Sustainable Community and Economic Development: 2022
Extension Services on Climate Change Help Guide Planning and Decision Making
Relevance
Climate services—using scientific information to help with decision-making—are in increasing demand as climate change increasingly affects society and natural resources.
Response
Extension’s climate services specialist, who also serves as Maine state climatologist, provides climate and weather expertise to stakeholders and the general public. This work encompasses the production and translation of climate information to facilitate decision-making, policy, and planning that ultimately seeks to advance a healthy environment and strong economy in Maine. The climate services program of the Maine Climate Office (MCO) has been designed to meet the climate, weather data, and information needs of Maine stakeholders. These services are delivered via multiple methods, including public presentations and media interviews, contributions to Extension newsletters, service on the Maine Climate Council’s Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, contributions to climate reports and peer-reviewed publications, and by providing climate and weather data via the MCO website.
Results
Services provided through the MCO enhance public and stakeholder knowledge of climate and weather, and inform broader efforts to understand, adapt to, and mitigate climate change in Maine. The MCO website analytics show that since 2021, there have been more than 10,000 page views from 5,700 visitors, and the total number of visitors in Maine is 2,700 across 250 towns and cities.
Increasing Healthy Behaviors Through the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program
Relevance
Nationally, in 2020–2021, 17% of youth ages 10–17 were obese. In Maine, 14.6% of youth ages 10–17 were obese. Obesity rates alone do not provide a complete picture of the health of a population. Food insecurity—lack of consistent access to adequate, healthful foods—increases the risk of poor health of Maine’s children in the short and long term. In Maine, one in six children (15.9%) under the age of 18 years are experiencing food insecurity. Of those 39,990 children, 32% of households do not qualify for federal food assistance programs and must rely on charitable organizations for supplemental food.
Response
To help lower childhood obesity rates, UMaine Extension Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) delivers education to Maine’s low-income children to improve their knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes related to improving diet quality, increasing daily physical activity, and using food resource management practices to plan and shop for healthy meals and snacks. Program outcomes are measured for all youth ages 5–18 using validated pre/post-program surveys.
Results
In fiscal year 2022, 1051 youth participated in Maine EFNEP. Youth participated in an average of seven educational sessions over four months. Eighty-three percent of youth participants completed a pre- and post-survey. As a result of participating in EFNEP:
- 83% of youth improved their ability to choose foods according to current dietary guidelines or improved nutrition knowledge.
- 56% of youth improved their daily physical activity practices.
- 43% of youth used safe food handling practices more often.
- 38% of youth improved their ability to prepare simple, nutritious, affordable food.
The Maine Agricultural Mediation Program Saves Money, Properties, and Relationships
Relevance
The Maine Agricultural Mediation Program (MAMP) partners with Maine organizations, staff at Extension, and the Farm Coaching program to provide facilitated conversations and mediations throughout the agricultural community. The types of problems that farms experience are widely known, yet general knowledge of the program is less so. Major issues include farm succession, farm financing, and workplace issues.
Response
The MAMP, part of the USDA Agricultural Mediation Program, provides alternative dispute resolution through mediation to farmers, their lenders, and others directly affected by the actions of certain USDA agencies; neighbor disputes; and workplace and family disagreements that affect the farm. Mediation is voluntary and confidential and involves a trained, impartial mediator helping participants to resolve disagreements. In 2022, UMaine Extension hired a full-time professional to coordinate the MAMP, enabling the program to provide direct outreach to more than 25 organizations, provide training as part of a four-session series for service providers, promote the program, and work with others at UMaine to develop a mediation credential.
Results
The Farm Service Agency estimates the typical cost savings for a simple adverse decision case is $10,000, and as much as $40,000 can be spent on cases that extend over years. In addition to savings in staff time, savings from the MAMP to producers and/or participants include preservation of assets, properties, and relationships.
Parent Educators Encourage Reading as a Path to Build Language, Literacy, and Socio-emotional Skills in Children
Relevance
Research shows that reading aloud is one of the most important activities parents can do to help a child become a strong reader and set them on the path to success. Reading regularly with young children stimulates optimal patterns of brain development and strengthens parent-child relationships at a critical time in child development, which, in turn, builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that last a lifetime.
Response
UMaine Extension parent educators work from two offices covering five counties, and are part of a statewide network of Maine Families Home Visiting Programs. In 2022, 10 certified parent educators provided 1,949 home visits to 239 families living in five counties. Using the parents-as-teachers model, parent educators met with families in their homes and
- provided them with current information on child development and parenting,
- shared activity ideas and ways to engage and nurture their child’s optimal development, and
- provided connections and linkages to community resources.
During each home visit parent educators offered book-sharing opportunities and information about early literacy, including the importance of reading aloud. Parent educators provided free children’s books to all enrolled families, including books in French, Lingala, and Spanish for families who are non-English-speaking. Book sharing was planned for each visit and high-quality children’s books were provided each month to all participating families.
Results
Results collected show that 97% of enrolled children had a family member who reported that during a typical week, they read, told stories, and/or sang songs with their child every day.
Extension Homemakers Meet Many Community Needs
Relevance
Many communities throughout Maine face poverty, and many families are considered food insecure. Budget cuts and inflation mean that every sector of community living is affected when resources are reduced.
Response
The Maine Extension Homemakers Council has clubs in Androscoggin-Sagadahoc, Aroostook, Cumberland, Franklin, Hancock, Oxford, Somerset, and York Counties. This volunteer group identified community needs and worked to contribute both financial and volunteer hours to community partners to meet the needs of Maine’s most vulnerable citizens.
Results
In 2022, the Maine Extension Homemakers raised and donated $58,994 to civic organizations, nonprofits, and individuals throughout Maine. They also provided 12,449 hours of volunteerism within their counties and communities. In all, their community impact was valued at $377,140. The fingerprints of the efforts of the Maine Extension Homemakers can be seen in school libraries, at food pantries, in local town offices, with the Newborns in Need program, at the Home for Little Wanderers, at Hope and Justice Project shelters, in the back seats of state police cars, in hospitals and nursing homes, and in assisted living facilities. You will see marks of their volunteerism at animal shelters, at historical societies, and on the faces of people protecting themselves from COVID-19 and the flu. Extension is in our communities, thanks to the Maine Extension Homemakers.
Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN) Supports Diverse Farmers
Relevance
Mental health is an often-overlooked challenge farmers face nationwide, and an area that has not been comprehensively addressed in Maine. Farmland loss and land access issues, rising production costs, plummeting farm incomes, climate change, and, most recently, the pandemic are contributing to a mental health crisis within the farming community. Many agricultural service providers lack knowledge and understanding of how to address mental health and wellness for the farm community, how to support those in the food system who are in crisis, and how to practice self-care as they do so.
Response
In the 2018 Farm Bill, the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN) was established to support farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural workers with stress management. FRSAN offers a pathway for improving mental health awareness and access for farmers and their families. In 2021 Extension led a collaboration that received a $500,000 grant that is being used to serve farmers. We established and manage the Maine FRSAN to support farmers, farmworkers, and agricultural service providers—of land, forest, and sea—with efforts to cultivate wellness and build resilience. New partnerships were formed with organizations, and the work plan was developed by the service providers who were the project participants through small group committees for wellness funds, small grants, mental health, and training. There are more than 250 members in the network.
Results
To date the project has regranted $182,000 to nine organizations working to represent and support various agricultural producers. Some of the program grants helped pay for infrastructure to increase farm efficiency and reduce farmer stress for Somali Bantu and refugee farmers at the Somali Bantu Community Association and New American farmers at Cultivating Community. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association received funding to continue to support a monthly cross-organizational equity space for agricultural service providers. Programs such as Maine Farmland Trust helped to address financial stress within farm business planning via assistantship and grants, while the UMaine Farm Coaching team continues to provide growth and development for farmers. Maine Farm to Institution used their funding to bolster existing farmer program workshops with training and materials focused on farmers accessing institutional markets.
More than $100,000 was regranted to organizations directly serving farmers of color or indigenous land stewards. Forty farmers directly benefited through $500 stipends for mental health and wellness activities. Educational outreach was provided in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Mental health counseling was provided for farmers, and functional training assessments were provided to prevent injury, subsequent productivity loss, or long-term disability. Ten thousand dollars was allocated for the emergent need presented by possible PFAS contamination in soil and water on farms, and these funds were used to support testing.
This project is making a large impact on the conversation around mental health in agriculture. Partners from local organizations are counseling farmers who are stressed, providing infrastructure that increases the ability of farmers to reach their customers, and providing tools for land tenders to serve and honor traditional ways of growing in their communities. By strengthening the capacity of organizations, and building relationships and a service provider network focusing on farmer resilience and stress reduction, we are supporting a cultural shift to assist and meet the unique mental health needs of those who work in Maine agriculture.
Micro-credentialing through UMaine System Builds Workforce Competence and Confidence
Relevance
Extension provides valuable skills to both youth and adult learners. There is a need to provide employer-recognized evidence of trainings and skills for agricultural and other workers.
Response
In 2020 we began developing and issuing micro-credentials through the UMaine System. In 2022, these included micro-credentials and badges in Meat Cutting, Horticulture Apprenticeship, Seafood HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points), Meat and Poultry HACCP, Food Processing Sanitation, Food Safety Systems, and Facilitation.
Youth in the 4-H Communication Science program are now eligible to receive the nationally normed and recognized “Oral Communication” badge from the Education Design Lab.
There is interest from additional Extension faculty, staff, and partners, and future possible Extension micro-credentials include those in farming and agricultural skills, volunteer management, and the Master Gardener program. A full youth-to-adult pathway in aquaculture is under development and should be completed in early 2023.
Results
Earners ranged from current UMaine System students to adults in the general public. These credentials can be used to showcase skills earned through the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and are verified by the University of Maine System. Micro-credentials help earners make competencies visible, beyond what is seen on a transcript or resume; demonstrate skills in real-world settings; gain work experience and receive valuable performance feedback; stand out to employers; better articulate the skills developed to potential employers; enhance digital identity; share badges; and be recognized. All micro-credentials/badges can be shared on social media and professional sites, such as LinkedIn and the holder’s personal website, e-portfolio, or resume.
Diagnostic and Research Laboratories Apply New Technologies and Cross-Disciplinary
Relevance
The COVID-19 pandemic provided a stunning demonstration of the degree to which so many aspects of our lives are now intertwined. Wildlife health affects farm animal health affects human health. Every part of our economy was affected by the pandemic, vividly illustrating the importance of growing our understanding of today’s many agricultural threats and how to control them.
Response
The University of Maine Cooperative Extension Diagnostic and Research Laboratory occupies a 28,000-square-foot commercial laboratory building located a few miles from campus. It houses our Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, Aquatic Animal Health Lab, Arthropod Lab, and Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. This facility is the most bio-secure location within the University of Maine System. Opened in 2018, the lab brings together scientists researching animals, agriculture, insects, and plants under one roof. The unique combination of researchers provides many teaching opportunities for students, as well as premier research and outreach facilities.
Results
By allowing for research contributions to agriculture, public health, communities, and wildlife, the lab benefits Maine in a variety of ways, including protecting the natural resource- and food-based economies, adding to food safety and human health, and providing unique diagnostic and testing services to farmers, homeowners, and the public.
Maine Food and Agriculture Center Is Helping to Grow the State’s Economy
Relevance
With $5 billion in overall annual economic impact, agriculture, commercial fishing, and food processing are some of Maine’s largest, fastest-growing, and most promising industries. UMaine Extension’s research and outreach programs seek to move these industries forward through cross-disciplinary collaboration that identifies lasting solutions to issues that inhibit them.
Response
The Maine Food and Agriculture Center (MFAC) is a partnership of Extension and the Maine Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. The center uses the 16-county reach of Extension, and many of Extension’s recommendations to the state’s agricultural community come directly from research conducted at Experiment Station farms. This research-extension partnership has been working for more than 100 years and is as vital today as it was early in the twentieth century.
Results
MFAC is growing to encompass all sectors of the burgeoning food economy, establish first-contact access to the programs and expertise available at all seven of Maine’s public universities, and create opportunities for cross-campus and cross-discipline coordination and program development based on emerging needs in Maine’s food economy.