Recent Blog Posts

The recent Wiser on Wednesday workshop offered hands-on training for the Knowledge Exchange's new custom report builder, the Knowledge Explorer. Participants learned the basics of building a report, key tool features, and the many data options available. The co-hosts were Stacy Cochran and Katie Phillips, program managers from the Knowledge Exchange (KX), and Brian Butler and Valerie Kohlwey from the Learning and Organizational Development (LOD). Check out the Knowledge Builder to pull data for your community. Here is the session recording. Session PowerPoint.

Art creates space for communities to engage in dialogue using creative materials and symbolic devices bridging science and technology with social and cultural experience. The origins of Earth Day are rooted in the intersection of science, society, and art. At the inaugural Earth Day in 1970 a collective environmental movement began, influenced by the ongoing Civil Rights Movement. This EPN Signature Earth Day Event featured artists, urban farmers, and community organizers who use art as a means of inquiry into the intersection of environmental and social justice issues as well of stories of resilience in the face of historical discrimination. The celebration featured a dance performance from Orlando Zane Hunter Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine of Brother(hood) Dance!, an interdisciplinary duo integrating agriculture and technology with dance. See the program overview and watch the recording.

Brad Gaolach and Martha Aitken (from the Metropolitan Center for Applied Research & Extension, Washington State University) will discuss the characteristics of all locations along the urban-rural continuum (remote, rural, regional center, suburbs, and metropolitan). Then with participation from session attedees, they'll explore how urbanization impacts our Extension work, regardless of where we are located. The Zoom session will be held Tuesday, May 9 at 12:30 p.m. ET. Join the session by using Zoom Meeting ID: 985 2978 3039. Sponsored by the ESP Urban and Culturally Diverse Aduiences Affinity Group. espnational.org

Join your urban Extension colleagues June 6-9 for the 2023 North Central Regional Conference and the biannual meeting of the NUEL Steering Committee. The conference provides an opportunity to engage with colleagues from the region and across the country as we advance urban Extension efforts in 2023. 

There will be inspiring keynotes from Dr. Danielle Y. Hairston Green and Dr. Quentin Tyler

The conference and steering committee meeting will be held at the Memorial Union on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Steering Committee Agenda (June 6-7) and Regional Conference Agenda (June 7-9)

Complete details including hotel and registration information

Art, agriculture, and advancing the relationship of Black people on land will be presented by the Environmental Professionals Network on April 19. This free event will be held at The Fawcett Center at Ohio State.
 
At 6 p.m. join Brotherhood(hood) Dance! (Orlando Zane Hunter Jr. and Ricarrdo Valentine) for a free performance integrating African diasporic dance with agricultural technology – encouraging and influencing Black growers’ relationship with land and building of community resilience through agricultural practices.
 
Following the dance performance, Dr. Tiffany Bourgeois, assistant professor of Arts Management at Ohio State, will relate Black on Earth to her scholarship, practice of growing food, and use of creative inquiries into art, racial justice, agriculture, and the creation of green community spaces. Jera Oliver and Adrienne Williams, co-founders of the Growing and Growth Collective, will join Dr. Bourgeois on stage for a conversation about connecting the arts, agriculture, and community using culturally relevant and evidence-based programming.
 
To view a detailed agenda, speaker bios, and register for this free performance and keynote address in-person or through an EPN virtual livestream production, please visit go.osu.edu/epnApr23.
 
This is a public event, feel free to share this with your networks.

Strong community partnerships can significantly increase the impact of Extension programs, yet many new Extension professionals may have limited experience or knowledge of developing community partnerships. This webinar presented by Epsilon Sigma Phi (ESP) will offer strategies for developing, maintaining, and leveraging community partnerships to increase the impact of Extension programs. The presenters were: Jared Hawkins, Iota Chapter, Utah and team members: Lendel Narine, Lisa Schainker, Elizabeth Cohen. and Sheriden Hansen. Here is the webinar recording.

The housing system functions at various scales, but there’s often a significant mismatch between where housing policy is made and where housing markets function. After all, most people don’t choose where to work or live based on the boundaries of a local government, yet housing policy is so intertwined with local zoning and subsidies (including federal subsidies that flow through to local bodies), that much of the focus of housing policy, research, and advocacy is on local jurisdictions. And though central cities are often the focus of affordability policies and investments, suburbs are often larger and have more opportunities for economic mobility and so have a critical role to play in a regional market’s housing affordability. Read more.

Sourced from Urban Institute

The Community Engaged Scholar Award recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated co-created engaged scholarship that has positively impacted communities. Community Engaged Scholars have made significant contribution to Ohio State's culture of engagement, further establishing, and strengthening the institution's commitment to communities.

Timothy McDermott, Assistant Professor, Extension Educator at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences/Extension

Extension is an outreach arm of the university, engaging our community using research-based information to positively impact residents lives. Dr. McDermott impacts through agriculture and its opportunities. He delivers neighborhood and place-based outreach, free of charge, in economically disadvantaged communities of color, primarily to BIPOC, New American, immigrant and refugee client residents and their children through the development of impactful programs, committed partnerships, and new friendships.

He co-led The Buckeye ISA project, a 2022 Ohio State High Impact Program awardee where he taught families with children in the Linden, South Side, near East Side, Hilltop and Franklinton neighborhoods how to grow their own food for personal and family food security. Outputs of this project included 124 new family farmers trained, 85 classes with 2,500 attendees, and $1,533,889.31 dollars leveraged locally in government funding, materials donation, monetary donations, volunteerism time, and grants.

He engages students and teachers in schools through STEM-based Ag in the Classroom programs creating indoor and outdoor agricultural experiential learning laboratories for the purpose of workforce development. McDermott has engaged over 80 schools including Columbus City, Reynoldsburg, Whitehall, The Ohio School for the Deaf and charter schools Columbus Adventist Academy, Midnimo Linden Academy and KIPP. He leveraged $450,000 in funding from USDA NIFA, Scotts-Miracle Gro, and the OSU Office of Diversity and Inclusion to provide materials and knowledge support to mitigate participation barriers by teachers that has engaged over 50,000 Franklin County youth.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the availability of up to $9.5 million for Compost and Food Waste Reduction (CFWR) pilot projects for fiscal year 2023. The cooperative agreements support projects that develop and test strategies for planning and implementing municipal compost plans and food waste reduction plans. They are part of USDA’s broader efforts to support urban agriculture. Read the news release.  

Sourced from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

Earlier this month, USDA announced it would provide assistance to producers who have faced discrimination in its farm lending programs. Specifically, USDA intends to allocate $2.2 billion by the end of the year and will work with qualified 501(c)3 entities to help with this process.  Read the full USDA press release here.

While much information remains unknown,
this is a big opportunity for BIPOC farmers to access much-needed debt relief.

USDA is seeking to partner with community-based organizations in historically underserved communities that have relationships with underserved farmers and food producers to provide outreach to potential applicants. USDA is asking interested organizations to express interest in an email to AskUSDA@usda.gov by March 31.

For our part, Wallace Center submitted a request to USDA to be included in the process of distributing funds as equitably and efficiently as possible and advocate for these funds to go to BIPOC organizations and farmers. We'll share what we learn as more information becomes available.

If you're interested in learning more about partnering with USDA in these efforts, email AskUSDA@usda.gov by March 31 expressing your interest.

Sourced from The Wallace Center

Pages