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Every year, the OSU Extension Strategic Initiatives and Urban Engagement unit publishes a City Highlights report showcasing the urban impact from Ohio’s 15 largest counties. This year, a PDF highlights how urban counties address priority areas and a story map allows users to click an interactive map to view stories about OSU Extension's presence across the state. Both versions can to be used as tools for a resource, presentation to stakeholders, or to promote urban Extension.2019 Highlights Report Sceenshot

If you would like to add updates from your county in 2019, it is not too late. Please contact Amelia at Michaels.97@osu.edu with any photos or impacts you would like to share. Follow this link to learn more about City Highlights.

Follow this link to view the 2019 City Highlights Report. Follow this link to view the interactive story map.
The Center for Community Solutions, in partnership with Advocates for Ohio’s Future, will host webinars each Friday at 1 p.m. where a series of advocates will discuss what COVID-19 means for policy and what potential policy changes could mean to you.  They invite you to join them Friday, May 1 at 1 p.m. to learn how counties and their caseworkers have responded and adapted to the pandemic. The webinar will touch on the challenges each are facing and what new ones they anticipate will pop up in the future. Follow this link to learn more. Sourced from: The Center for Community Solutions
The NUEL North Central Region Network Conference planning team invites you to join your urban colleagues for two-half days (May 18-19) of engaging learning experiences presented by urban Extension professionals. The conference will be held via Zoom and include more than 20 presentations highlighting the work of your North Central urban Extension colleagues. Conference Goal: To build a network of Urban Extension professionals in the North Central Region that leverages the knowledge and life experiences of the participants. Conference Objectives: • Provide an affordable and high-quality professional development experience for Urban Extension colleagues in the North Central Region. • Showcase Urban Extension models that are successful. • Leverage the knowledge and life experiences of Urban Extension professionals to improve work in our respective urban communities. Follow this link to learn more and to register for the $20 Conference. Registration deadline is May 8. Sourced from: NUEL
As COVID-19 spread throughout the country, state and local leaders stepped up to help their employees and constituents respond and navigate this unprecedented situation. From taking entire government operations remote to rapidly modernizing legacy technology and processes, these leaders created a new normal in crisis response. Although many jurisdictions may have reached their respective infection peaks, the crisis is far from over and requires new guidance and practices on how to navigate the weeks and months ahead. Enter the Crisis Response Initiative, a new program focused on helping equip state and local leaders with the news, tactics, best practices, and industry resources necessary to respond to any crisis and better prepare their agencies for the post-pandemic world. Join a rapid 30-minute webinar to kickoff of this new initiative – and learn ways for your government agency and company to plug-in. Follow this link to learn more. Sourced from: Government Technology
"Sometimes, it is okay to feel out of control. Sometimes, it is okay to say goodbye. Sometimes you must walk away from what was and walk into what will be. We have all tried to hide away for as long as we can but, one day we must confront the truth and come to the realization that our world is illuminated by the light we cast. As we look forward to what will come in the next few weeks and the institutionalization of new protocol to keep us all safe, I must admit that I am fearful. I am afraid that what I once knew will no longer be. That relationships I had built may have faded away. I am worried that I will have lost some skills and abilities that I once possessed. I am nervous that I have learned only to live with myself and have forgotten how to live with others. Fear is healthy. Fear is a reminder of your drive to survive." - Tony Staubach, Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development, Hamilton County, Ohio. Follow this link to watch the recording. Sourced from: Hamilton County Extension
Community gardens and urban farms seem to sprout up out of nowhere. You can find okra growing at churches, squash at middle schools, and green peppers on apartment rooftops. Urban farming isn’t a new trend, but its appeal continues to cultivate interest across the Commonwealth as more nontraditional farmers look to sow seeds in inner city communities. “Urban farming has experienced a rise in popularity in recent years, and there is a growing need for more academically trained urban agriculture professionals to serve in this sector,” said Dr. Leonard Githinji, sustainable and urban agriculture Cooperative Extension specialist at Virginia State University (VSU). To fill this need, Githinji leads VSU’s Sustainable Urban Agriculture Certificate Program, which he began with his colleagues at VSU and Virginia Tech three years ago. “This certificate program provides the public access to a university-based curriculum taught by university professors so that graduates can take what they’ve learned and practiced back to their communities to increase access to fresh, local fruits and vegetables,” Githinji said. Follow this link to read more. Sourced from: Virginia Cooperative Extension
Many people infected with COVID-19 show little to no symptoms of the disease, so researchers at The Ohio State University are creating a blood test that could detect the true extent of the pandemic. The researchers have also assisted Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center physicians who have created a treatment for severe cases of COVID-19, using the blood plasma of people who had COVID-19 and beat it. Both the blood test for COVID-19 and the plasma treatment for those suffering from the respiratory disease could be critical in understanding and controlling the current pandemic. Follow this link to learn more. Sourced from: CFAES
For the past 10 years, Ruchika Prakash has been studying the benefits of mindfulness techniques for older adults and those with chronic health conditions like multiple sclerosis. The results have been promising. With the COVID-19 pandemic upending people’s lives, Prakash, who is an associate professor of psychology at The Ohio State University, saw an opportunity to help more people learn mindfulness to deal with their stress. Prakash will offer a free, online 8-week webinar for the public on mindfulness meditation. The first weekly session begins Wednesday, April 22, at noon. Other sessions will follow each Wednesday at noon. Mindfulness meditation involves cultivating the practice of intentionally paying attention to the present moment in a nonjudgmental and accepting manner, Prakash said. "Right now, it is more relevant than ever. We’re all thinking about how this pandemic is going to unfold and about the future of our country and future of the world,” she said. Follow this link to learn more. Sourced from: The Ohio State University
Although Urban Arts Space and Hopkins Hall Gallery remain closed according to university guidance and for safety reasons, their online exhibitions and social media programming are off to a healthy start. Join Urban Arts Space every Saturday at 1 p.m. on their Facebook page, to view a livestream "Crafternoons!" art demonstration, or view online exhibitions: the Department of Design Spring Exhibition and the Department of Art Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Projects exhibition. Follow this link to learn more. Sourced from: Urban Art Space
The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 in Philadelphia changed Thomas Jefferson’s thinking. Always anti-urban in his social outlook, the future president now began to formulate a radical plan for the development of new states and new communities west of the Appalachian mountains. In an age before antibiotics and systematic vaccination, Jefferson sought to design healthier communities on the tabula rasa, the blank slate, of the American heartland. Some, but not all, of Jefferson’s ideas were adopted as the American frontier moved west. Jefferson lived through one of the most serious plagues in American history. The capital of the United States was located in Philadelphia in the 1790s while the new U.S. capital was being planned and laid out in the District of Columbia. Jefferson was serving (reluctantly) as America’s first secretary of state and lived in one of the suburbs of Philadelphia in the summer of 1793 when yellow fever swept through the capital. Follow this link to read more. Sourced from: Governing

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