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Posts Tagged: Program Planning and Evaluation
Celebration Corner
Who else deserves kudos? Share your good news by sending an email to contentpipeline@ucanr.edu.
Koundinya honored for early career achievement
Vikram Koundinya, UC Cooperative Extension evaluation specialist, received the 2023 Early Career Achievement Award from the National Association of Extension Program & Staff Development Professionals. The award was presented to him on Nov. 29 at the NAEPSDP conference in Salt Lake City.
Koundinya, who is based in the UC Davis Department of Human Ecology, specializes in program evaluation, needs assessment and mixed-methods evaluation and research.
Koundinya has made notable contributions to the field in extension teaching, research, professional competence and service, wrote his nominator and peers in support letters. He has provided several statewide trainings and one-on-one consultations with UC Cooperative Extension advisors, specialists, Agricultural Extension Station faculty and students. He has published research articles in several journals, including 12 of a total of 35 articles since starting at UC Davis. He also has shared his work at several professional conferences and served in leadership roles on NAEPSDP and American Evaluation Association professional committees.
Au wins nutrition and dietetics award
The award recognizes dietitians who were the lead author of a peer-reviewed article that made important contributions to the field of dietetics. The award is named for Mary Pascoe Huddleson, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics editor from 1927 to 1946.
The honored article, “A Qualitative Examination of California WIC Participants' and Local Agency Directors' Experiences during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic,” was co-authored by NPI researchers Christina Hecht, Marisa Tsai, Nicole Vital and NPI Director Lorrene Ritchie.
The study examines Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children participants' and agency directors' perceptions, practices and other challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Au's research is used to support nutrition policies and reduce disparities among low-income populations.
ANR dashboards make it easy to find data
In 2023, the Program Planning and Evaluation team is proud to have produced new dashboards that organize important data about UC ANR people and outputs. They make it easy to find facts such as the number of UCCE advisors employed by UC ANR from 2018 through 2023. The dashboards are found on the impact numbers and stories web page and are intended for internal use.
UC Master Gardeners teach Napa County residents to grow food
UC Master Gardeners of Napa County have been teaching year-round food gardening with two programs each month.
“Teaching through two methods, we covered different seasonal food growing topics in our one-hour Food Growing Forums by Zoom and in-person, hands-on family programs at the OLE Health Garden,” said Yvonne Rasmussen, UCCE volunteer program coordinator in Napa County.
David Key, UC Master Gardener volunteer, leads this project.
The UC ANR 2022 Annual Report is online
UC ANR's 2022 Annual Report is now live. The report highlights Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension projects that clearly contribute to UC ANR condition changes and public values, demonstrating the organization's vision to improve the lives of all 39 million residents in California.
“Kudos to all for giving us these impact stories,” Vice President Glenda Humiston said. “These are what capture stakeholders, lay audiences, legislators and policymakers at all levels. They want to know what's in it for them.”
The Program Planning and Evaluation unit collaborated with UC ANR academics, program staff, and Strategic Communications to compile more than 50 vignettes that highlight the impact of our organization statewide during 2022.
Feel free to publicize our efforts and impact by sharing the annual report via email or social media with friends, the public, policymakers and potential donors. The annual report is posted online on the UC ANR "About" page and the direct link is https://ucanr.edu/2022annualreport. A few printed copies of the annual report are available.
If you have any questions about the annual report, please contact Christina Becker at christina.becker@ucop.edu.
New interactive map tool shows UC ANR’s impact
The UC ANR Impact StoryMap highlights measured changes in conditions resulting from programmatic efforts and serves as evidence of benefit to the public. This StoryMap is intended for an internal audience to help us find and learn from examples of how UCCE advisors, specialists and other academics have documented economic, social, health or environmental impact.
Measured changes in conditions are identified by UC ANR Public Value in the interactive map. This map includes all the changes in condition from the Condition Change Impact Stories compilations from 2018-2021 and will be updated every year. You can click each dot on the map to see more information about the related story and impact. The identified locations are the county offices where the academic who reported the outcome is located.
Please note that data on location where the changes in conditions occur are not currently available. For example, if a UCCE advisor serves more than one county, the dot will be in the county where the advisor is based while the project may be in a different county. The Program Planning and Evaluation team may investigate ways to collect location information for potential future iterations of the map to show external audiences where impacts occur.
As you scroll through the StoryMap, you'll see highlighted examples of UC ANR's impact for each Condition Change.
You can use this tool to:
1) See how your colleagues are measuring a change in condition that you are interested in changing.
2) See how your nearby colleagues are measuring benefits to community in your area.
Leadership and government relations can also glean local impact stories that have significant condition changes for strategic communications and advocacy.
To learn more, view the 26-minute video describing and demonstrating the Impact StoryMap at https://youtu.be/h6XEgMFb_MA or visit Program Planning and Evaluation's Impact Numbers and Stories webpage.
Annual report templates available for county offices
County report templates populated with 2021 data are available on the Government Relations templates web page. Check out examples of how some UCCE offices use the templates. These reports highlight key metrics and measured outcomes captured in UC ANR program information systems.
Use of the data is encouraged to help with the following:
- Advocacy - share with county government officials/staffers
- Accountability - can help meet local reporting requirements
- Communications - build understanding and support for UCCE programs
“These reports are fantastic – they are colorful, rich with imagery and fun to read. Most importantly, the content is easy to absorb by using infographics and photos,” said Anne Megaro, government and community relations director.
For help, please contact Christina Becker in UC ANR Program Planning and Evaluation at christina.becker@ucop.edu. There is also a recorded training at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--hQ55hLqpk.
New annual report shows how UC ANR is improving California life with science-based solutions
Of the hundreds of ways UC ANR impacts California lives and livelihoods, 40 are highlighted in the new publication, Working for the Benefit of All Californians: 2018 UC ANR Annual Report. A limited number of printed copies are available. Email jennifer.caron-sale@ucop.edu to request paper copies.
UC ANR has identified public value statements that reflect the breadth of its efforts. Academics and staff are working to promote economic prosperity, safeguard sufficient safe and healthy food for all, protect the state's natural resources, promote healthy people and communities, develop a qualified workforce, build climate change resilience in communities and ecosystems, and develop an inclusive and equitable society. These values touch every person in the state.
During the period covered in the new report, robust research and education programs supported agricultural communities. For example, UC ANR scientists improved the ability to predict beet curly top virus, avoiding losses approaching $100 million in processing tomatoes. A workshop offered by UC ANR educators on low-stress livestock handling convinced all the participants to incorporate the practices on their ranches. Online and in-person workshops provided to urban farmers resulted in new food safety plans for nearly all of the growers involved.
Families, farmers and natural resource managers are facing the prospect of climate change and looking for ways to continue prospering under uncertain conditions. Increasingly ferocious wildfires are causing serious losses to ranchers. UC ANR provided information on management practices to safeguard resources, prevent soil erosion and estimate the cost of forage losses so ranch owners can prepare loss claims. UC ANR has been instrumental in development of a website, Cal-Adapt.org, a clearing house to collect and disseminate climate change data.
Families and youth are a focus of UC ANR nutrition research, nutrition education and programs such as 4-H and CalFresh Healthy Living, UC. One UC ANR researcher collaborated with the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath tribes to identify culturally sound solutions to reduce food insecurity. In two Northern California counties, students were introduced by UC ANR educators to 36 local produce items. Their selection, consumption and interest in the produce served at lunchtime increased. UC ANR piloted a program that gets Latinx youth outside for environmental education.
Making food safer, enriching children's lives, extending reliable nutrition education and improving the productivity on California farms and ranches add up to significant value to the recipients of the services and to all Californians by making the state a better place to live and work.
