Mental health challenges for youth continue to be a growing concern. Youth-serving organizations have the potential to play a significant role in recognizing the signs and symptoms of mental health challenges in youth. The Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training course is widely used to equip adults working with youth with skills to support…

Land-grant Extension institutions face increasing expectations to use data to communicate value and drive program and organizational development. In this article, we introduce the University of Wisconsin--Extension Data Jam Initiative, an integrated qualitative software, methods, and data analysis curriculum. The Data Jam Initiative is an…

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a signature federal program that in FY2019 provided financial assistance to 35 million low-income Americans. SNAP is a focused program that increases food access, reduces hunger, and improves the nutrition and health of low-income American families. It is in the interest of the nation and…

Global demand is increasing for food, feed, and fiber; for additional agricultural outputs, such as biofuels; and for ecosystem services, such as clean water and outdoor recreation. In response, new agricultural enterprises are needed that produce more outputs from existing lands while meeting the "triple bottom line" of high performance…

During the twentieth-century, American engineers harnessed the atom, sent men to the moon, and literally reshaped the world. They re-routed rivers to create giant hydroelectric dams, created a massive and interconnected highway system, and designed skyscrapers, jets, computers, and the internet. As a modern profession, engineering boasted strong…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to better understand the identity and work of academic and extension staff who have boundary spanning responsibilities. The results will help universities, especially public land-grant universities with an outreach mission, to create stronger policies and systems to support boundary spanning staff members…

The role of land-grant university Extension specialist originates in a community of place, enters into communities of interest to leverage resources or partnership opportunities, and returns to the local level with more effective outcomes than possible by operating solely within the community of place. A case study describes synergistic specialist…

We explain in this article the need for board training in rural America irrespective of industry or government sector. We discuss how an assessment of training needs has led to the launch of a new project called the National Board Basics Curriculum (NBBC) project. In this project, we have identified four key core competencies that every board…

With soaring uncertainty surrounding the financing of public higher education, institutions are faced with developing strategies that will enable them to effectively compete for state funding. One component to cultivating resources and relationships for colleges and universities are through government relations organizations. Utilized for…

Creating a culture of engagement on college campuses requires investment and energy at the individual and institutional level. For a decade, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation has sponsored the Food Systems Professors Education initiative involving thirteen land-grant colleges of agriculture and their partners, designed to transform higher education and…

The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges' Kellogg Commission notes the perception that "despite the resources and expertise available on our campuses, our institutions are not well organized to bring them to bear on local problems in a coherent way." This article suggests some organizational patterns and…

The 12 states comprising the North Central Region have been affected in similar ways by the farm crisis of the 1980s. Statewide surveys show sizeable proportions of farm operations that are experiencing moderately high levels of financial stress. The problems caused by chronic stress on family structure and functioning, the loss of mainstreet…