Urban Serving Universities

National Urban Issues Identification Survey

The National Urban Extension Leaders (NUEL) is leading a national urban issues identification and prioritization process for Extension. As part of this process you are invited to take a few minutes to complete a survey to prioritize a set of urban issues that Extension is, could or should be working on in the North Central states. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. The information collected will be used to set regional and national urban issues, develop national urban issue teams, and focus content for future regional and national urban conferences and staff professional development. Follow this link to the Survey.

Sourced from: NUEL

Learn How This City Increased Access to Entrepreneurship Support

Mayor Deana Holiday Ingraham of East Point, Georgia, knows firsthand entrepreneurship is the key to a thriving community. Understanding entrepreneurship’s impact on people is something she learned from growing up watching the positive influence of her father’s small business, a family construction company, on their community. “He created jobs. He provided job training by literally teaching people skills on the job. He helped people during times of need and helped them support their families,” Ingraham explained. Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: Cities Speak

Ohio Victory Gardens – Let’s Grow Ohio

Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Department of Agriculture are partnering to encourage people to plant a fall victory garden. Dubbed Ohio Victory Gardens – Let’s Grow Ohio, the statewide project will be piloted in five Ohio counties this fall: Lucas, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Clark, and Franklin.  The project will include educational programs targeted to fall vegetable gardening throughout Ohio and distribution of free seeds in the five pilot counties.

In addition, they are establishing a u.osu.edu/ohiovictorygardens website to gather together  numerous resources around the state focused on vegetable gardening. They are in need of any resources that either you or your county have created (videos, fact sheets, etc.) as well as those you use regularly for vegetable gardening and preservation, etc. See the following list for resource categories:

  • Pots and Plots (soils, planning the garden, season extension, container gardens)
  • Insects!Diseases!Critters! OH My! (pest management information)
  • Buzz about Pollinators (information about pollinators)
  • Seeds – Come and Get Them (seed distribution information, pilot testing in six counties in August and all counties in spring)
  • Donating Your Victory (food pantries, food banks, etc.)
  • Cook ‘N Can It! (What to do with your Victory (preservation, recipes, other)
  • Show off the Good, The Bad & The Ugly (people submit photos)

Please contact Associate Professor, Pamela Bennett if you would like to add to the resource list. Follow this link to learn more.

Registration is Now Open for Leadership in the City

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.

Researchers Aim to Create Thriving Agricultural Systems in Urbanizing Landscapes

Agricultural systems in metropolitan regions and in adjacent, non-metro counties account for more than two-thirds of the United States’ net farm income and 97% of net farm income in Pennsylvania. But, can food systems in these urbanized landscapes remain economically and environmentally sustainable in the face of development pressure and perceived disamenities associated with agriculture? A team led by Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences researchers is almost a year into a five-year study aimed at providing answers to this question. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Morning Ag Clips

Ohio State Research Boosts Smart Columbus

It’s been four years since the city of Columbus was declared the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation Smart Cities Challenge. Now, several grant-supported projects by The Ohio State University are reaching their conclusions. Researchers at Ohio State agree the work for a smarter Columbus is just getting started.

David Cooke, senior associate director of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) and one of the university partners with Smart Columbus, said the lessons learned from the program will have a long-term impact. “What [the smart cities grant] brought to the city of Columbus is to really put us at the forefront of mobility and smart cities research on a national scale,” Cooke said. “[CAR has been] engaged in automotive research for 30 years doing a subset of this work, very specifically on vehicle design and systems development, but mobility is much broader than just the vehicle.” Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: The Ohio State University

Job Posting: Urban Agriculture Extension Educator, North Carolina

North Carolina Cooperative Extension recently posted an Urban Agriculture Extension Agent position for Small Farms and Local Foods located in Durham county, an urban area with more than 300,000 residents. Follow this link to view more details about the position.

Sourced from: North Carolina State University

Leading Edge Dialogue Series: Fulfilling the Land Grant University Mission

The Western Center for Metropolitan Extension and Research has released the next white paper in their Leading Edge Dialogue series: Fulfilling the Land Grant University Mission: Extension and Community-Based Applied Research, co-authored by Lou Swanson (Colorado State University). Major themes of the discussion included: recognizing Extension’s emerging role-shift into inter- and multi-disciplinary work across the university system; establishing Extension as a co-creative partner with other public institutions in the work of community development and applied research; and exploring methodologies to advance workforce development and urban-rural interdependencies through programming. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: The Western Center for Metropolitan Extension and Research