publication – Extension Foundation

Impact Collaborative Workbook Redesigned and Released

The Extension Foundation is excited to announce the release of its redesigned Impact Collaborative Workbook, now available publicly as an interactive PDF. This format enhances collaboration, especially for participants in a virtual Impact Collaborative method training and for participants exploring the process independently.

Established in 2014 by the Extension Foundation, the Impact Collaborative serves as a national network of Land-grant university professionals focused on empowering communities to co-create sustainable solutions through Extension programming. The initiative has evolved to meet the needs of Extension professionals, guided by their feedback.

A key feature of the Impact Collaborative is its comprehensive skills curriculum, which has trained hundreds of Extension professionals to rethink program development and serve as resources within their communities. The interactive Impact Collaborative Workbook facilitates dynamic engagement, allowing teams to collaborate effectively from different locations.

Thousands of Cooperative Extension professionals have participated in the Impact Collaborative, which plays a crucial role in delivering national programs and services. In 2023, a needs assessment was conducted to ensure the initiative continues to address the evolving challenges faced by the Cooperative Extension system.

The new interactive Workbook is now available. For more information, please visit the Impact Collaborative website.

New Technologies for Ag Extension 2023-2024 Yearbook Now Available in the Extension Foundation Library

News, Publications

The New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) 2023-2024 Yearbook is now available as the latest addition to the Extension Foundation’s publications library. This vibrant publication captures the progress of dozens of projects funded through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program—a cooperative initiative between the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA), the University of New Hampshire, and the Extension Foundation.

NTAE’s mission is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that enhances the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in communities nationwide. It also provides scalable models that can be adopted or adapted by Extension teams across the U.S.

Spanning 72 pages and presented in an engaging, magazine-style format, the Yearbook offers a comprehensive look at how NTAE-funded projects are transforming human, environmental, and community well-being. The publication also highlights an NTAE-supported technology initiative focusing on artificial intelligence. Through illustrated feature articles, Q&A interviews, and embedded videos, readers will explore innovative efforts across key themes, including technology, climate resilience, youth development, health, and equity.

Additionally, the Yearbook highlights the critical work of ECOP’s Program Action Teams, showcasing how these teams contribute to advancing the Cooperative Extension System’s priorities.

The Extension Foundation’s library houses an extensive collection of resources, with topics ranging from technology to strengthening the resilience of farms and rural communities. Explore the entire library here and sign up to receive notifications about future publications.

October 18, 2024/by Aaron Weibe

New Publication Available: Teaching Youth Food Safety – A Game-Based Approach

News, Publications

The Extension Foundation (EXF) has issued Teaching Youth Food Safety: A Game-Based Experience, a publication written by a team from the New Mexico State University Learning Games Lab.

The publication details how the team is addressing food safety through game-based learning. Their ideas ties into research that indicates youth prefer to learn about food safety topics through interactive educational tools. The publication details how the team developed “Theme Park Cafe”, a food safety game for youth. In the game, players engage in different themed kitchens to serve delicious and safe meals to clients. It’s a redesign of “Ninja Kitchen,” launched in 2011 to teach kids food handling skills. In this publication, the game designers talk about increasing the game’s cultural sensitivity, working with kids to create the reboot, and other elements of using gamification to teach educational content.

This new game, one of several food-related projects funded by the New Technologies in Ag Extension (NTAE) 2022-2023 grant program, is part of a growing trend in Extension: using multimedia products to educate and engage diverse audiences.

The authors of the publication are: Barbara Chamberlin, PhD; Matheus Cezarotto, PhD; and Pamela Martinez, Ed.D, all from New Mexico State University.

This publication was produced through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program. NTAE is a cooperative agreement between USDA NIFA, Oklahoma State University, and the Extension Foundation. The goal of the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) grant is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that will increase the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in the communities it serves, and provide models that can be adopted or adapted by Extension teams across the nation.

You can learn more about the team’s work in this recent feature article – Leveling Up – published in October 2023. The team also wrote about an alternative to full game design – the game jam process – in an earlier publication. You can access that publication here.

The Extension Foundation has released two dozen publications this fall, including the 2022-2023 NTAE Yearbook, which presents the work of dozens of Extension project teams from across the U.S. in a lively magazine format. You can find the entire library of publications (now numbering nearly five dozen) here.

December 14, 2023/by Aaron Weibe

Extension Foundation Issues University of Illinois Compost Summit Report

News, Publications

The Extension Foundation has issued a Compost Summit Report written by University of Illinois Extension educator Kathryn Pereira.

This report documents the May 2023 Compost Summit hosted by the University of Illinois Extension, which gathered several dozen compost professionals. Over the course of the Summit the group explored the challenges, the current status of work, and opportunities to improve the composting ecosystem in greater Chicagoland.

The intent of the report is to inspire and further work in building a culture of composting in greater Chicagoland. Information from this report has the potential to influence policies, educational programming, and infrastructure improvements, leading to a growing culture of composting in the region. This report may be of use to other Extension organizations.

This publication was produced through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program. NTAE is a cooperative agreement between USDA NIFA, Oklahoma State University, and the Extension Foundation. The goal of the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) grant is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that will increase the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in the communities it serves, and provide models that can be adopted or adapted by Extension teams across the nation.

The Extension Foundation has released two dozen publications in recent months, including the 2022-2023 NTAE Yearbook, which presents the work of dozens of Extension project teams from across the U.S. in a lively magazine format. You can find the entire library of publications (now numbering nearly five dozen) here.

December 1, 2023/by Aaron Weibe

New Extension Foundation Publication: “Pumpkin Smash Playbook”

Extension, News, Publications

The Extension Foundation has released a new title. “Pumpkin Smash Playbook” shares how the University of Illinois Extension and community partners organize and host Pumpkin Smashes, fun community events that collect pumpkins for composting. The team hosted its first Pumpkin Smash in 2019. Since then, the organization has refined the process of planning, funding, and running Smashes. This playbook details how to organize a similar event in your community.

Smashes teach people about the importance of composting and help keep pumpkins out of landfills. But they also provide Extension organizations with an opportunity to increase Extension’s visibility and reach new communities, particularly in urban areas.

“Pumpkin Smash Playbook” was written by Kathryn M. Pereira, an Extension educator with the University of Illinois Extension. It’s the latest publication released by the Extension Foundation for the Cooperative Extension Service. It was made possible with funding from the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) grant program.

The Extension Foundation has recently added new titles to its library, including the New Technologies for Ag Extension 2022-2023 Yearbook. The 83-page Yearbook – presented in a lively magazine format – documents dozens of projects funded through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program, a cooperative agreement between USDA NIFA, Oklahoma State University, and the Extension Foundation. The goal of the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) grant is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that will increase the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in the communities it serves, and provide models that can be adopted or adapted by Extension teams across the nation.

You can find the entire library of publications here.

October 17, 2023/by Aaron Weibe

New Publication Helps Cooperative Extension Professionals Engage Communities

News, Newsroom

A new publication – Engaging Communities Through Issues Forums: A How-To Guide for Onsite and Online Community Engagement – is available from the Extension Foundation.

The publication explores the use of issue forums as a community engagement tool in Extension work. Both a process guide and content publication, it is a comprehensive “how-to” designed to help Cooperative Extension professionals successfully develop and implement issues forums in both onsite and online settings. Each section of the publication includes Our Story, a narrative of the key lessons learned by the authors. This publication will be of value to Cooperative Extension professionals and other organizations and institutions that are considering ways to increase community engagement to collaboratively address issues.

It was written by a team from the University of Maryland Extension, University of Delaware Cooperative Extension, and Ohio State University who have been involved in a multi-year project. This project has focused on engaging communities in helping to address issues facing farmers and farm families. The authors are Bonnie Braun and Jesse Ketterman from the University of Maryland, Maria Pippidis from the University of Delaware; and Shoshana Inwood and Nicole Wright from Ohio State University.

As the authors noted, “The need to move from face-to-face to online forums arose with the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought funding and consulting services to enable us to compare outcomes of face-to-face forums with those of an online forum…This project allowed us to test on-site vs online forums, to create this how-to e-Pub, and to offer professional development to those wanting to learn about conducting their own forums.”

This publication is the second produced by the team for NTAE. The team’s first publication – Building Farm and Family Family Resilience in our Communities: A Guide for Extension Professionals to Engage Strategically – strengthens the ability of Cooperative Extension professionals to reduce risk and stressors and increase the resilience of farms and farming families with the context of a sociological framework.

The project was supported by a grant from the New Technologies in Agricultural Extension (NTAE) program. The team was supported in their work by the Extension Foundation. The Northeast Extension Risk Management Educational Center and the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development provided support for the on-site forums.

Additional titles have recently become available in the Extension Foundation library on topics such as creating mass media campaigns, game-based education, wellness in “tough times,” innovating curriculum, prescribed fire, emergency preparation and response, understanding food labels, and building farm and farm family resilience. You can find the entire library of publications here.

A note about our Publications:

After listening to the feedback of our Cooperative Extension partners, the new Publication bookshelf serves as a replacement for our old eFieldbook library. We greatly value and appreciate the feedback we received, including eliminating a LinkedIn login to access titles on the bookshelf. All titles are publicly available on our Connect Extension platform. Titles that were on our former eFieldbook bookshelf are in the process of being migrated.

March 7, 2022/by Aaron Weibe

New Publication Available: Wellness in Tough Times Toolkit

News, Newsroom

A new publication is available from the Extension Foundation. ”The Wellness in Tough Times Toolkit” is authored by a team from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Authors are: Susan Harris, Soni Cochran, Kerry Elsen, Kayla Hinrichs, Julien Hoffman, Michelle Krehbiel, and Brandy VanDeWalle. The project was supported by a grant from the New Technologies in Agricultural Extension (NTAE) program. The team was supported in their work by the Extension Foundation and also received funding from Nebraska Extension, the Peter Kiewit Foundation, and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy Midwest Early Recovery Fund.

The publication helps Extension professionals and community partners “start the conversation” around mental well-being. It is a toolkit of resources, stories, and lessons learned by the team and their partners as they navigated the Wellness in Tough Times (WTT) project, which supports Nebraskans affected by multiple stressors. Stressors include a continuing downturn in the agricultural economy, a year of record-breaking natural disasters that impacted the entire state, and the global pandemic.

The publication provides practical information that will be useful to Extension professionals in a wide range of programs.

The publication is availablehere. Additional titles have recently become available on topics such as innovating curriculum, prescribed fire, emergency preparation and response, understanding food labels, and building farm and farm family resilience. You can find the entire library of publications here.

A note about our Publications.

After listening to the feedback of our Cooperative Extension partners, the new Publication bookshelf serves as a replacement for our old eFieldbook library. We greatly value and appreciate the feedback we received, including eliminating a LinkedIn login to access titles on the bookshelf. All titles are publicly available on our Connect Extension platform. Titles that were on our former eFieldbook bookshelf will be migrated over soon.

November 8, 2021/by Aaron Weibe