Posts Tagged: strategic initiatives

Strategic Initiative Brief: Nutrition and Health Vision

Unify-Communicate-Advocate

The UCANR Strategic Initiatives offer a home for strategic thought - drawing on members of the wider UC ANR community and beyond to 1) help people connect and 2) to help them identify and address issues of current and emerging importance. 

Nutrition and health vision takes shape 

Want to provide input on creating our UC ANR vision for health? Contact Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty, who is facilitating the effort, at lschmittmcquitty@ucanr.edu.  

Why are we looking at our health vision now?  

1.    There are resources to do this now

• “People like to fund winners.” The increase in state funds means others are interested in supporting our work - that includes building on our current health efforts. It's an opportunity to leverage that state funding.
• Due to COVID, there is more awareness of physical and emotional health needs. The increased awareness will lead to more resources available to address health needs (federal, state, NGO, donor resources).

2.     There is a need

• The health needs across California are immense, and growing
• Health spans the lifecycle and is a component of all of our program areas (social, emotional, physical health)
• Farmer stress, positive youth development, diabetes prevention, aging demographics

3.     We are the right partner to contribute to meeting needs

• We already do a lot in the area of health. We just haven't tended to use “health” to describe our work, even though we talk about “Healthy Californians” and we have a public-value statement related to health: “Promoting healthy people and communities.”
• We already play a role. So we want people to imagine how new capacity in UC ANR could make a difference in addressing unmet needs. What more might we do with expanded capacity?
• These efforts would utilize new capacity without reducing capacity in existing areas. It would build on existing areas.

4.     It's a window that won't stay open forever and will increase overall awareness of UC ANR

• There is increased national dialogue on workforce development and health in the world of Extension. That means a window of opportunity. We should be ready with ideas and capacity to leap at opportunities before the funding is distributed elsewhere.
• Activity in non-traditional health areas for UC ANR will increase awareness of all of our program areas. Such awareness has spillover effects thereby “lifting all boats.”

For more on the SIs and their activities, contact

Jim Farrar: Pests (EIPD)

OPEN: Natural Ecosystems (SNE) (Let us know if you are interested in making sure SNE has a voice)

David Lewis: (Water)

Deanne Meyer: Food Systems (SFS)

Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty: Families and Communities (HFC)

Mark Bell: Vice Provost (Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs)

 

Strategic Initiative Brief: Recruit excellent candidates for new positions

Unify-Communicate-Advocate

The UC ANR Strategic Initiatives offer a home for strategic thought - drawing on members of the wider UC ANR community and beyond to 1) help people connect and 2) to help them identify and address issues of current and emerging importance.  

Help spread the word for a stronger UC ANR and greater impact.

• The good news? The very positive news is the state increase in funding to UC ANR's budget. 
• The challenge? We have to move fast to attract and hire excellent candidates. 
• If we get it right? If we do this right, we strengthen our current needs, and lay the foundation for future success.

Help spread the word to attract excellent candidates: a three-step plan.

1. Track released positions 

Note that seven to 10 positions will be released each of the next four months. More positions will be released in 2022. Visit UC ANR Jobs for the latest releases.

2. Use your connections to promote jobs 

Research shows many vacancies are filled by people connecting through networks and personal contact. So, share links and news on vacancies through your social media (e.g., LinkedIn; Facebook, etc.), networks, blogs and newsletters, etc. 

Do what you think is best, but you can simply share a link and the name or topic of job(s) being released. Ask people to share with others.

3. Think diversity

Look to share through locations or platforms you might not normally include when sharing the word on opportunities with UC ANR. 

For more on the SIs and their activities, contact:

Jim Farrar: Pests (EIPD)

OPEN: Natural Ecosystems (SNE) (Let us know if you are interested in making sure SNE has a voice)

David Lewis: (Water)

Deanne Meyer: Food Systems (SFS)

Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty: Families and Communities (HFC)

Mark Bell: Vice Provost (Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs)

Strategic Initiative Brief: Growing nutrition & health (amongst others) for the future

Unify-Communicate-Advocate

The UCANR Strategic Initiatives offer a home for strategic thought - drawing on members of the wider UC ANR community and beyond to 1) help people connect and 2) to help them identify and address issues of current and emerging importance. 

Where to now? Growing nutrition & health (amongst others) for the future

The recent news on the increase in UC ANR's budget is exciting. We know the needs and the funds required to meet those needs across the state will require even more support. Although this will position ANR better, it will not fund all needs. A key to moving forward is to know what is needed, our role, and potential collaborators and partners to support the work for greater positive community impact. 

So what are the areas for the future? With input from many, a number of opportunities have already been outlined related to factors such as fire, resilience, water, etc. See Strategic Themes.

One area to build on relates to opportunities around nutrition and health. Our existing work provides multiple health benefits - and these benefits emerge across many programs such as 4-H, EFNEP, California Naturalist, Nutrition Policy Institute, Master Gardeners, UC Integrated Pest Management, UC Master Food Preserver and CalFresh Healthy Living, UC. Additionally, COVID helped us realize how much more is needed and highlighted that we can do much more. 

This month, the SI leaders will facilitate a discussion to build on what has recently been emerging in relation to our health work. In essence we want to know "What is our vision for the future of our nutrition and health work?" Stay tuned, but reach out to the SI leaders if you have thoughts and get involved when opportunity presents. 

For more on the SIs and their activities, contact:

Jim Farrar: Pests (EIPD)

OPEN: Natural Ecosystems (SNE) (Let us know if you are interested in making sure SNE has a voice)

David Lewis: (Water)

Deanne Meyer: Food Systems (SFS)

Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty: Families and Communities (HFC)

Mark Bell: Vice Provost (Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs)

Strategic Initiative Brief: Virtual lessons learned

Unify-Communicate-Advocate

The Strategic Initiatives offer a home for strategic thought, drawing on members of the wider UC ANR community and beyond to 1) help people connect and 2) to help them identify and address issues of current and emerging importance. 

1. Virtual lessons learned: Capturing the positives from COVID 

When shelter-in-place orders were issued, many ANR people quickly pivoted their programs, successfully using a range of virtual options to deliver them. A recent example was the Dairy Program Team, who creatively delivered their webinar series; speakers developed their messages as five-minute videos. These videos focused on major points and were then used as the introduction for panel discussions and Q&A. Feedback on the sessions was very positive (including an observation from a facilitator who noted that for the first time they didn't have to worry about speakers going over time!). 

See the Virtual delivery page on our Learning and Development site for tips on how to better deliver virtually.

The way of the future? Many people have indicated they will continue to use many of the virtual delivery methods, noting they often ended up reaching more people than with their traditional approaches. Please visit the site and share new lessons learned to help your colleagues. 

For more on the SIs and their activities, contact:

Jim Farrar: Pests (EIPD)

OPEN: Natural Ecosystems (SNE) (Let us know if you are interested in making sure SNE has a voice)

David Lewis: (Water)

Deanne Meyer: Food Systems (SFS)

Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty: Families and Communities (HFC)

Mark Bell: Vice Provost (Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs)

Strategic Initiative Brief: Program teams, IWP

Unify-Communicate-Advocate

The Strategic Initiatives offer a home for strategic thought - drawing on members of the wider UC ANR community and beyond to 1) help people connect and 2) to help them identify and address issues of current and emerging importance. 

Program teams are alive and well 

With support from the Program Support Unit (PSU) and good PT leadership the Water, Agronomy and Pomology Program Teams have had highly effective online meetings. The Dairy and Meat Production & Food Safety Program Teams have a series of meetings planned throughout April. Other PT activities are in the pipeline. These events are important in helping people Network, Share and Learn with and from each other.

For more on the SIs and their activities, contact

Jim Farrar: Pests (EIPD)

OPEN: Natural Ecosystems (SNE)

David Lewis: (Water)

Deanne Meyer: Food Systems (SFS)

Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty: Families and Communities (HFC)

Mark Bell: Vice Provost (Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs)

 

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