University of Illinois Extension launched the Community Seminar Series in 2020 and has been refining and expanding it ever since. A collaboration between U of I Extension and U of I’s Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI), the CSS is an effective way to educate the public on health topics and give students majoring in health fields a chance to build their expertise, through developing and presenting the seminars. This publication is a brief overview of the goals and strategies of this program. The publication is excerpted from the New Technologies for Ag Extension 2022-2023 Yearbook, which documents dozens of projects funded through the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program. NTAE is a cooperative agreement between USDA NIFA, Oklahoma State University, and the Extension Foundation. The goal of the New Technologies for Ag Extension (NTAE) grant is to incubate, accelerate, and expand promising work that will increase the impact of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) in the communities it serves, and provide models that can be adopted or adapted by Extension teams across the nation. This work is supported by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2020-41595-30123 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Grant projects improve human, environmental, and community health.
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Welcome. “Community Seminar Series” is a publication of the New Technolo- gies for Ag Extension (NTAE) program. This publication celebrates the ac- complishments of a team at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Extension, which received funding for this project in 2022-2023. NTAE is a grant program generously supported by the USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and administered through a partnership between Oklahoma State University and the Extension Foundation (EXF). The primary objective of NTAE is to provide financial assistance to competitively selected Extension programs that align with the strategic goal and priority program areas of the USDA and the Extension Com- mittee on Organization and Policy (ECOP). Through this support, NTAE helps teams catalyze, accelerate, and expand their work in their respective fields. Since its inception in 2019, the NTAE program has successfully funded and supported a total of 72 projects and leaders. This includes collaborations with all Regional Rural Development Centers (RRDCs) and ECOP Program Action Teams (PATs). Selected programs receive support for a period of one year. The project leader and their team are provided with invaluable mentoring from a team of catalysts, key infor- mants, and coaches from the EXF. This customized and innovative support model assists teams in exploring new possibilities, enhancing the intended impact of their projects, and sharing their work with a national audience. Additionally, each team receives additional resources and support to create materials and experiences that speed the development of their projects and bring about desired changes. The project showcased in this publication reflects the diversity and breadth of Extension disciplinary work and programming. In this publication, you will gain deeper insights into this exciting project, including the lessons learned, the project’s significance for Extension in a broader context, and what lies ahead for the team.
4 WAYS TO USE THIS PUBLICATION. 1. BE INSPIRED . Use our model to create an educational seminar series in your state or region. 2. ADVOCATE. Show this publication to your Extension Director and talk about how to use your educators’ expertise to enhance your institution’s public outreach. 3. SHARE. Share this publication with potential community partners who could help you build and scale a public-facing program. 4. GIVE FEEDBACK. Did this publication inform your Extension work? Share what you’ve
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Editorial Staff Julie Halverson Dr. Rose Hayden-Smith Heather Martin Design & Production Dr. Rose Hayden-Smith Ellen P. Krugel Heather Martin
PROJECT TEAM
Chelsey Byers Extension Specialist and Series Coordinator, University of Illinois Extension Kelsey Hassevort Research Development Manager, Community-Academic Partnerships (formerly with Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) Dee Walls Outreach Associate, University of Illinois Extension Maxwell Wallace Program Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
© Extension Foundation Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Published by Extension Foundation. Citations for this publication may be made using the following: Kansas City: Extension Foundation (2022). Community Seminar Series (1st ed). ISBN: 978-1-955687-38-6. This work, ISBN 978-1-955687-38-6, is supported by New Technologies for Agriculture Extension grant no. 2020- 41595-30123 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this pub- lication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Community Seminar Series University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Extension University of Illinois Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute THE IMPETUS Accessibility to health information online has empowered people to care for them- selves and their families. But the amount of inaccurate (even dangerous) information on the internet has skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a public health challenge. THE WORK To further develop the Community Seminar Series (CSS), a model for sharing trust- worthy, research-based health information with the general public. University of Illi- nois Extension launched the CSS in 2020 and has been refining and expanding it ever since. A collaboration between U of I Extension and U of I’s Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI), the CSS is not only an effective way to educate the public—on such topics as vaccine science, brain health, habit change, and the health risks of sitting too much—”it’s a novel way of engaging with students majoring in health fields,” says NTAE Catalyst Chuck Hibberd. The students develop the content, with coaching from Illinois Extension pro- fessionals, and present the seminars—also with mentoring from Extension educators. “The CSS also is an excellent way for stu- dents to learn about Extension work,” says Chelsey Byers, Extension specialist and
CSS coordinator, “and to further the land- grant mission to make Extension research accessible, engage the public, increase science literacy, and improve health and wellness in a community.” WITH NTAE GRANT SUPPORT This team formally assessed engagement in the CSS and its research dissemination, presented at the 2023 National Exten- sion Health Outreach and Engagement Conference, and developed recommen- dations for how to expand the CSS reach, improve effectiveness and adoption, and streamline data collection. THE VISION The team hopes to increase the range of seminar topics, the number of attendees, and the diversity of the audiences. They also want to offer in-person seminars, to deepen engagement among university researchers, community centers, and other community organizations. They hope other land-grants will adopt the CSS model, outlined in the “Community Seminar Series Playbook.” Says IHSI Program Coordinator Maxwell Wallace, “The Playbook offers expertise, knowledge, and structure to deliver a program that resonates.”
Seminar Engagement (since 2020) 21 Extension educators 33 student presenters 9,500+ Zoom participants 3,500 recorded webinar views
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