Posts Tagged: strategic initiatives

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.  

2. Reach - the Integrated Web Platform. Have you registered your site?  

Make sure your site is registered for the Integrated Web Platform (IWP). Register here: https://ucanr.edu/portal/iwp_content_registration.cfm. 

Why register your web site? UC ANR has hundreds of sites that are inactive or rarely active. We want the best and most "alive" material to be part of the IWP. By registering your site, you will increase the discoverability of your materials.  

What will the new interface look like? Check it out here. Feedback welcome. Learn more here.

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. 

Reach - The Integrated Web Platform - Have you registered your site? 

Make sure your website is registered for the Integrated Web Platform (IWP). 

Register your websites here https://ucanr.edu/portal/iwp_content_registration.cfm. 

Why register your web site? UC ANR has hundreds of sites that are inactive or poorly maintained. We want the best and most "alive" material to be part of the IWP. By doing so, you will increase the discoverability of your materials.  

What will the new interface look like? Check out the draft at https://iwp.ucanr.edu. Feedback welcome. Learn more about the IWP here.

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)

 

Strategic Initiative Brief: Strategic themes, 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. 

1. Strategic Themes

Visit the Strategic Themes page to explore the growing number of 2-pager concept notes. These concept notes highlight existing and emerging opportunities and provide common sets of ideas for meeting those needs.  

Check out the new draft on Building community resilience. Feedback welcome.

2. Reach - The Integrated Web Platform

We continue to look for ways to help people ensure the Integrated Web Platform (IWP) will be successful. The IWP will help make our educational information more discoverable - adding value to work being done.  

IWP action items: Please make sure your website owners to do three things:

1. Register their websites at https://ucanr.edu/portal/iwp_content_registration.cfm. 

2. Remove unwanted files and delete or hide unwanted pages.

3. Update administrators for each website, using the SiteBuilder administration area to remove separated personnel and add anyone who would like to be part of the migration conversation for the site. 

What will the new interface look like? Check it out here. Feedback welcome. Learn more about the IWP project here.

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)

 

Strategic Initiative Brief: Strategic themes

Unify-Communicate-Advocate

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

1. Strategic Themes

With the new year, we welcome input on Strategic Themes that are emerging or that offer expanded opportunities to make a difference in 2021. 

For example, we are greeted this year with a growing need and mandate to build health and wellness in communities. Please think about how your work does and could play a growing role to strengthen the health and well-being of your colleagues and communities - and please share if you see opportunities. 

Visit the Strategic Themes to explore topics and opportunities being developed.  

Our growing number of 2-page concept notes highlights existing and emerging opportunities and needs:

• Fire Concept Note Fire Advisors Network (draft) - Kudos to Yana and others for their work on this concept paper
• Food Systems Concept Note Food Systems (draft) - Concepts here are emerging in part from the Food Systems Spotlight Webinar series led by Deanne Meyer and Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty
• Urban extension/DEI Concept Note Building California's Urban Community (draft) - This and associated initiatives are benefiting from input by Keith Nathaniel and Frank McPherson
• Extension of the Future Concept Note Building California's Urban Community (draft) and Concept Note Working Cross-state and Cross-institute (draft) - These are the latest as discussion evolves on opportunities to grow our presence throughout the state and across state lines. What could post-COVID tertiary education look like? What could be the role of UC ANR (re: working with community colleges, CSUs, UCs, internships…)? What other Funding & Incomes models are there?
• Health Concept Note Health Resilience Network (draft) and Prop 63 - Mental Health Services Act (draft)
• DEI. The Program Teams recently provided input on some of what is happening in relation to DEI in our programmatic work. We are seeing growth in the number of DEI (and Justice) related initiatives. The SIs will be looking at how we can help build synergies and a shared vision.
• Reach. We will be looking more at how we help people feed in to the Integrated Web Platform.  

2. Sustainable Natural Ecosystems (SNE) needs representation!

For those working in SNE, we want to make sure your needs are represented in the Strategic Initiatives and Program Council. Note: Recognizing people are busy, there is the potential to split responsibilities and you can sit on the SIs while a colleague represents SNE on Program Council. 

If interested to explore the option, please reach out to Mark Bell or one of the other SI leaders. 

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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