frontier STEM Hub – Malheur Education Service District and Jerry Peacock, Eastern Oregon Career Technical Education Regional Coordinator. 

This is a workforce readiness program for underserved youth that connects the learning needs of youth to the talent needs of industry resulting in a more inclusive and vibrant local economy. They do this by equipping youth with job-ready skills breaking the cycle of poverty, unlike traditional career-technical education programs that end when students graduate from high school. According to Shira, “we have two components to our project…the overarching project is workforce readiness and we are combining that with the makerspace to provide opportunities for students at the schools with internships and connecting them to local career and job opportunities. The project seeks to narrow the opportunity gap that so many of our students face…”

In 2020, the team partnered with the eXtension Foundation through its Impact Collaborative program at the Impact Collaborative Summit. Teams that participated in the Summit were provided one-on-one coaching by the Impact Collaborative’s network of Innovation Facilitators, including twenty six coaches. Twenty-five Key Informants from across Extension and other external organizations assisted teams on a range of topics, including catalyzation, innovation, program development and evaluation; community partnerships; communications, marketing and digital engagement; diversity, equity, and inclusion; educational technology and instructional design; visualization; and more.

The team leveraged the opportunity to participate in the Impact Collaborative program as a way of formalizing their work together and equipping the team with new skills and tools. “Bringing all of us together and identifying what our roles are and those needs makes us more successful…This opportunity helped us with our skill sets and gave us some other tools to move us forward…We had never been through a training like this as community partners. In my opinion, it really helped,” said Brody. 

The Impact Collaborative trains Cooperative Extension professionals in its Innovation Skill-Building methodology to provide a new way of looking at program development and innovation to assist local teams develop projects or programs more quickly, and strengthen program design. Trained individuals are referred to as Innovation Facilitators and there are currently 151 trained through the Impact Collaborative. At the Summit, Innovation Facilitators serve as coaches with teams to help identify gaps in project and program planning. For the Malheur Workforce Readiness team, their coach was David Keto, Communications & Technology Manager, University of Wyoming. 

“The whole coaching model worked really well for me; David was alongside us wanting us to succeed. It’s hard in a rural community to have resources like this, even in my Extension office, so having the coach was great and his connections had a ripple effect that expanded our capacity,” Brody said about her experience having a coach assigned to her team. Regarding the Key Informants, she shared “when the Key Informants asked us difficult questions and identified our gaps…that was a huge area of growth for me. It enabled us to put together an evaluation matrix for our team. Lastly, it was reassuring that what we were trying to say about our project was able to get across.”

As part of the Summit, teams were invited to apply for $5000 seed-funding grants funded by the Impact Collaborative. One grant was awarded to one team from each Cooperative Extension region that applied. The Malheur Workforce Readiness team received the award for the Western Region. When asked about their next steps and how they plan to leverage these funds, Shira stated “we received additional funding from the Oregon Community Foundation, the Eastern Oregon Border Economic Development Board, and the Eastern Oregon Workforce Board to support this initiative. We are looking to hire an internship coordinator and we have funding for a two-year position to build a solid foundation for the program. With the seed-funding grant, we’ll be able to use that to focus on the evaluation piece. It will be really beneficial for us to make sure that we know the best way to move the needle forward, and how we’re going to evaluate it as we go through the process of implementation to have good measurements. It will also really help us communicate with our partners moving forward.”

Reflecting on the team’s experience and the value of participation, Brody shared that “it was hard work, but it was done extremely well…I liked the remote opportunity and I honestly don’t know if we could have participated because of the cost of travel. I don’t know how the Impact Collaborative matched the coaches with the teams, but David was a great fit for us because he understands rural remote and the environment we work in… I’ve gone back to the Impact Collaborative workbook and tools numerous times…I’ve never had an opportunity like this…it was refreshing to get this learning experience and it’s a comfort knowing that I can email, and someone will help connect us to what we need.”

eXtension’s Impact Collaborative program is available to eXtension Foundation members. The Impact Collaborative fosters the incubation of innovative ideas and provides a unique, structured, and supported process that enables Extension to work with community partners to find and implement the kinds of solutions that will result in the greatest local impact. eXtension Foundation members can learn more about upcoming opportunities with the Impact Collaborative program at extension.org or by joining Connect Extension at connect.extension.org. 

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Five Extension Project Teams Receive Seed-Funding Grants from Impact Collaborative Summit

Twenty-five teams representing twenty-six Cooperative Extension institutions attended the first Virtual Impact Collaborative Summit on October 13th and 14th. Using technology – including Zoom and virtual whiteboards – participants were connected with tools, resources, coaches, facilitators, and Key Informants in a customized experience designed to catalyze their work.

Teams were provided one-on-one coaching from twenty-six of our Impact Collaborative’s Innovation Facilitator network. Twenty-five Key Informants from across Extension and other external organizations assisted teams on a range of topics including catalyzing innovation; program development and evaluation; community partnerships; communications, marketing and digital engagement; diversity, equity, and inclusion; educational technology and instructional design; visualization; and more.

All teams were invited to apply for seed-funding grants made available by the eXtension Foundation with the opportunity of awarding one grant per Cooperative Extension region and to an additional team with a nationally focused program. 14 applications were received and five teams were selected. Descriptions of each are listed below:

National Team Award

Globalizing Extension Innovation Network
 South Carolina State University, Virginia Tech, University of Kentucky, North Carolina State University, Florida A&M University, University of Minnesota, Penn State University, Purdue University

A Globalizing Extension Innovation Network for the US CES community which creates space for collaboration and connection, enabling global engagement, impact sharing, visibility, advocacy, and resource acquisition unlike standalone efforts.

Western Region Award

Malheur Workforce Readiness
Oregon State University

A workforce readiness program for underserved youth that connects the learning needs of youth to the talent needs of industry resulting in a more inclusive and vibrant local economy by equipping youth with job-ready skills breaking the cycle of poverty, unlike traditional Career Technical Education programs that end when students graduate from high school.

Northeastern Region Award

Tioga County Workforce
Cornell University

A training program for people, ages 14-24, that connects individuals with disabilities to a community collaboration enabling; education, engagement, and workforce goals unlike current structures that see many young people fall through the cracks.

North Central Region Award

Cook County Composting Initiative
University of Illinois

As the second most populous county in the nation, we believe Cook County can take the lead in reducing methane gas emissions from landfills by diverting organic waste through composting initiatives, thus helping to mitigate climate change and enhance the quality of our environment.

1890 Region Award

Bulldog Tenacity Youth Intervention and Prevention Support
South Carolina State University

An at-risk intervention program for non-violent and unintentional contact youth that reduces recidivism rates and further contact with DJJ and/or any other law enforcement agencies by providing support, intervention and education programs based upon evidence, research-based best practices enabling citizenship, financial literacy, college and career readiness.

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25 Teams Participate in First Virtual Impact Collaborative Summit

For Immediate Release
November 3, 2020
Contact: Aaron Weibe, aaronweibe@eXtension.org

Twenty-five Project and Program teams representing twenty-six Cooperative Extension institutions attended the first Virtual Impact Collaborative Summit on October 13th and 14th. Using technology – including Zoom and virtual whiteboards – participants were connected with tools, resources, coaches, facilitators, and Key Informants in a customized experience designed to catalyze their work.

The Summit kicked off with a thought-provoking keynote by Dr. Scott Reed, Emeritus Vice Provost-University Outreach & Engagement, and an eXtension Catalyst, who spoke about “Legacy and Future: Disruptive Innovation Wins.”  

Teams were provided one-on-one coaching by the Impact Collaborative’s network of Innovation Facilitators, including twenty six coaches. Twenty-five Key Informants from across Extension and other external organizations assisted teams on a range of topics, including catalyzation, innovation, program development and evaluation; community partnerships; communications, marketing and digital engagement; diversity, equity, and inclusion; educational technology and instructional design; visualization; and more.

After two days of hard work, teams participated in a showcase, where they presented their project or program to the Summit community and beyond. All teams have been invited to apply for seed funding grants to support their projects. A graphic summary of the projects is included below:

Results

Highlights of the participant feedback evaluation include:

  • 93% of participants got what they needed
  • 95.3% will recommend the Impact Collaborative Summit to others
  • Aspects of the event that were most useful 
    • Team Time (83.7%)
    • Team Coaches (83.7)
    • Key Informants (79.1%)

When asked “What did the Impact Collaborative Summit provide that you can’t get anywhere else?”, participants offered the following responses:

  • The Collaborative helped us to focus on a clear impact statement and messaging to improve our grant application
  • Focused time around a single opportunity with interested colleagues and volunteers; tools specifically designed to hone in on strategies to address issues
  • One-stop-shop for personalized feedback and advice from subject matter experts… without having to secure the services of an external consultant
  • Fresh perspectives, mentorship, connectivity with peers across the country
  • Expert input
  • Help!
  • Tools and resources to move our project forward to fruition

The next Virtual Impact Collaborative Summit is slated for October 12th and 13th, 2021. 

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Supercharge Your Projects and Programs at the Impact Collaborative Summit!

When: April 28th & May 6th, 2 PM – 4 PM ET
Where: Virtual
Who Can Attend? eXtension Member Institutions
Deadline to Register: April 15th, 2020

Register here

A couple of weeks ago, we announced that registration had opened for our virtual Impact Collaborative Summit. Our Virtual Impact Collaborative Summit will continue as scheduled for eXtension members, but we have shifted the focus of the event to helping our members co-create solutions to deliver Extension programs virtually. This opportunity will also help increase participants’ confidence in creative delivery of programs.

As you all know, COVID-19 has created challenges across Cooperative Extension and across the nation. As a result of a survey conducted across the system last week, eXtension is currently focused on serving Cooperative Extension in two primary areas in response to COVID-19:

1. Providing resources, professional development, and learning opportunities around working virtually.

Using our technology platforms and tools, we’ve launched a resource site at virtual.eXtension.org available to the entire Land-Grant University system with new content being added everyday from all across Cooperative Extension. Additionally, we have launched a new platform, Connect Extension, available to the entire system. Within the platform, eXtension members have exclusive access to professional development, learning opportunities, and opportunities for collaboration.

2. Co-creating solutions for delivering Extension programs virtually

Our network of Key Informants from in and out of Cooperative Extension will be ready to help accelerate finding solutions to the challenges of delivering Extension programs virtually. For this Summit, there is no requirement to participate as part of a team and we have streamlined our registration process. We invite individuals from our member institutions to be part of this event.

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21 Project & Program Teams Attend October Impact Collaborative Summit, 6 Awarded Grants

For Immediate Release
November 26th, 2019
Contact: Aaron Weibe, aaronweibe@eXtension.org

21 Project and Program teams across Cooperative Extension representing 24 institutions attended the Impact Collaborative in Atlanta for a unique opportunity to create impactful results at the local level by increasing Cooperative Extension’s organizational readiness and capacity for innovation and change. Teams were connected with skills, tools, resources, Coaches, Facilitators, and Key Informants that helped expand and deepen their impact. 

Teams were provided one-on-one coaching by the Impact Collaborative’s network of Innovation Facilitators, including 11 Coaches representing 10 institutions. 28 Key Informants from across Extension and other external organizations assisted teams in program development on a range of topics including team development, program development, communications and marketing, readiness, evaluation, and visualization.

During three days of hard work, teams participated in a Presentation Showcase where they presented their project or program to fellow participants, Coaches, and Key Informants. All teams had an opportunity to apply for six $5000 grants to bring new capacity to their project. The recipients of these grants are:

National Sustainability Synergies Squad (Florida A&M University, University of Florida, Tuskegee University, University of Georgia)

Project Description: This team attended the 1st and 2nd Impact Collaborative Summits and we represent leaders from two ANREP Initiatives: the National Network for Sustainable Living Education (NNSLE) and the National Extension Energy Initiative (NEEI). This past April, NNSLE and NEEI hosted the Joint National Sustainability Summit (NSS) and National Extension Energy Summit (NEES) in Tampa, FL.  With a theme of ‘Harnessing Our Collective Energy to Address the Rising Tide”, the conference engaged 185 Extension educators, researchers, students, community partners, and practitioners around issues of climate change, energy, water, land, food systems, and community capacity and resilience. Details of the event are at https://nationalextensionsummits.com.  

CIVIC (Florida A&M, University of Florida)

Project Description: Developing a panhandle In Service Training for agents to identify needs of small farmers and develop deliberative frameworks. Specifics include developing training objectives and curriculum to focus on identifying and training UU community leaders and using a method other than a deliberative forum (world café) to identify audience needs. It is hoped that developing this curriculum will lead to fundability in the long term.

Promoting Rural Community Wellness (University of Minnesota)

Project Description: This team aims to design a tool-kit that will offer communities the resources (e.g., strategies, people, and other materials) to support a comprehensive community approach to building community wellness.  Specifically, this work is designed to address rural stress and the issues arising in the agricultural community. 

Virtual Park Ranger (Oregon State University)

Project Description: This project aims to connect outdoor with health, targeting children and families to enrich their outdoor experience through a co-development of a mobile app with the end users. At this Summit, our team would like to 1) learn more about how to identify and solidify the most feasible feature(s) to begin designing with the vision of building a platform that we can continue to expand, and 2) how to crowdsource and crowdfund to support ideas.

Tuskegee Public Dialogue Team (Tuskegee University): 

Project Description: The TPDT focuses on building capacity within the Tuskegee University Cooperative Extension program to help communities engage in civil dialogues around racial issues and their intersections with the food system. This project represents an integrative community based public dialogue program tailored for the Black Belt region that produces community assessments enabling a platform for action unlike programs that overlook the impacts of the race within community understanding. Ultimately, a key aim of this project is to chart a course for Extension to become more relevant in the Black Belt region. 

Southern Jagriculture (Southern University): 

Project Description: Team Jagriculture’s program addresses Emergency Preparedness, and how to increase engagement for vulnerable populations around the state of Louisiana while also focusing on maximizing our impact within their communities.

Results

The full Summit evaluation report and a detailed listing of the participating teams and institutions is available at impact.eXtension.org/success. Highlights of that evaluation include:

  • 93.2% will recommend the Impact Collaborative Summit to others
  • In what ways did the Impact Collaborative Summit help your team?
    • Team Growth (89.5%)
    • Uncovered gaps in project planning (84.2%)
    • New ideas (78.9%)
    • New innovation or increased innovation (73.7%)
    • Gave ways to tell our team/project story 73.7%
    • New techniques and tools 73.7%
  • Aspects of the event that were most useful
    • Team Time (75.3%)
    • Program Development Key Informants (69.9%)
    • Visualization Key Informants (69.9%)
    • Team Coaches (63%)
    • Propelling Community Impact Framework (58.9%)
    • Evaluation Key Informants (53.4%)
    • Team Development Key Informants (52.1%)

About the eXtension Foundation

The eXtension Foundation is a membership-based non-profit designed to be the engine fueling U.S. Cooperative Extension’s advancement in making a more visible and measurable impact in support of education outreach from land-grant universities/colleges located in every state and territory. eXtension provides an array of opportunities for Extension professionals that foster innovation creation, the adoption of innovations at member institutions, and increased impact of Extension programs.

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Join Us at the October 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit

Registration for the October 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit is now open. 

When? October 15th-17th, 2019
Where? Atlanta, GA
Deadline to Register? DEADLINE EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 26th, 2019

The Impact Collaborative Summit brings unique opportunities to create impactful results at the local level by increasing Cooperative Extension’s organizational readiness and capacity for innovation and change, by connecting them with skills, tools, resources and partners that can expand and deepen their impact.

We invite members to take advantage of their membership benefit by sending project and program teams to the Impact Collaborative Summit. Each member will receive 5 free registrations for a team to attend. Additional teams and team members are welcome to join. Community partners are welcome to participate on teams. We highly recommend sending teams that include 3-5 individuals focused on a project or program aligned with state/institutional strategic priorities.

Learn More About the Impact Collaborative Summit

The Impact Collaborative Summit Helps Participants: 

  • Grow competencies, insights, inspirations, and capacities to engage in collective impact and innovation to address complex issues
  • Increase understanding and demonstrate diversity, equity, and inclusion principles and practices in team membership and ownership, projects, and implementation plans respective of community culture and norms
  • Increase knowledge of co-creation community success stories and promising models that leverage diverse assets and community partners
  • Identify as members of the Impact Collaborative and are invested in making meaningful local impact, with plans to engage with the connections and resources available through the Impact Collaborative

Teams Participating in the Impact Collaborative Summit Can Expect To:

  • Strengthen community engagement for each project or program
  • Collectively engage partnerships for new capacity for each program
  • Strengthen project or program plans
  • Increase project or program innovation
  • Develop strategies to effectively engage new audiences
  • Strengthen organizational context and readiness to support change needed by their projects and programs

Helping Teams Get Results 

Since 2017, the Impact Collaborative has trained 107 Innovation Facilitators, led 7 national events, 22 local events, and worked with more than 120 project and program teams across Extension. Learn more about some of the teams that joined us at the previous Impact Collaborative Summit. 

Registration Process for Teams:

  1. Identify a team leader

  2. Each team member needs to visit https://register.eventmobi.com/icsummitoct2019/ to register. Participants will be coming to the Summit in teams. In order for us to coordinate your Summit experience, please discuss and determine a TEAM NAME for all of your team members to use.

  3. Choose Team Member Registration

  4. Enter the promo code provided by your Extension Director or Administrator if you are receiving one of the five free registrations. 

Hotel Booking

Please visit this link to book a hotel room after completing the registration above.

REGISTRATION AND HOTEL RESERVATION DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 26th, 2019

Let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing your project and program teams for our third national Impact Collaborative Summit!

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Utah State University HEART Team solidifies vision, reinforces project planning at Impact Collaborative Summit

Taking action to help communities across Utah in response the opioid epidemic is a critical priority. The HEART Team’s focus on Harm Reduction Education is one important component of our response to the epidemic. The time this team spent with the Impact Collaborative allowed them to form a vision and strategy for their project, test their ideas, and get equipped with skills and tools that helped innovate a new project idea from the ground up with real potential for saving lives and increasing awareness of programs available to our communities across Utah. – Dr. Brian Higginbotham, Associate Vice President of Extension, Utah State University

The United States, including Utah, is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic. As a state, Utah has consistently ranked in the top ten of deaths from opioid overdose. Although Utah has taken steps to respond to the opioid crisis, Substance Use Disorders (SUD) continue to impact many lives. The use of government programs to reduce opioid use has been met with questionable success due to the lack of focus on individual communities. One method of research that is not well-known to the general population and has shown to be effective is Harm Reduction programming. Harm Reduction is the idea that recognizes the challenges of completely stopping individuals from using substances, but provides services that will keep the user safer and healthier until the time comes that they may want to stop using a substance and seek assistance. 

The Health Extension: Advocacy Research Teaching (HEART Initiative) Team from Utah State University represents various communities across Utah in 9 counties. They have identified four pillars in the fight against the opioid crisis in their communities and across the state as (1) Harm Reduction, (2) Strengthening Community Ties, (3) Prevention and Education, and (4) Stigma Reduction. Additionally, the team has identified a major need to increase Harm Reduction Education in those communities. Looking to increase the awareness of communities across Utah, the HEART team is looking to create a video education series focused on Harm Reduction. 

The team members include Dr. Ashley Yaugher, Extension Assistant Professor, Health & Wellness; Timothy Keady, Extension Assistant Professor, Health & Wellness; Dr. Maren Voss, Extension Assistant Professor; Reshma Arrington, Extension Assistant Professor; Kandice Atisme, Extension Assistant Professor; and Dr. Mateja Savoie Roskos, Associate Professor of Nutrition Dietetics & Food Sciences. 

According to Keady, “our first year as an Extension team focused on opioids, we have found communities filled with anger, compassion, devastation, love, mistrust, stigma and bias, confusion, thankfulness, and shame towards opioids and those with Substance Use Disorder. Our Harm Reduction video series will begin to connect all of these emotions to professional staff and members of the community that really care and can help. For many in the healthcare field, treating SUD is a driving passion. Too many community members have suffered in silence due to the stigma of substance use. The videos will provide a conversation starter in the community.”

Joining the Impact Collaborative

The HEART Team first joined the Impact Collaborative in April 2019 at the Impact Collaborative Summit. The Impact Collaborative is a program that was created by eXtension to help Extension professionals find more innovative ways to generate a visible, measurable, local impact. It achieves this through offering professional development opportunities to Extension professionals both virtually and face-to-face, connecting Extension professionals with non-traditional partners for strategic support and new capacity, and equipping Extension professionals with new skills, tools, and resources to help increase innovation in their daily work. 

At the Impact Collaborative Summit, the team had the opportunity to work closely on their project with access to key resources assembled by eXtension. The team was provided a coach from the Impact Collaborative’s network of Innovation Facilitators, several Key Informants on staff with subject-matter-expertise in specialized areas, and the opportunity to work in our Innovation Labs with access to graphic recorders and concept-mapping experts. 

Team lead, Dr. Yaugher stated “We really enjoyed being at the Summit. Not only did it provide us focused and dedicated time as a team – but it allowed us to develop relationships with all of our team members to both unify and solidify our program. We found the Innovation Stations at the Summit to be particularly helpful, and we made it a point to attend each of them. We went from having a basic illustration of our idea at the visualization station to a much more detailed infographic. That really helped us solidify the main areas of our program in a way that’s easy to understand. The coaches, the visualization stations, the Key Informants – all of that, you don’t have access to everyday. Having that all in one place was very helpful.” 

At the Summit, the team also had the opportunity to leverage the Impact Collaborative’s Innovation Kit Workbook for help guiding their project development. The Innovation Skill-Building methodology helps Extension professionals build skills in innovation, create opportunities for ideation through a design-thinking and lean experimentation process, and create action plans for projects and programs ready for implementation. “We really enjoyed the Impact Collaborative Innovation Workbook and the Innovation Canvas, and found it particularly useful. Those resources ensured that we were all on the same page and moving in the same direction,” said Dr. Yaugher. 

The Summit included 26 teams across Extension representing 34 land-grant universities. An important aspect of the Impact Collaborative framework is co-creating solutions for community impact and the opportunity for teams to collaborate on a national scale to help better inform project and program planning. Dr. Yaugher shared that “the coolest thing about the Impact Collaborative is the environment with teams from across Extension coming together, and feeling that energy in the room with everybody working towards a final product – you can’t get that anywhere else. The opportunity to network and collaborate with other teams across the country, and seeing what other Extension professionals are doing in similar work is really unique. After the Summit, we’ve continued to connect and collaborate with other teams and individuals.”

The culminating event of the Impact Collaborative Summit was an opportunity for teams to present their projects and programs to a panel of Extension leaders and external partners at a “LaunchFest.” Teams participating in the LaunchFest not only gain valuable feedback from the panel and their peers across Extension, but teams that are most-ready to implement their projects and programs have the chance to secure an opportunity for funding. As a result of their presentation at the LaunchFest, the HEART  team received a pre-approved application for a $5000 grant funded by eXtension to move their project towards implementation. 

Moving Towards Implementation

The grant will allow the HEART team to plan the Harm Reduction Video Education Series where they will pursue additional funding through a separate grant in the fall, 2019. The team has contact with experienced members of the Utah State University Marketing Video Production Staff who will assist in producing and editing the proposed video series. Looking forward, the team is looking to strengthen partnerships with the Utah Department of Health (UDOH), UDOH Injury Prevention, and the UDOH Division of Substance and Mental Health around the consensus that Harm Reduction is an area of concern that needs to be strengthened. 

Want to learn more? Follow the HEART Team’s progress on their website: https://extension.usu.edu/heart/index

About the eXtension Foundation

The eXtension Foundation is a membership-based non-profit designed to be the engine fueling U.S. Cooperative Extension’s advancement in making a more visible and measurable impact in support of education outreach from land-grant universities/colleges located in every state and territory. eXtension provides an array of opportunities for Extension professionals that foster innovation creation, the adoption of innovations at member institutions, and increased impact of Extension programs.

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CIVIC Team from the University of Florida and Florida A&M finds new opportunities to create with eXtension’s Impact Collaborative

The Impact Collaborative prepared the CIVIC team with new skills, resources, and opportunities that have helped them come together as a team to accelerate and scale their program. Their involvement with the Impact Collaborative has helped create new pathways for reaching a more diverse audience, find strategic ways to engage new partners, and better help Extension professionals across Florida facilitate a process that builds community capacity in addressing challenging issues such as climate change, sustainability, opioid addiction, and water quality. – Vonda Richardson, Director of Extension at Florida A&M University

The CIVIC Team (Community Voices, Informed Choices) is a program co-led by faculty at Florida A&M University and the University of Florida. Their program builds capacity for communities to better understand and address their challenges, as well as facilitate improved quality of life. These challenges include issues for which there are no clear, scientifically best solutions, such as sea level rise, school violence, opioid addiction, and water quality. 

From the University of Florida, the team includes Martha Monroe, Extension Professor; Lara Milligan, Extension Agent; Carol Alberts, Extension Agent; Alicia Betancourt, County Director; and Linda Seals, Regional Specialized Agent. From Florida A&M University, the team includes Dreamal Worthen, Extension Professor; Sandra Thompson, Extension Specialist; and Kenya Washington, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice.

According to Martha Monroe, CIVIC Team Leader, “all CIVIC programs are firmly rooted in Research and convey the best available science. All programs include Values-based Deliberative Discussions as a mechanism for engaging a variety of perspectives, building understanding, and creating partnerships. Additionally, programs address justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity in leadership, issue framing, solution forming, and community engagement in recognition of the critical importance of respecting and engaging all members of a community in opportunities to improve their well-being.” 

Becoming an Impact Collaborative Program Team

This team first began working with eXtension’s Impact Collaborative in October, 2018 at the first national Impact Collaborative Summit. During the Summit, teams had the opportunity to work through an Innovation Skill-Building experience in order to help catalyze innovation towards an increased local impact. 

“As Extension professionals, it is important that we are addressing what the community wants and we are serving as a resource in terms of helping the community. The Summit is providing us the tools and the skill set for having us better prepared when I go back to my institution to do this work. When I hit a roadblock, I can pull out the tools that we’ve received at the Summit in order to help diagnose problems,” said Worthen. 

At that Summit, the team had the opportunity to present their program to a panel of Extension leaders and external partners at a “PitchFest.” Teams participating in the PitchFest not only gained valuable feedback from the panel and their peers across Extension, but teams that are most-ready to implement their projects and programs had the chance to secure an opportunity for strategic support. For the CIVIC team, their success at the PitchFest awarded them a free trip to the April 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit, and consulting from eXtension’s Partnership Development team consisting of Teresa Hogue, Andrea Hernandez, and Lynn Luckow. 

The Partnership Development team provided advice on developing a suite of investment partners and worked to link the CIVIC team with potential partnership opportunities. 

Reconnecting with the Impact Collaborative

In April 2019, the CIVIC team participated in the second Impact Collaborative Summit. This Summit was designed to provide greater one-on-one support to project and program teams than the previous Summit, including a coach for each team, the opportunity to access a graphic artist and a concept-mapping coach to help visualize, connect, and identify gaps in their project planning, and several Key Informants on staff with subject-matter-expertise in specialized areas. 

According to Washington, “The most valuable thing we get out of this Summit was the opportunity to form our team identity, and that’s because we’ve been working in silos as a result of not being on the same campus. Some of the very best work we do here is the opportunity to coalesce as a team and learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses…It was valuable for us to be here so we could articulate our thoughts to others and get feedback, and see what others hear when we’re talking so we can understand if that matches our intention. One of the most gratifying moments was working with the visualization station – having the graphic recorder try to understand what we were trying to do – and then illustrate a picture of that which enabled us to feel more confident that we were in the right direction. I can’t put a price tag on that. To me – it was the greatest benefit of being here.”

Thompson felt that the Impact Collaborative Summit provided a unique opportunity to create impactful results at the local level. “We’re here at the April 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit to expand upon the deep dive into learning about conceptualization and engaging the community that we did in October. We’re here really developing the program and putting it in a marketable format. What I can say about each experience is that it really gives us individually and collectively the opportunity to create. It’s unstructured, it’s intense, but it’s productive.”

The culminating event of the April 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit was an opportunity for teams to present their projects and programs to a panel of Extension leaders and external partners at a “LaunchFest.” Similar to the PitchFest in October 2018, teams participating in the LaunchFest not only gained valuable feedback from the panel and their peers across Extension, but teams that are most-ready to implement their projects and programs have the chance to secure an opportunity for funding. As a result of their presentation at the LaunchFest, the CIVIC team received a pre-approved application for a $5000 grant funded by eXtension to move their project towards implementation. 

Moving Forward Towards Implementation

As the team moves forward, they are working together to achieve three goals:

  1. Institutionalize strategies for the University of Florida and Florida A&M University faculty to easily work together, develop resources, conduct training, and equitably provide resources.
  2. Support Extension agents as they build community partnerships, adapt issue frameworks to address local situations, and prepare their community for values- and research-based discussions
  3. Support Extension agents as they deliver high quality, diverse and equitable, transformative community programs. 

The CIVIC program is implemented at the state and local level. At the state level, the leadership team plans in-service training, seeks funding, mentors agents, develops resources and materials, hosts the website, designs evaluation tools, and reports on CIVIC activities at the state level. At the local level, the county agents build partnerships, assess the community’s perspectives, revise materials to meet local needs, develop an appropriate sequence of programs to build capacity, facilitate movement toward solutions or recommendations by providing a platform to support community leaders, and report on the success of CIVIC programs. At present, the team is currently scaling participation in CIVIC programs. 

The grant will help provide the resources needed to support the development of state-level resources which will help agents move forward with confidence and competence. The resources will support the development of state-level resources which will help agents move forward with confidence and competence. It will also help better position CIVIC to request funding from investment partners as they continue to strengthen their state infrastructure, develop resources, train agents, and address community challenges.

Reflecting upon her experience with the Impact Collaborative, Thompson shared “the Impact Collaborative Summit is energizing, and I hadn’t experienced that before. We are being given new skills, new processes, new people to talk to that help us take our past experiences and knowledge to create something new that is relevant to where we are today, and where the people that we are serving are today. The Impact Collaborative gives you the space, the knowledge, the time, and expertise to create amazing work. I haven’t really received that anywhere else.”

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghDG41DIHnM&width=150&height=84[/embedyt]

About the eXtension Foundation

The eXtension Foundation is a membership-based non-profit designed to be the engine fueling U.S. Cooperative Extension’s advancement in making a more visible and measurable impact in support of education outreach from land-grant universities/colleges located in every state and territory. eXtension provides an array of opportunities for Extension professionals that foster innovation creation, the adoption of innovations at member institutions, and increased impact of Extension programs.

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eXtension’s Impact Collaborative helps ‘Sustain the Sustainers’ for Multi-State Initiative, USDA-NIFA

Sustainability is one of our strategic priorities. 200 participants representing 33 institutions alongside 10 community partners participated in the NSS + NEES event resulting in inspiring and motivating speakers, new knowledge gained among participants, and new connections developed across organizations. The Impact Collaborative Summits were unique opportunities for this team to engage more deeply in reaching new and more diverse audiences, strategic planning for cultivating new partnerships, and finding new and innovative avenues for increasing local impact. – Dr. Nick Place, Dean and Director for the University of Florida/IFAS Extension Service

Participation in eXtension’s Impact Collaborative Summit helped provide new strategies for planning, audience and partnership engagement, and program delivery for a multi-state team from the University of Florida, Florida A&M, Washington State University, and North Dakota State University. The team, National Sustainability Summit, is addressing complex sustainability issues across the nation. They achieve this through the National Sustainability Summit (NSS) and the National Extension Energy Summit (NEES). These events are in partnership with USDA-NIFA and other community partners. 

The NSS + NEES event was held in April 2019 and brought leading sustainability and energy educators and practitioners together to showcase land-grant university Extension and Research program successes, share challenges, and identify opportunities with expertise in sustainability and energy issues.

Becoming an Impact Collaborative Program Team

The National Sustainability team first joined eXtension’s Impact Collaborative in October 2018 for the first Impact Collaborative Summit. The Impact Collaborative Summit is an eXtension membership benefit where teams from across Extension come together to strengthen community engagement, engage partnerships, strengthen program planning, increase program innovation, and develop strategies to effectively engage new audiences. 

According to Dave Ripplinger, Assistant Professor in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics at North Dakota State University and the state’s bioenergy and bioproducts economist, “the Impact Collaborative Summit we attended in October 2018 gave us the opportunity to think more strategically about what we were doing…the assistance that the Impact Collaborative provided us not only impacted the folks in attendance at our event in Tampa, but also back in our communities.”

As a result of their work at the October 2018 Impact Collaborative Summit and their participation in the PitchFest, a place for teams to present their projects and programs to a panel of leaders from Cooperative Extension and partners from external organizations, National Sustainability Summit received the Urgent Community Need Award. This award provided the National Sustainability team strategic coaching support from the eXtension partnership development team, and an all-expenses paid trip to the next Impact Collaborative Summit. 

Strategic coaching support with the team focused on strengthening goals and anticipated outcomes of the Summit; clarifying external partner benefits and opportunities for sponsorship; and, defining considerations for sustaining the Summit for the future, including staffing and co-creation opportunities with partners. 

Deepening Program Planning & Engagement

The team reconnected with the Impact Collaborative after the NSS + NEES event by participating in the April 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit. Jennison Kipp Searcy, Resource Economist with the University of Florida, shared that “the goal of us attending the April 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit was to make sure that the NSS + NEES event was not just a one-off event. We were looking to leverage the momentum we had from all the resources, energy, and thought that went into the NSS + NEES event, and start looking at how to extend that to new partners, existing partners, and work products that can translate into action.”

The backbone of the the April 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit was a framework focused on propelling community impact. Teams were asked to first take a look at their target audiences to inform their program or project development. In many cases, teams were able to identify new audiences to engage that they had not thought of before. “Because of the Impact Collaborative, we’re going to be more deliberate in engaging the 1890 and 1994 communities to increase our ability to reach a more diverse audience. It also made us think about engaging more strategically with potential long-term partners,” said Ripplinger. 

Creating Impactful Results at the Local Level

When asked about what he took from his Impact Collaborative experience that has been most impactful for this team, Ripplinger stated that “the Impact Collaborative was core to supporting both NSS and NEES, and allowed us to put the strategic ideas we were able to form into practice through writing grants, developing new partnerships, and ensuring our own sustainability going forward. The experts that eXtension has assembled to be at these events to inform our planning are phenomenal, and the Impact Collaborative is a top-flight program. Throughout the event, you get tidbits of information from many different individuals that say ‘try this’ or ‘have you thought about this?’ Many of those tidbits can be extremely impactful. I think that any program, particularly those in their early stage, need to get engaged with the Impact Collaborative and take advantage of the creative planning and strategic support they provide…Now that I’ve had a chance to revisit eXtension through the Impact Collaborative, I see how it is playing a critical role in the success of Extension nationally.”

Searcy’s take on her experience is that “the Impact Collaborative gives us a chance to explore our creative and artistic sides, and how to engage non-traditional partners. We can take what we learn here and extend it back to our communities. The Impact Collaborative is helping to sustain the sustainers.”

As a result of their work at the April 2019 Impact Collaborative Summit and their participation in the Impact Collaborative LaunchFest, this team received the top-score award for multi-state/national teams. This award provides them with a pre-approved $5000 grant. 

The $5000 grant from eXtension will assist the team in writing grants to support funding for their next conference, ensure representatives from 1890 and 1994 institutions can attend the next Impact Collaborative Summit in October 2019, and developing marketing materials for the 2021 NSS + NEES event. The National Sustainability Summit team is currently planning their next NSS + NEES event for 2021. 

About the eXtension Foundation

The eXtension Foundation is a membership-based non-profit designed to be the engine fueling U.S. Cooperative Extension’s advancement in making a more visible and measurable impact in support of education outreach from land-grant universities/colleges located in every state and territory. eXtension provides an array of opportunities for Extension professionals that foster innovation creation, the adoption of innovations at member institutions, and increased impact of Extension programs.