Patty Merk, FCHS Agent in Maricopa County, along with a consortium of four faith-based partners received a First Things First (FTF) grant of $260,000 per year for three years. The grant will expand the Parents as Teachers (PAT) international model which Patty introduced through the Tapestry Project. PAT is a highly acclaimed home visitation model which works with parents and their children from birth to 5 years old. Parents receive extensive one-on-one instruction in child development and parenting with the goal of becoming their child's first and best teacher. The grant will serve the FTF South Phoenix Region.
Dan McDonald, Cathy Martinez, Kay Hongu and Vanessa Farrell were recently selected as UA Cooperative Extension liaisons for the 4-H Healthy Living Task Force. Along with liaisons from other universities around the country, this task force will help develop 4-H healthy living into a program priority and engage youth and their families in life-changing programs. We are pleased that these four professionals have been selected to represent Arizona Cooperative Extension and look forward to the initiatives that will come out of this task force. For more information about the 4-H healthy living priority, go to www.national4-hheadquarters.gov/about/4h_health.htm.
The 24th Annual J.O.L.T. Camp (Journey of Opportunities for Leaders of Tomorrow) concluded this past weekend and was an outstanding success, thanks to the agents, leaders and youth staff that made it possible. This year's theme, Mission Possible, demonstrated how Arizona 4-H continues to make the best better by challenging everyone to look at things in a positive light. J.O.L.T. camp is filled with leadership development opportunities and is a signature teen program in Arizona 4-H. I especially want to acknowledge the leadership provided by Extension agents and staff: Bryan Chadd, Amy Parrott, Jerry Olsen and Cindy Pearson, along with the youth staff this year who planned a superb leadership event at Camp Shadow Pines. Youth staff included Dana Dobbins, Caitlin Henry, Alex Duke, Eric Johnston, Ashley Elrod, Clint Loerzel, Riley Marsh, Christian Duke, and Becca Simpson. Participation was up about 40% over last year. You should definitely consider recruiting teens from your county to attend next year's event.
The Arizona Delegation of Laurel Coil, Aubrey Coil, and Laura Nowlin of Yuma County, and Juan Carabeo, Kayla Sexton and chaperone Sissy Fischler of Greenlee County attended Citizenship Washington Focus on June 6-13. They learned about our government including writing bills, Congressional Issues Workshops, Town Hall, and writing action plans as well as visited historical sites. The delegation visited Senator Kyl and Senator McCain's aid due to the Senators' hectic schedules. They visited with Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick and Raul Grijalva and learned what they had been working on in Congress. It was a week filled with many activities starting at 7:00am each morning and ending at 11:00pm each evening, returning home each evening excited and tired.
Michael Staten (Director and Norton School Endowed Chair) and Nicole Wanago (Project Director, FEFE), along with a great support cast of students and staff and funded by the Take Charge America Institute, provided a weeklong training on Family Economics & Financial Education (FEFE) last week. About 70 teachers attended. The program touches the lives of close to 500,000 young people each year. A great program.
At the recent All Association's meeting in Globe, a request was made to develop a process by which faculty could search APROL to find other faculty to partner with on grants and programs with similar interests. After visiting with Robert Armstrong, I was reminded that this option already exists. If you go to your APROL reports, you'll find "Item D - Research/Extension Program/International Interests". In this section, faculty are given the opportunity to list their research and extension interests and activities. This section is searchable by all faculty. Go to cals.arizona.edu/aes/grants/interests/ for the search link. This search will only search "Item D" information. Therefore, those interested should be sure to fill out this section of their APR.
The Extension Web team is announcing the "beta release" of the new Cooperative Extension site, developed using the Drupal content management system. This is an internal release, for Extension personnel only. The site is not yet live, and is definitely still under development. However, the team would like to get wider comment from within our own group at this point. This is most likely to happen at the beginning or end of a work day, or on Friday afternoons. The development site address is ace.clover.cals.arizona.edu and will periodically be down for maintenance, as indicated by a "Site Maintenance" page. As there will be many questions, the team has created a FAQs page and suggest you look at it first (it is found on the bottom menu with the label "Development FAQs"). For further questions, use the "Contact Us" form on the new site, and choose "Website Feedback."
The Water Resource Research Center is seeking images that illustrate the beauty and significance of Arizona water. Water is a precious, often scarce resource present in all aspects of our lives. Get creative! Images may reflect areas such as beauty, culture, history, ritual, policy, nature, and celebration. Three winning photographs will be mounted and displayed at the upcoming WRRC Community Water Event to be held at the Westward Look Resort on September 1. Other selected photographs may be displayed at the event electronically. If you would like a flyer to post or distribute, contact Jane Cripps (jcripps@cals.arizona.edu). The deadline for submissions is Friday, July 17. For submission information, go to cals.arizona.edu/azwater/photoexhibit.
James A. Christenson, Ph.D.
(jimc@cals.arizona.edu)
Associate Dean and Director
Arizona Cooperative Extension
Forbes, Room 301
Tucson, Arizona 85721
520/621-7205
520/621-1314 FAX
TMN submittal: http://cals.arizona.edu/extension/tuesday/submittal_form.html