Sustainable Community Economic Development
Micro-credentialing Through University of Maine 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 training and skills for agricultural and other workers.
Response
In 2020 we began developing and issuing micro-credentials through the University of Maine 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. In 2023, we worked on expanding Extension micro-credentials, including developing guidelines for UMaine, networking at the UMaine and University of Maine System level, creating teams, and writing metadata with subject matter experts. Micro-credential participants were in 4-H STEM Ambassadors, food safety, aquaculture and 4-H aquaculture, facilitation, collaboration, food processing, horticulture, meat cutting, resilience, collaboration, and oral communication. We worked on updating badges in volunteer management, climate resilience, aquaculture, and outdoor leadership.
Results
In 2023, 482 badges were issued to UMaine Extension participants. Earners ranged from current University of Maine System students to adults in the general public. These credentials can be used to showcase skills earned through Extension and are verified by UMaine. Micro-credentials help earners make competencies visible, beyond what is seen on a transcript or résumé; 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 résumé.
Extension Homemakers Meet Diverse 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. Janet was a helper. When Janet passed away from complications resulting from a heart transplant, her family wanted her legacy as a helper to live on. They created Janet’s Jammies, through which volunteers sew pajamas to send to children in need in the State of Maine. There are hundreds of young children throughout our state who live at or below the poverty level, including homeless children, foster children, and refugees. Providing warm pajamas for Maine’s vulnerable children helps them to stay warm and feel loved.
Response
The Maine Extension Homemakers Council has clubs with more than 250 members statewide. In 2023, 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. They heard of Janet’s Jammies and decided to set a goal of making 300 pairs of pajamas in honor of Janet. Several branches of the United Way of Maine agreed to distribute the pajamas.
Results
In 2023, Maine Extension Homemakers raised and donated $26,437 to civic organizations, nonprofits, and individuals throughout Maine. They also provided 4,986 hours of volunteerism within their counties and communities. In all, their community impact was valued at $175,768. 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. Their community efforts have been visible at animal shelters, historical societies, and on the faces of people protecting themselves from COVID-19 and the flu. Homemakers made more than 300 pairs of Janet’s Jammies, each sporting a red heart as a symbol of Janet’s love of helping, and of her heart transplant. Janet’s family provided cotton shirts to accompany each pair of jammies, and each set of pajamas was wrapped and tied with a ribbon and distributed by United Way chapters throughout Maine. Extension is in our communities, thanks to the Maine Extension Homemakers.
Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network
Relevance
Mental health is an overlooked challenge farmers face nationwide. 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. The taxing nature of agricultural work makes it one of the most hazardous jobs, with risk of injury, disability, and death higher than most other professions. Daily decision-making in the context of long-term planning to ensure crop and livestock yields and profits can prove extremely difficult. Even the most proactive planning can be short circuited by factors beyond an individual’s control, such as natural disasters. Suicide rates among farmers and ranchers are well above the national average, while mental health services are less available and accessible in rural areas.
Response
In the 2018 Farm Bill, the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network was established to support farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural workers with stress management and offer a pathway for improving mental health awareness and access for farmers and their families. USDA NIFA awarded funds to four regional entities to help launch the network. The Northeast funds ($4.8 million dollars) were granted to the National Young Farmers Coalition, with subcontracts to UMaine Cooperative Extension, Farm Aid, Vermont Farm First, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, and Migrant Clinicians Network, to assist with advising the direction of the project and bring together network members. Extension produced a Farm Wellness brochure and website, and they offered wellness grants for farmers, small grants for organizations, and training for service providers (secondary trauma, de-escalation techniques). Partnerships with 10 collaborators helped to expand reach to Latinx, other non-English-speaking audiences, Black/African American, Indigenous/Native American, other people of color, disabled/veterans, and LGBTQ+.
Results
As a result of these actions and general education about mental health, service providers/Extension professionals are now a stronger source of referral. They offer opportunities to have conversations with farmers and then make referrals for mental health services. Well over 500 farmers benefited from the funding. There is more awareness of Extension and ag service providers as being part of mental health conversations with farmers.
Extension Shares PFAS Resources for Farmers
Relevance
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination from historical applications of sewage sludge is an emerging crisis in agriculture worldwide, and Maine is at the forefront of this crisis. Crops may be grown on soil containing these PFAS, but how much of these chemicals is in the crop depends on the type of crop, what part of the crop is edible, soil properties, and PFAS levels in the soil. These chemicals may end up in the milk and meat of animals fed crops such as hay containing PFAS. These chemicals can also move from the soil into the groundwater and into well water. Consuming contaminated milk, meat, plants, or water are potential ways people can be exposed to these chemicals. In 2021, the ME Department of Environmental Protection launched a statewide investigation of the presence of PFAS in soil and groundwater at historically licensed sludge and septage land application sites. As of November 2023, 54 farms have been identified that have at least one soil or water sample that exceeds current screening levels. Farmers and gardeners need reliable and timely information to assess the risks that PFAS contamination may pose to them and their operations, and to access available resources and support.
Response
In response to the PFAS contamination crisis in Maine, UMaine Extension has led and collaborated on several initiatives to provide farmers and gardeners with critical information and support. We created a FAQ for Extension staff and developed fact sheets for farmers and gardeners, hosted on the new “Extension PFAS and the Maine Food System” website extension.umaine.edu/agriculture/guide-to-investigating-pfas-risk-on-your-farm/, and created a Guide to Investigating PFAS Risk on Your Farm as a comprehensive collection of resources about PFAS contamination in Maine. To facilitate statewide communication, Extension initiated and coordinates the Maine PFAS network. This coalition of Maine agencies, organizations, and individuals holds monthly update meetings and hosts a listserv to ensure that agricultural service providers are providing consistent, timely, and comprehensive information and support to impacted farmers and others in the agricultural community. Finally, Extension faculty are leading and collaborating on several research and Extension teams (within Maine as well as with Michigan and New Mexico) that have applied for funding to engage with impacted farmers and to research practical PFAS mitigation strategies for farmers.
Results
Farmers and gardeners in Maine now have access to timely information and direct support related to PFAS contamination. In 2023, Extension’s PFAS-related website content received 10,910 views. Using the dedicated Extension email address, 48 clients requested and received information and assistance. Most commonly, clients ask for guidance on how to assess PFAS contamination risks on their farm or in their garden, and how to access testing.
Marine Extension Team Supports Community Sustainability/Resilience, Fisheries and Aquaculture, and Ecosystem Health
Relevance
Climate change is requiring Maine communities to build the capacity to make informed decisions on the management of coastal and marine resources that promote ecological and economic sustainability.
Response
Maine’s Marine Extension Team (MET), a collaboration of UMaine Extension and Maine Sea Grant, continued to help communities gain the capacity to make informed decisions on ecologically and economically sustainable management of coastal and marine resources. MET members worked with communities to address problems and respond to opportunities in four major areas: ecosystem health; sustainable coastal communities; fisheries and aquaculture; and coastal community resilience.
Results
Our research and outreach collaboration benefits Maine broadly by marrying Extension’s outreach and programming experience with Sea Grant’s marine research and knowledge of coastal communities and issues. In 2023, our projects included:
- Maine Community Resilience Workbook, an inventory of best practices, useful tools, available resources, technical experts, and all current climate adaptation activities across the state. It was compiled to allow municipalities and community groups to engage more effectively in climate change.
- Building Your Virtual Facilitation Skills, a training series in partnership with Extension educators in four states, last year training 65 professionals and community members in Maine.
- Recirculating Aquaculture Salmon Network (RAS-N) with Maryland Sea Grant, Wisconsin Sea Grant, and academic and industry partners to address barriers in land-based salmon aquaculture, and hosting online and in-person events on topics that industry partners identified as top priorities.
- Through the Maine Aquaculture Hub, investing $471,000 in 14 projects designed to address industry-identified barriers to aquaculture development in the State of Maine, such as reducing costs of biotoxin testing of raw scallops, to providing educational experiences for undergraduates centered around traditional ecological knowledge in aquaculture.
- With the Maine Oyster Trail, continuing to support Maine’s oyster farmers with the first digital and interactive oyster trail in the US; partnering with 85 Maine oyster farms and businesses to drive coordinated tourism to Maine’s working waterfronts; and piloting an advanced Aquaculture in Shared Waters program, which engaged more than 80 seaweed and shellfish farms and businesses in new hands-on curriculum and professional development opportunities.
- Addressing the challenges to sustainable growth of the threatened green sea urchin industry, through a research collaboration with University of Rhode Island, the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and the Maine Urchin Zone Council.
- Through the Southern Maine Volunteer Beach Profile Monitoring Program developed and coordinated by the MET, successfully collaborating with Maine Geological Survey to launch a new data management portal. Data provided by the program is being used by Maine Geological Survey, National Weather Service, Army Corps of Engineers, and participating municipalities to guide beach management.
- Leading efforts in Maine to recapture retired plastic equipment from the aquaculture and fishing industries, including mechanisms to prototype useful items from recovered plastics, and contributing to network-building in the state to build capacity to reduce plastics pollution in the marine and terrestrial environments.
- Hosting the National Aquaculture Extension Conference in virtual format in 2021 and an in-person Portland event in 2022, providing education, networking, technology transfer, and mentoring opportunities for Extension professionals from across the nation. Our programming supports both Cooperative and Sea Grant Extension professionals, allowing Extension professionals to support Maine communities and industry more effectively.