Tag Archive for: impact collaborative

Impact Collaborative Trains 31 New Innovation Facilitators

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In August 2020, the eXtension Foundation’s Impact Collaborative program hosted its second Innovation Facilitator training for the year. 31 new Innovation Facilitators representing 12 Land-Grant universities completed the training, joining 153 others that represent 50 Land-Grant Universities.

Participants spent six sessions learning the Impact Collaborative’s Innovation Skill-Building methodology and obtained skills and tools that will help catalyze innovation with local project and program teams and also assist with the delivery of the Impact Collaborative program nationally. Additionally, Innovation Facilitators serve as coaches at the national Impact Collaborative Summit to help project and program teams across Cooperative Extension identify gaps in their project and program planning and connect those teams to resources that help fill those gaps.

All Cooperative Extension professionals can easily find their locally trained Innovation Facilitator on the Connect Extension Platform. The video below provides instructions on how to do that. 

The newest Innovation Facilitators include:

Clemson University

  • Jackie Jordan

Cornell University

  • Roberta Severson
  • Bonnie Collins
  • Kelly Campbell
  • Laura Biasillo

Kansas State University

  • Tom Buller
  • JoEllyn Argabright

North Dakota State University

  • Molly Soeby
  • Carrie Johnson

Oklahoma State University

  • Cheryl Newberry
  • Jennie Till

Purdue University

  • Laurynn Thieme

Southern University

  • Kiyana Kelly
  • Angell Jordan

Oregon State University

  • Deborah John

University of Arizona

  • Patty Merk

University of Hawaii at Manoa

  • Hallie Cristobal
  • Jensen Uyeda
  • Joshua Silva
  • James Friday
  • Judy Scoville-Layfield
  • Jeff Goodwin
  • Mark Thorne
  • Nancy Ooki
  • Kristen Jamieson
  • Christine Hanakawa
  • Roshan Manandhar

University of Idaho

  • Lindsey McConnell-Soong

University of Nebraska – Lincoln

  • Megan Burda
  • Terri James
  • Angi Heller
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TWO Impact Collaborative Events for eXtension Members – August 2020

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For August 2020, eXtension’s Impact Collaborative program has two exciting opportunities for eXtension members. Register today to reserve your spot!

Impact Collaborative Innovation Skill-Building Experience Online

August 4, 6, 11, & 13
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM ET
Available to eXtension Members Only

Join us next month for an online Innovation Skill-Builidng Experience (ISBE). The ISBE has been revised with a new block format, fresh content, new activities, and new worksheets to meet the evolving needs of Cooperative Extension professionals. If you’ve participated in an ISBE before, you’ll find new online tools to support your virtual collaboration, checklists to determine where to best focus your energy, and improved methods for documenting progress.

Do you have a project idea that needs incubation, innovation, and ways to get to implementation and impact faster? Are you looking to learn about design thinking and lean experimentation combined with Cooperative Extension’s best practices for solving important community issues? Are you interested in becoming an Innovation Facilitator/Coach for future Impact Collaborative events and to support your institution’s teams and teams across the nation? Are you already an Innovation Facilitator or a team member who would like a refresher on the Innovation Skill-Building process?

If you answered yes, to any of these questions then join us to explore the Impact Collaborative’s Innovation Skill-building experience in a whole new way: The ISBE  will meet via Zoom for four sessions covering specific ISBE building blocks to spark ideas, increase innovation, and turbocharge implementation to ultimately create local impact.

Register

Impact Collaborative Innovation Facilitator Training

August 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, & 28
1:00 PM ET – 3:00 PM ET
Available to eXtension Members Only

Become an Innovation Facilitator. The Impact Collaborative’s network of Innovation Facilitators are trained to provide individuals with a new way of looking at program and project development to help new and existing programs across your states and institutions identify gaps in their planning, ensure they are most ready for implementation, and have explored all considerations to maximize local impact.  With the updates to our Innovation Skill-Building Experience including the new block format, content, activities, and worksheets – we also encourage previously trained Innovation Facilitators to join us.

Locally trained Innovation Facilitators can be an asset in helping teams develop their projects or programs more quickly, and connect those teams with resources available nationally. They can work locally with teams through our design-thinking process to bring fresh ideas aligned with institutional goals.

There are currently 120+ Innovation Facilitators across Cooperative Extension working locally to catalyze innovation in their own states and institutions, and supporting Extension teams regionally and nationally.

Who Should Participate?

Our recommendations to Extension Directors and Administrators for selecting individuals to participate include:

  • Individuals such as a program leaders
  • Individuals that work closely with your leadership team
  • Already possess strong confidence in facilitation skills
  • Can be effective in working alongside leadership teams and other program leaders to catalyze innovation throughout the organization.

Register

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 is embedded in the U.S. Cooperative Extension System and serves on the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP). 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. This work is supported by your membership dollars and funding from USDA-NIFA, grant no. 2019-41595-30123. For more information on eXtension membership, please visit eXtension.org.

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A Perspective on the eXtension Foundation Impact Collaborative Experience

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A Perspective on the eXtension Foundation Impact Collaborative Experience
by Marlin Bates, County Extension Director and Community Development Extension Agent
Kansas State Research and Extension – Douglas County

 

As a participant in the 2015 i-three issue corps and in the October, 2019 Impact Collaborative, I have developed a full-scale perspective of the value of this program development offering. I have appreciated the opportunity to participate in these events and I know that I have become a better Extension Professional because of that participation. Furthermore, I believe that I have become a better teammate because of this involvement. And although it was never an explicit component of the experience, I feel as though I have become a better leader through these experiences.

The eXtension Foundation introduced this novel approach to program development with some innovative components that remain integral in their design today – namely, the concept of key informants. However, what I appreciate the most is seeing the evolution of this effort through the years. Taking a step back and comparing my two experiences leads me to think that perhaps the most impressive quality of the eXtension Foundation was their willingness to put forth an imperfect offering, learn from it and continue to reiterate it to satisfy the needs of the audience – a lesson in risk-taking and development that all Extension Professionals would do well to emulate. 

My most recent experience with the Impact Collaborative was simply brilliant. Having the opportunity to develop a program idea into an achievable project through numerous interactions with subject matter specialists – not programmatic subject matter specialists, but soft-skill subject matter specialists, teams of colleagues from across the country, identified coaches and my team from home was priceless. Our interactions not only gave us a more global perspective on our project – and our National mission -, it also provided us the opportunity to become a more cohesive team. 

We didn’t participate in the Innovation Skill-Building Experience, but I was impressed by the inclusion of a curriculum that was aimed at getting teams started off on the right foot. Knowing that there are some teams that need that and others that simply need the space to put their heads down and get to work is a demonstration of the eXtension Foundation’s mastery of determining how best to help the teams that they intend to strengthen.

In short, my experiences with this program – and all of my experiences with eXtension, quite frankly – have led me to develop a great appreciation for the Foundation, the people who serve it, and the national network of colleagues that they have developed. 

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Supercharge Your Projects and Programs at the Impact Collaborative Summit!

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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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45 Cooperative Extension Professionals Join eXtension’s Impact Collaborative Program as Innovation Facilitators

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In February 2020, the eXtension Foundation’s Impact Collaborative program hosted its first Innovation Facilitator training for the year. 45 new Innovation Facilitators representing 18 Land-Grant universities completed the training, joining 107 others that represent 49 Land-Grant Universities.

Participants spent three days learning the Impact Collaborative’s Innovation Skill-Building methodology and obtained skills and tools that will help catalyze innovation with local project and program teams and also assist with the delivery of the Impact Collaborative program nationally. Additionally, Innovation Facilitators serve as coaches at the national Impact Collaborative Summit to help project and program teams across Cooperative Extension identify gaps in their project and program planning and connect those teams to resources that help fill those gaps.

This particular training session was unique as it marks the first time that the Impact Collaborative has delivered the Innovation Facilitator training virtually. Some highlights from this training include:

  • 100% of participants responded that they would likely or possibly recommend this training to others.
  • 98% of participants stated they would definitely or probably use the information presented in the training.

The newest Innovation Facilitators are:

Colorado State University

Lacey Taylor

Florida A&M University

Alejandro Bolques
Conchita Newman
Dreamal Worthen
Sandra Thompson

Fort Valley State University

Cynthia Wilson Willis
Terrence Wolfork

Kansas State University

Gayle Price
Laurie Chandler
Rachael Clews
Robin Eubank-Callis
Trudy Rice

New Mexico State University

Amanda Benton

North Dakota State University

Kelli Anderson

Oklahoma State University

Cindy Conner
Claude Bess
Jane Carpenter
Kegan Herrick
LaDonna Hines

Penn State University

Capri Stiles-Mikesell
Kimberly McCarthy
Mary Alice Gettings
Natalie Aiello

Prairie View A&M University

Cynthia Pierfax

Purdue University

Kara Salazar

South Dakota State University

Ann Taecker

Southern University

Gerald Williams
Krystle Allen
Tiffany Franklin

The Ohio State University

Michael Schweinsberg

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Alda Norris

University of Maryland

Catherine Liu

University of Minnesota

Kristen Mastel
Michael Compton
Regina McGoff

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Beth Nacke
Carroll Welte
Crystal Powers
Holly Hatton-Bowers
Linda Reddish
Shawn Kaskie

University of Wyoming

Mary Louise Wood

Virginia Tech

Megan Seibel
Melanie Barrow

The training was led by the Impact Collaborative team alongside ten previously trained Innovation Facilitators that served as coaches during the training including:

  • Tira Adelman, eXtension Foundation
  • Ashley Griffin, eXtension Foundation
  • Megan Hirschman, eXtension Foundation
  • Molly Immendorf, eXtension Foundation
  • Annie Jones, eXtension Foundation
  • David Keto, University of Wyoming
  • John Porter, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Kittrane Sanders, North Carolina State University
  • Donna Schwarting, University of Idaho
  • Bekah Sparks, Mississippi State University
  • Chuck Stamper, University of Kentucky
  • Stacy Wang, North Dakota State University
  • Jason Weigle, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Allison Young, Kentucky State University

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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Ashley Griffin Named New Innovation Facilitator Manager for eXtension’s Impact Collaborative Program

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Ashley Griffin, Impact Collaborative Program Manager and eFieldbook Producer for the eXtension Foundation, will assume responsibilities as the Innovation Facilitator Manager for eXtension’s Impact Collaborative Program.

Griffin has been part of the eXtension staff since 2005, starting as a Content Design Leader for  eXtension’s 70+ Communities of Practice and Learning Networks. Beginning in the Fall of 2017, Ashley accepted a new position with the eXtension Foundation as the Impact Collaborative Program Manager which incorporates design thinking and lean experimentation into member experiences to better serve the Cooperative Extension Service. As part of the New Technologies for Cooperative Extension USDA-NIFA Cooperative Agreement in partnership with Oklahoma State University, Griffin leads the production of eFieldbooks for project fellows associated with the program. Prior to her time with the eXtension Foundation, she gained practical extension programming experience and delivered content through distance learning technologies as the coordinator of the Kentucky 4-H Horse Program from 1996-2002 and later served as an Extension Communications Specialist for the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture. Ashley has a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Sciences and her Master of Science degree in Equine Nutrition from the University of Kentucky.

She will serve as the primary point of contact and liaison to the 152 current Innovation Facilitators trained in the Impact Collaborative Innovation Skill-Building methodology, assist in leading future Innovation Facilitator training sessions, and provide a connection to this group for future Impact Collaborative events and professional development opportunities. 

Griffin will be taking over these responsibilities for Dr. Annie Jones, University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, who has served as eXtension’s Innovation Facilitator Manager since 2019 on a one-year appointment. Jones will be continuing her role at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Community and Environmental Sociology and Division of Extension as Professor, Organization Development and Tribal Nations Specialist. 

During her time as the Innovation Facilitator Manager for the Impact Collaborative, Jones led the training of more than 100 new Innovation Facilitators representing 50 land-grant universities across Cooperative Extension. Innovation Facilitators play a crucial role in the delivery of the Impact Collaborative program and also serve as a local resource to Extension Directors and Administrators in catalyzing innovation with local programs.

Jones played a critical role in the delivery of three national Impact Collaborative Summits, and led ten local Innovation Skill-Building events across the nation for more than 800 Cooperative Extension professionals. She has also been a leader in the Impact Collaborative’s transition to a virtual program for 2020 to make it more accessible to eXtension members, ensuring the success of its first virtual Innovation Facilitator Training and co-leading the delivery of the first virtual Innovation Skill-Building Experience. 

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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Building Skills in Innovation, A Learning Series for eXtension Members

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The Impact Collaborative’s Innovation Skill-Building Experience Online Series
Jan 16th, Jan. 23rd, Jan. 30th, & Feb. 6th
1 PM – 2:30 PM EST
Registration Deadline: January 14th, 2020

Led by Molly Immendorf & Annie Jones

Do you have a project idea that needs incubation, innovation, and ways to get to implementation and impact faster? Are you looking to learn about design thinking and lean experimentation combined with Cooperative Extension’s best practices for solving important community issues? Are you interested in becoming an Innovation Facilitator/Coach for future Impact Collaborative events and to support your institution’s teams and teams across the nation? Are you already an Innovation Facilitator or a team member who would like a refresher on the Innovation Skill-Building process?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then join us to explore the Impact Collaborative’s Innovation Skill-Building Experience (ISBE) in a whole new way. The ISBE Learning Series will meet weekly via Zoom over four sessions covering specific ISBE level building blocks to spark ideas, increase innovation, and turbocharge implementation to help create local impact.

Individuals and/or project and program teams are welcome to participate. 

Register Here

Molly Immendorf
Impact Collaborative Lead Design Manager
eXtension Foundation

Molly Immendorf leads the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of the Impact Collaborative process. This includes all aspects and events related to the Impact Collaborative including the Innovation Skill-Building Kit, the Impact Collaborative Summit, and Engage and Empower Online. Prior to joining eXtension Foundation in 2017, Molly was the Instructional Design and Technology Specialist for almost 19 years at University of Wisconsin – Extension, Cooperative Extension. Molly has a M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Educational Communications and Technology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a B.S. in Design and Merchandising from Drexel University.

Annie Jones, PhD
Facilitator Manager
eXtension Foundation

Annie Jones is Facilitator Manager for eXtension and also holds an appointment as Professor, Organization Development and Tribal Nations Specialist at the University of Wisconsin Madison, Division of Extension. Annie has worked with Extension for twenty-one years serving in a variety of capacities including Associate Dean, Special Assistant to the Dean for Strategic Directions and as a county-based Community Development Educator. Annie earned her PhD in Human and Organizational Systems with a concentration in Transformative Learning for Social Justice from Fielding Graduate University. While there, she also earned a graduate certificate in Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement.

Annie’s areas of research include indigenous methodologies like the use of the Native American medicine wheel and cultural teachings to enhance planning and evaluation. Annie specializes in participatory and community-based action research.

Who Can Attend?:

This learning series is for eXtension members only as part of Engage & Empower Online. A list of eXtension members can be found here.

What Do You Need To Attend?:

This learning series will be facilitated through Zoom video conferencing. The link to the Zoom room for each Learning Circle will be sent to you after registration or available in the Engage & Empower Online Platform.

Additionally, components of this learning series will occur in the Engage & Empower Online platform. An account will be created for you and login details will be provided.

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

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

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

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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.

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