Newsletter | Extension in the City

Registration is Now Open for the 2020 OSU Extension Annual (Virtual) Conference

November 11 202011/12/2020

Registration is now open for the 2020 OSU Extension Annual (Virtual) Conference!

You are invited to attend and participate in the 2020 OSU Extension Virtual Annual Conference – Embrace Change Together!

This 3-day 2020 virtual conference will highlight how our efforts meet today’s challenges to create a more engaged tomorrow. This conference will also showcase innovative presenters and sessions full of new ways you can engage our four tracks.

The conference is December 7-9, 2020, beginning at 8:45 a.m.

To register, you will need an approved eRequest #

All-Conference Pass: $25
Students: $10

Please register prior to Wednesday, December 2, 2020 at 11:59 p.m.
Follow this link to register.

For any questions, please contact ShaLise Simmons, Event Program Coordinator.

Survey on Practical Examples of Urban Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA)

November 11 202011/12/2020

The Friends of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (FEBA) Urban EbA Working Group has developed this survey to identify practical examples of Urban EbA planning and implementation. The Working Group, co-chaired by IUCN and PlanAdapt, brings together researchers and practitioners from the fields of urban development, EbA and Green-Grey Infrastructure to share successes and failures to help learn and improve future urban EbA initiatives in the Global South and Global North. Your participation in this survey contributes to the knowledge base of the growing area – in theory and practice – of Urban EbA. Follow this link to take the survey.

Sourced from: Friends of EbA

We (All) Need to Talk About Race: Building Extension’s Capacity for Dialogue and Action

November 4 202011/05/2020

For Extension to remain relevant to the mission of meeting the most critical community needs, we must examine the racial inequities that hold us back as institutions and lead efforts to engage diverse communities in learning about race through dialogue. Responses from participants in 26 states who joined a train-the-trainer initiative suggested that despite previous efforts, there is great need for increased education and capacity building to address racism and prioritize racial equity both within our institutions and in the communities we serve. For Extension professionals to effectively engage in this work, it is critical for administrators to show visible support. Follow this link to learn more.

Sourced from: Journal of Extension
Authors:
Eric Walcott, Government and Public Policy Specialist, Michigan State University Extension
Brian Raison, Associate Professor, Ohio State University Extension
Rachel Welborn, Associate Director, Southern Rural Development Center, Mississippi State University
Rich Pirog, Director, Center for Regional Food Systems, Michigan State University
Mary Emery, Department Head, Sociology and Rural Studies, South Dakota State University
Mike Stout, Associate Professor, Oklahoma State University
Laura Hendrix, Associate Professor, University of Arkansas
Marcia Ostrom, Associate Professor, Washington State University

Urban Gardens Growing Strong Amid COVID Pandemic

November 4 202011/05/2020

Mike Levenston stands over a half-harvested stalk of kale, eyeing the autumnal remnants slowly disintegrating into the soil. It’s a familiar scene for Levenston, an urban gardener who has been growing food and community in the garden he founded, dubbed City Farmer, for more than 40 years.

At the time, it was almost unheard of to grow food in cities, and gardens weren’t given much thought in city planning efforts. No longer: Urban gardens are thriving worldwide, especially this year as pandemic-bound city dwellers have sought sustenance in gardens, parks, and other green spaces.

“I’m there seven days a week. It’s the best place for my family to be in COVID times because it’s a garden with lots of space,” Levenston said. “We’re busier than ever because of the backyard garden craze. We sell city compost bins (and) people are picking them up every day, and (there) are a lot of new gardens (in the city).”

Canadians like their gardens, especially in 2020. A report released earlier this month by Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab found that roughly 51% of Canadians grow at least one variety of fruit or vegetable at home. Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: Morning Ag Clips

Proximity Doesn’t Benefit Just Big Cities, It’s Helping Rural Communities Weather the Economic Crisis Too

November 4 202011/05/2020

More than six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, America’s small businesses are in a prolonged struggle for survival. And like many aspects of the pandemic, this struggle is wrought with geographic disparities. The severity of the small business crisis varies by state, city, town, and even neighborhood, with businesses in areas dependent on leisure and hospitality at an especially heightened risk. Rural communities have been hit particularly hard, as many had staked their economic revival on fostering locally owned small businesses and recreation-based downtowns. The threat to rural America is compounded by relief structures that have largely lagged to reach small businesses in the hardest-hit places. Given this uneven geography of recovery, the National Main Street Center (NMSC) and Brookings’s Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking wanted to take a more granular look at how place impacts small business survival. Follow this link to read more.

Sourced from: Brookins