Engaged Ohioians, Vibrant Communities

The University of Chicago Hosts Second Annual Urban October

This month marks the second annual Urban October at the University of Chicago, a monthlong initiative that highlights policy leaders, public officials, and leading researchers from Chicago and around the world who are confronting the most profound challenges facing global cities.

Such urban challenges have only increased in 2020. The basic infrastructure of global cities—including public transportation, densely populated office and residential districts, and overburdened public health systems—have made them especially vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Wildfires in California have worsened air quality for millions of residents on the West Coast. A summer of public reckoning on racial justice and policing in major American cities has resulted in mass demonstrations in the streets. Meanwhile, climate change is expected to prompt population shifts in the United States and abroad, widening the gulf between the rich and the poor and accelerating urbanization. Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: UChicago News

Employment Opportunity: OSU Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development, Summit County, Ohio

The 4-H Positive Youth Development Educator works collaboratively with county and state teams and with local agency leaders and volunteers. This includes implementing and supporting a comprehensive volunteer system through identification, selection, orientation, training, utilizing, recognizing, and evaluating of adult and youth volunteers to support local 4-H delivery methods (e.g. community clubs, after-schools clubs, camps, school enrichment, etc.). Responsible for a broad range of basic to complex duties that could include, but are not limited to, maintaining relationships with 4-H club and committee members, providing guidance and/or leadership for 4-H Youth Development programming targeted to local and regional needs, and engaging youth to build leadership, citizenship, and life skills. Utilize appropriate methods both formal and informal, of community assessment to identify educational needs and opportunities of local community. Design, implement, and teach educational programming, based on these needs, to groups and individuals comprised of adults and/or youth.  Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Jobs at OSU

Take A Break! Live Healthy, Live Well Challenge

Join Jenny Lobb, Family and Consumer Sciences Educator, Franklin County, for the Take A Break! Live Healthy, Live Well fall email wellness challenge. The challenge will begin the week of October 19, 2020 and run through November 25, 2020. Participants will receive two email messages weekly with tips and encouragement on topics such as play, rest, creativity, nourishment, and more.

Follow this link to learn more.
Follow this link to sign up.

Sourced from: OSU Extension, Franklin County

Urban October

Urban October is an opportunity for everyone to be part of the conversation about the challenges and opportunities created by the fast rate of change in our cities and towns. Each October, everyone interested in sustainable urbanization from national and local governments to universities, NGOs and communities is encouraged to hold or participate in activities, events, and discussions.

The month began with World Habitat Day on October 5 and will end with World Cities Day on October 31.

This year’s World Habitat Day global observance was held virtually, and was hosted by the city of Surabaya, in Indonesia while other celebrations of World Habitat Day were held round the globe using the theme Housing For All: A Better Urban Future.

World Cities Day 2020 is the seventh global celebration since it was launched on October 31, 2014 in Shanghai, China. The theme is Better City, Better Life and the sub-theme for this year is Valuing our communities and cities, and the Global Observance will be hosted in Nakuru, Kenya.

Today 55% of the world’s population live in cities and towns and the number is growing every day. The United Nation’s Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Sustainable Development Goal 11 “to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable” puts sustainable urbanization at the center of the global agendas for development. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: UN-Habitat

You Can Name Our Blog

We’d like your suggestions for a new name for our urban Extension blog. We will be moving the Extension in the City blog from u.osu.edu over to our website and have an opportunity to name the blog. Each week we add four articles and send them out in the news digest. The blog entries range from happenings in your county to national news impacting your work in urban communities. You are also welcome to submit peer-reviewed articles that you can count as creative works.

If you have an idea for the blog name, please send it to Michelle Gaston.6@osu.edu by October 15.

UN Secretary-General’s Policy Brief on COVID-19 in an Urban World

The UN Secretary-General has launched the UN Comprehensive Response to COVID-19 to save lives, protect societies, recover better. As part of the response, the UN Secretary-General is issuing policy briefs to provide ideas to governments on how to address the consequences of this crisis and COVID-19 in an urbanizing world is part of this series. The Policy Brief describes how cities can manage the pandemic and emerge as the hubs of energy, resilience, and innovation that make them such vibrant and appealing places for many to live. It also looks at how the pandemic has exposed deep inequalities in how people live in cities, and how cities serve their residents, with the most vulnerable suffering the most. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: UN-Habitat

Register for the 2021 Leadership in the City Course

Are you interested in Extension in urban areas and ready to improve your knowledge, skills, and results?

The Leadership in the City course will help you learn about leadership, networks, innovation, and management. The 5-month online program will prepare you, as an Extension professional, to be relevant locally, responsive statewide, and recognized nationally.

The goal of this comprehensive professional development program is to improve the knowledge, skills, and results of university Extension professionals working in large cities. You will connect with peers from around the country to engage in critical thinking and creative problem solving to become better prepared to be relevant locally, responsive statewide, and recognized nationally.

The program was developed based on a foundation of entrepreneurial theory and urban Extension practice and will build upon existing leadership experiences, management training, and Extension professional development.

You will learn from experienced leaders; apply what you learn in your city, region, or state; engage in critical thinking and creative problem solving; and participate in online collaborative learning. Each competency-based module incorporates interactive digital delivery and the flipped classroom model for active learning and engagement.

Upon completion of the course, you will be better prepared to:

  • Evaluate, illustrate, and build upon their four dimensions as an entrepreneurial leader (traits and drivers; competencies and experiences).
  • Navigate as a leader working in the urban and university contexts.
  • Implement elements of entrepreneurial organizations.

The investment in the program is $500 plus a commitment to work hard and have fun investing 8-14 hours per month. The 5-month online course begins in January 2021. If you have multiple participants from the same institute, you are each entitled to a $100 discount (Promotion code: LITC21-MULT).

This course is led by Dr. Julie Fox from the Ohio State University Extension.

Complete details and registration information can be found at https://cityextension.osu.edu/leadership. The deadline for registration is November 30.

Confronting Prejudice: How to Protect Yourself and Help Others

Dealing with prejudice—whether it’s microaggressions, bias, or discrimination—is physically and psychologically demanding. But avoiding it is not always an option. “Not everyone has the luxury of leaving a prejudicial workplace or neighborhood,” said Natasha Thapar-Olmos, PhD, Program Director at OnlinePsychology@Pepperdine,  “But there might be things we can do and some tools to cope.”

So what is Prejudice?

Word choice matters. We often use words like prejudice, bias, and bigotry interchangeably, and there are aspects to each of these concepts that overlap. But when addressing prejudice, it’s important to understand some of the subtle distinctions. To understand prejudice, we also need to understand stereotypes. A stereotype is an oversimplified and widely held standardized idea used to describe a person or group. A form of social categorization, stereotypes are a shortcut for the brain when grouping information. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Pepperdine