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The United States has long welcomed people from distant shores. Ohio currently welcomes thousands of immigrants and refugees each year.  According to the Office of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." In Ohio, most refugees have been resettled in Franklin, Cuyahoga, Montgomery, and Summit Counties. Resettlement agencies, religious organizations, and community groups are critical to helping persons adjust to their new communities by assisting with the most immediate needs of finding homes, developing English language skills, and medical care. These same organizations also assist with long term challenges such as job training. Immigrants are defined as “those who have entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident.” In a recent report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs entitled “Growing the Heartland: How Immigrants Offset Population Decline and an Aging Workforce in Midwest Metropolitan Cities” stated that while much of the Midwest suffered net population loss between 2000-2009, the Akron, OH metropolitan area (Summit and Stark County) gained over 9,000 new residents and 54% of this was due to immigrants and refugees settling in the area. People from this population are starting businesses, buying homes, and increase the local economy. In some counties, such as Cuyahoga and Montgomery, Ohio State University Extension has worked with organizations that help refugees and immigrants develop job skills via agri-businesses, such as farms and compost facilities. Immigrants and refugees are changing the landscape of our Ohio cities, can help reverse population loss, and are becoming vibrant members of our communities. How can we best embrace and support our newest neighbors? For more information: https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/publication/growing-heartland-how-immigrants-offset-population-decline-and-aging-workforce-midwest http://jfs.ohio.gov/refugee/index.stm Reviewed by: David Crawford, Educator III Stark County Extension Director & 4-H Youth Development

Many large universities are located in America’s largest cities. Leaders at these universities recognize their impact on surrounding communities. In many instances, multiple partnerships between cohorts of universities and local communities address key issues and reach large audiences. For example, key initiatives focus on food security, health, and accessibility to higher education. The Ohio State University connects with people living and working in urban communities. OSU is distinct in that it is a: Land-Grant University (LGU) As a land-grant university, Ohio State has campus research centers throughout the state and Extension offices in each of Ohio's 88 counties. Urban Serving Universities (USU) USU members are public urban research universities that are located in metropolitan areas with populations of 450,000 or greater. They demonstrate a commitment to their urban areas. Carnegie-Engaged University OSU was recognized for its extensive engagement programming and how its mission, culture, curriculum and resources are structured to support high-impact community engagement. Member of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU) For the past year, administrators and representatives form OSU's 15 colleges have convened to collectively advance OSU's urban mission. More to come... What co-discovery projects are you involved with in Ohio's largest cities? Reviewed By: Julie Fox and Brian Raison Ph.D. Associate Professor, Extension Educator Community Development, Miami County Ohio.

Metropolitan and rural America are highly connected and interdependent. To succeed, metropolitan America needs a healthy and sustainable rural economy and culture, and in turn rural America needs vibrant, well-functioning cities and suburbs to thrive and flourish (Dabson, 2007). Creating Opportunity and Prosperity Through Strengthening Rural-Urban Connections contains case studies on efforts underway across the country to support rural-urban connection. This issue brief, from The National Association of Development Organizations (NADO), was developed and funded by the NADO Research Foundation, through a sub-grant with the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). If you're interested in urban-rural research and policy, check out Isserman's article in the International Regional Science Review, 28, 4: 465-499 (October 2005), In the National Interest: Defining Rural and Urban Correctly in Research and Public Policy. OSU Extension in the City's newest working group is Sustainable Cities, led by Myra Moss. While there are numerous sustainability definitions and indexes, one thing remains constant -- there is value in exploring the connections between neighborhoods, cities, counties, and states.

On Tuesday, April 7th, there was an urban extension webinar, titled "Delivering Extension Programs to the City". The presentation was given by Dr. Jennifer Tiffany, Director of Outreach and Community Engagement at Cornell University's Cooperative Extension - New York City. The purpose of the presentation was to explain the ways in which Cornell Extension is able to impact a city as large as New York City, and share strategies that Extension in other states can use for their urban programming. New York City, as of the 2010 census, had 8.2 million residents. The estimated population as of 2014 is roughly 8.5 million, and the metropolitan area population exceeds 20 million residents. The amount of people, per Extension staff member, is approximately 1 to 160,000, which is cause for a different approach than might be handled in a rural county. Another obstacle that Extension New York City faces is how far away Cornell is from the population base. Ithaca New York, is a four hour drive from NYC, making "day trips" inconvenient to say the least. All of these barriers have created a need for strategic planning on behalf of the Extension offices in the City. A factor that has been beneficial to Cornell Extension in NYC is the presence of Cornell in the city, as there are multiple colleges within the university that are present, and have partnered with Extension, assisting their programming in a multitude of ways. The motto of NYC Extension is "bridging research and community needs." To do this, they have made a directed effort in creating partnerships, connections, and long term collaborations with local entities and groups. These relationships are often informal, on more of a word-of-mouth basis, but there are also many formal connections. These partnerships extend to proactively address the growing concerns within the city, and have resulted in accessing different groups of people, mostly first generation Americans, that were previously unreachable. By focusing on particular community based localization and specific neighborhoods, they have been able to develop a certain level of trust that enables ling term programming, and diversifies connections. All of these endeavors have been in the pursuit of sustainable Extension work in cities. For NYC, this has been being able to adapt programming, sustain change, and sustain processes of incubation and innovation that can be handed off to well-developed programs and partners when it is time to start a new program. This model has been crucial to the continued success of Extension in NYC, and should been seen as a catalyst for program development in urban areas across the country.

Relevance to Ohio

Comparing OSU Extension to Cornell Extension New York is a difficult task. Both are top 7 states by population, but the similarities end there. New York has the large majority of its population concentrated in one part of the state, which is a significant distance from the Land Grant University, Cornell. Ohio has major cities in three corners of the state, with the largest city in the center containing the Land Grant University. There is still a great amount of information that learned from NYC Extension, especially for the urban areas in Ohio. OSU Extension still has a considerable ratio of educators to people in counties containing major cities. Below are the six counties that contain the largest populations in the state, along with the ratios of people per program staff member (Educator, Program Coordinator, Program Assistant) Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) - 1/75,000 Franklin County (Columbus) - 1/90,000 Hamilton County (Cincinnati) - 1/80,000 Lucas County (Toledo) - 441,815 - 1/49,000 Summit County (Akron) - 1/135,000 Montgomery County (Dayton) - 1/38,000 Although not as extreme as the ratios in NYC, these are still overwhelming to comprehend. Assuming that an employee would reach a substantial fraction of these numbers is unrealistic, but it speaks to the importance of maximizing the potential of OSU Extension within the most populous counties. This is a great example of why partnership based programming is very important. A small group of educators can be extremely productive, and not make a dent on the counties they serve. With partnerships, connections, and an extensive list of dedicated volunteers, they are able to both impact large numbers of people, as well as continue to develop current and future programs. Urban Extension is different all across the country. While there are plenty of similarities within programming, the diversity that every city has eliminates the possibility of a "cookie cutter" approach. By exploring the ways other states manage Extension in their cities, we are able to expand our knowledge of programming, assisting both project development, and professional growth. You can listen to the webinar in its entirety here.     Written by James Stiving, Program Assistant, Ohio State University Reviewed by Julie Fox, PhD