Celebrating Successes and Exploring New Opportunities

Lake Champlain 2016-06-30More than 400 years ago, a Frenchman, Samuel de Champlain, encountered the lake and land surrounding what would later be named after him, Lake Champlain. Earlier this week, Extension CD and Natural Resource professionals converged on this same part of the country in Burlington, Vermont for the first ever joint NACDEP-ANREP conference.

After a virtual welcome from NIFA director Sonny Ramaswamy, participants engaged in a wide range of sharing and learning opportunities. Much of the focus could be centered around the symbiosis between CD and natural resources, with the goal of both vibrant communities and a healthy environment.

More than a dozen OSUE-CD professionals could be counted among the project, paper, and poster presenters and OSUE-CD attendance was at or near an all-time high. We honored outgoing board secretary Julie Fox and welcomed incoming board treasurer Nancy Bowen. We also congratulated national award winner Brian Raison for his work with educational technologies. After 3+ days of sessions, tours, team building and learning, many have returned home to celebrate independence.

NACDEP 2018 announcementIt was by all accounts one of the best NACDEP conferences yet. But, perhaps most exciting of all, we were able to formally invite our colleagues throughout the country to the 2018 NACDEP conference to be held in Cleveland, O-H-I-O! If you are interested in helping with the 2018 event, please contact me or David Civittolo.

Greg Davis is the Assistant Director for OSU Extension, Community Development.

Summertime, and the living’s easy…

Ok, so maybe summertime doesn’t give most of us reprieve from long hours and a constant barrage of emails, but it sure seems to make those things more tolerable. And if you’re wise enough to take some time for yourself and get outside, you can almost feel the stress melt away. Personally, I can’t think of a better way to accomplish this than a trip to Lake Erie, Ohio’s greatest natural resource.

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The view from my temporary office at Stone Lab on Gibraltar Island near Put-in-Bay, Ohio.

I admit to some bias, as I’m writing this from beautiful Gibraltar Island while teaching the Lake Erie Sport Fishing course at Stone Lab. But there really is something for everyone up here on the north shore. How about a trip to Cedar Point, recognized as one of the best amusement parks in the world?  If adrenaline isn’t your thing, how about visiting one of the many local wineries popping up along the Lake Erie shore?

Into history? Come to Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island and check out Perry’s monument and learn how pivotal this part of Ohio was in the War of 1812. And make sure to stop by the Aquatic Visitors Center run by Ohio Sea Grant & Stone Lab. If you come on a Wednesday, make time to take the tour of Stone Lab and say hi to us. The tour runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the $10 fee supports student scholarships.

And of course there’s the fishing and boating. There’s a great resource available from our friends at Coastal Management that lets you find all the public access spots along the lake. Don’t have your own boat? Check out the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association website to find a charter captain, or call in to your destination county Visitor Bureau (like the Ottawa County Lake Erie Shores and Islands office) to see who they recommend, or get a ton of other ideas. Local bait shops are great sources of information too.

If none of these ideas suit you, don’t forget to consider the beautiful beaches, swimming, kayaking, snorkeling, paddleboards, parasailing, sailing, camping, bird watching and so many other opportunities that await you here along Lake Erie’s shore. Do yourself a favor – make the quick drive north this summer. Sometimes the water is all you need to cleanse your soul.

Tory Gabriel is the Extension Program Leader & Fisheries Outreach Coordinator for the Ohio Sea Grant College Program.

A Prescription for Health!

Doctors in Ohio are now prescribing fresh fruits and vegetables to their patients! Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Programs (FVRx) have been developed across the country with support from Wholesome Wave, a national non-profit focusing on access to and affordability of healthy, local foods in underserved communities. Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Programs are innovative solutions to treating and preventing chronic diet-related disease. These programs aim to connect individuals with diet-related illnesses to healthcare providers and farmers’ markets. The goal: to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, particularly in underserved communities, via access to such foods and the necessary financial support.

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Image credit: www.wholesomewave.org/

Produce Prescription (PRx) is a Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program in Cuyahoga County that is implemented through a broad collaboration; participants include Ohio State University Extension-Cuyahoga County, the Prevention Research Center for Healthy Neighborhoods (PRCHN) at Case Western Reserve University, and the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. Produce Prescription (PRx) in Cuyahoga County now focuses on two populations. PRx was piloted in 2014 to support expectant or new mothers (PRx Moms) and increase healthy birth outcomes. The program was expanded in 2015 to include individuals with hypertension (PRx HTN). In 2016, PRx Moms will serve 200 expectant or new moms, and PRx HTN will serve up to 450 individuals.

How it works:

  1. New or expectant mothers or individuals with hypertension are enrolled by their primary care provider as PRx participants.
  2. A primary care provider meets with participants each month to reinforce the importance of healthy eating and evaluate the patients’ nutrition goals.
  3. The provider distributes PRx vouchers worth $40 to patients during each monthly visit, assesses fruit and vegetable consumption, and tracks health outcomes.
  4. PRx vouchers are redeemed for fresh fruits and vegetables by participants at participating farmers’ markets in Cuyahoga County.
  5. Participants return to their health care provider each month to monitor goals for healthy eating and receive their monthly PRx vouchers throughout the duration of the program.

PRx programming in Cuyahoga County has had profound impacts on both public health and small to mid-sized farmers. In 2015, participants enrolled in PRx HTN increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables by nearly one serving for each and patients reported fewer weekly fast food restaurant visits. In addition, 79% of participants reported trying a new fruit or vegetable. Analysis for the 2015 PRx Moms program is still being conducted. The majority of PRx vouchers in Cuyahoga County are redeemed at 5 of the 29 participating farmers’ market locations. In 2015, over $24,000 worth of PRx vouchers were redeemed at farmers’ markets in Cuyahoga County, significantly benefiting small to mid-sized farms. PRx programming also serves as an education tool for helping Ohio Direction Card recipients learn how to stretch their SNAP dollars at farmers’ markets through the Produce Perks SNAP incentive program.

To learn more about developing a Fruit and Vegetable Prescription program, contact Amanda Osborne, County Extension Educator, Cuyahoga County & Western Reserve EERA, at osborne.414@osu.edu or 216-429-8200 ext. 212.

A matter of trust

What would you say is the most important element of any relationship? Good communication? Accountability? Honesty? Or are these characteristics and behaviors part of something larger, something much more fundamental? Perhaps, the most important thing, the bedrock that supports the foundation of all relationships, is trust.

Trust 2016-06-09Countless scholars, experts and ordinary folks throughout history have touted the importance of building and maintaining trust. Noted educator and author, the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey, often wrote about its importance to relationship building. “Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” Covey continues, “When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.” When individuals trust each other, they have empathy for one another, forgive easily, and give each other the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, trust is one of those gifts that can be easily taken for granted. Trust is built over time, when intentions, words and actions align. Yet like a dry forest in the path of a raging wildfire, it can be destroyed in just a moment, damaging relationships, undermining teams, and negatively affecting performance and satisfaction.

So, how can we be sure that our intentions, words and actions are in alignment? We can refer to the “4 Cores of Credibility” outlined by Covey’s son, Stephen M.R. Covey, in the book The speed of trust: The one thing that changes everything:

  • Integrity – being open and honest; keeping commitments; and standing for your beliefs
  • Intent – examining and refining your motivations; declaring your intent; and choosing win-win solutions
  • Capabilities – identifying your strengths and then continuing to develop and leverage those in a spirit of lifelong learning; creating a path of action by setting and working on goals
  • Results – taking responsibility for results; expecting to be successful; learning from mistakes

To learn more about OSU Extension’s educational programs focusing on leadership and organizational development, visit go.osu.edu/seekexcellence.

Becky Nesbitt is an Assistant Professor and Extension Educator in Community Development with OSU Extension. 

SMALL TOWNS, BIG DREAMS: Do you have what it takes?

Small Town 2016-06-02Many small towns want to improve their current condition for a number of reasons. What we often hear from residents and leaders is: “We are tired of our “best and brightest” leaving the area for college and never returning because we have no jobs/careers for them,” or “Our retired residents have to seek appropriate housing in other communities because there isn’t any here,” or “The youth that remain are not “work ready” and opioid use among them has become a real problem.” Some of these towns have existing community or economic development plans that, while they might offer viable solutions, were never fully implemented (the old “the plan sits on the shelf” complaint).

So, what’s a town to do? Here are some suggestions based on my experience working with many communities throughout Ohio:

Overcome fractured goals by building inclusion into your community’s dialogue about the future:

If you are a local leader, have you discovered your residents’ vision of the future? I use the word “discover” because, chances are your residents already have a picture of what they would like your town to be. And, although there may be some divergent views, there is also a core set of beliefs and desires that can lead to consensus to set major goals. The task of local leadership then becomes setting the stage for open and inclusionary dialogue about the future. Inclusion is important. By reaching out to all sectors of the community to include their desires and hopes, a shared vision of the future can be discovered.

Engage a broad range of residents in both planning and implementation:

When residents are engaged in determining their community’s future, they become invested in results and clearly discover their place in making the plan a reality. By taking actions every day through their workplace, community organizations, leadership roles, businesses and their own personal life, they work individually and collectively to achieve success. Time spent engaging residents results in less time spent “selling” the plan to the community, leading to faster implementation. When the community is engaged throughout the process, there develops a much larger base of volunteers to draw upon to move goals forward.

Identify outcomes you want to achieve, and develop indicators of success to use in measuring progress toward reaching these outcomes:

A community plan is a living document. It is important to monitor progress toward reaching goals and modify strategies as needed. Indicators of success developed during planning and goal setting are used to stay on track with plan implementation and make changes as needed. An indicator should be easy to understand, relevant and measurable. It should be widely shared with the community, with progress reported at least annually. Indicators provide a way for residents and organizations to see the results of their contribution toward community goals.

An example of how this inclusionary focus may play out in a community is as follows:

  • Together the community sets a vision and goal of retaining youth that receive post-secondary degrees.
  • During the inclusionary planning process an objective is established to expand job opportunities in the medical field.
  • Using an inclusionary method to establish indicators helps various sectors of the community discover their roles in reaching the shared vision and implementing objectives.

So as an example, perhaps the high school career counselor presents medical careers as possible paths to pursue. Economic developers accept the development of a business park for medical industries. Builders identify construction of senior housing alternatives like condos and assisted living. Medical providers participate in local job fairs.

By building inclusion into community planning at every stage of the process, from development to implementation, big dreams can be achieved by small towns.

(Submitted by Myra Moss, Associate Professor and Extension Educator, Heart of Ohio EERA)