Progress 03/31/21 to 08/30/23

Outputs
Target Audience:THe target audiences varied by project depending on the state and the topic of the small grants we funded. The states funded by the smal grants were Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska, and North Dakota. However, several of the grant projects spread across state lines. Rural community developers and organizers, festival/events/Fair organizers, Chamber of Commerce. Economic development professional, Extension educators, community groups, policy makers, local leaders, concerned citizens. Extension professionals, economic developers, community leaders and other small business resource providers.Academics, researchers and advocates who promote evidence-based policies.Community Development Extension Professionals. Rural communities across the country are the primary target. Target audiences also include scholars in rural economics and agribusiness,health psychology, public health, behavioral medicine, and sociology. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?1) Undergraduate and graduate students were able to participate in survey development, data collection and analysis, and curriculument and publication development. 2) NACDEP 2022 session: Using the online CD EXT Library. 3) A NACDEP 90 minutes 2022 annual conference session in Indianapolis 4) A multi-state face-to-face training in 2022 for the ""new to the program"" Montana and Michigan Extension faculty in Bozeman MT.Also in attendance were faculty from Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota 5) One Marketing Hometown America all-team webinar training and one for Nebraska Extension faculty affiliated with the Rural Prosperity Nebraska team. 6) In Iowa, approximately four regional trainings across the state were held to help local county faculty and staff become more familiar with the program. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Project findings were disseminated through confererences, webinars, extension publications, and websites. Examples are provided below: Lee, S., Kim, M., & Niehm, L. The Role of Festival Volunteers in Supporting Rural Community Development: A Psychological Ownership Perspective. NCRCRD Webinar. (October 25, 2023) Jeon, S., Lee, S & Niehm, L. An integrative approach to evaluating rural festival volunteers' motivation and satisfaction. THEREPS conference, Las Vegas, NV. (April 14~15, 2023)? The NACDEP conference in 2022 was a great way to disseminate the program and the new revisions.We had approximately 30 people in attendance from across the nation.The face-to-face training in Bozeman was another wonderful opportunity to not only share the MHA curriculum but also share a complimentary First Impressions program, focused on tourism, from Michigan that could make a nice educational pairing. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Over 1100individuals were impacted by the work of the smal grants projects. Accomplishments are listed below: Identified how volunteers influence community sustainability by measuring the relationships among factors of: motivation, psychological ownership, engagement, and community support. Results indicate thatpsychological ownership is a critical factor that connects rural festival volunteers to community activities. Project authorssubmitted a paper to a journal - Current Issues in Tourism (a SSCI journal) and through two revisions, their paper will be published in late fall, 2023.The findings of this study revealed that rural residents' motivation and intention to volunteer for local festivals was significantly associated with the perception of fit with their personal values, the social and relational value created by the event, and most importantly, if the event was perceived to enhance their overall life quality and that of the local community. Thus, event planners and community economic developers would be wise to conceptualize festivals and tourism activities that tap local residents' values and factors perceived to impact individual and community life quality. This suggests that a grassroots assessment of community values and priorities is an important precursor to rural festival planning in order to attract and motivate volunteers. A writing team of 10 extension faculty from four states put in countless hours of brainstorming, ideation, development, coordination, and revision. Substantial additions were made in the area of diversity and inclusion to the one-day conversation host training, a more detailed explanation of the marketing process was provided, an expanded conversation host training guide and new corresponding participant workbook were developed and an online library of resources was created.Currently, they are working with communities who have gone through the program offering them the opportunity to develop a short video that showcases both the program and their community. During this reporting period the ND project developed a working paper that received an invited submission to the 2023 AAEA Track Session (CRENET & HTH) titled "The Structure and Resiliency of Rural Healthcare and Labor Markets: Interdependence, Adaptations, and Emerging Economic Potential." (2) Theyalso submitted a second abstract to AAEA based on their ongoing data collection efforts. (3) They have also started a third pre-registered output tentatively titled "A systematic review of risk and resilience factors for physical and mental health in meatpacking employees." Several team calls and advisory team meetings were held. These meetings were used to review and validate the information being put on the website. Extension colleagues from Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa participated as the advisory team for the project. Twenty-eight people from seven different states attended the project workshop that was held in March of 2021 and we took input from them and used it in the revision of the Collaborative Drought Planning Using Scenario Exercises interactive website that was developed as part of the grant.https://drought.unl.edu/scenarioguide/Overview.aspx

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Lee, S., Kim, M., & Niehm, L. The Role of Festival Volunteers in Supporting Rural Community Development: A Psychological Ownership Perspective. NCRCRD Webinar. (October 25, 2023)
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Jeon, S., Lee, S & Niehm, L. An integrative approach to evaluating rural festival volunteers' motivation and satisfaction. THEREPS conference, Las Vegas, NV. (April 14~15, 2023)

Progress 03/31/22 to 03/30/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences for the project varied depending on the state and topic of the small grant projects. Rural community developlers/organizers, festival/events/Fair organizers,Chamber of Commerce Economic development professional, Extension educators, community groups, policy makers, local leaders, concerned citizens. The proposed project is designed to reach couples in rural areas throughout the North Central Region. Child care directors in Indiana extension professionals, economic developers, community leaders and other small business resource providersAcademics, researchers and advocates who promote evidence-based policies Community Development Extension Professionals, Extension educators, and community planners. Rural communities across the country are the primary target.The program can also be offered at the county level with modifications.It has been used in communities with a very small population base to communities that function as a trade center for a region. Extension professionals from all 34 land-grant colleges and universities in the North Central Region. Some products are targeted towards rural economics and agribusiness scholars. Others are targeted towards scholars in health psychology, public health, behavioral medicine, and sociology.? Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Project personnel of one of the small grant projects developed and delivered a 10-session training series that occurred from October to December 2022. A total of 14 Extension staff from throughout the North Central Region were involved in the training, representing Extension systems in 5 different North Central states (not included current coaches in Illinois). Weekly team meetings with Extension coaches continue as a means to support ongoing program delivery, program fidelity, and additional coach training. Undergraduate and graduate students were able to participate in survey development, data collection and analysis, and curriculument and publication development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results from projects have been disseminated through academic publications and conferences, extension publications and workshops, webinars, newsletters, websites, and social media. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The small grant projects will end by July 2023. PIs of the projects are finishing projects by dessiminating results, submitting publications, and conducting training sessions.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We funded 16 small grant project across the NCR. These projects were impactful at the local, state, and regional level. Some of the impacts are provided below. Small grant project ledby Iowa Stateidentified how volunteers influence community sustainability by measuring the relationships among factors of: motivation, psychological ownership, engagement, and community support.They found psychological ownership is a critical factor that connects rural festival volunteers to community activities.They submitted a paper to a journal - Journal of Sustainable Tourism. Small grant project led by University of Wisconsin-Madison have a curriculum/content, train-the-trainer manual, and completed pilots in Wisconsin and Missouri and several more forthcoming in Minnesota.This effort has also been part of other accomplishments including getting large grant to support rural entrepreneurship and add capacity for programming from Extension in this area. Small grant project led by Ohio State University:In Fall 2022, project personnel developed and delivered a 10-session training series for Extension personnel throughout the North Central Region. This training began in October and concluded in December 2022. A total of 14 staff were involved in the training, representing Extension systems in 5 different North Central states (not including current coaches in Illinois). Each participating state also developed a state-specific program dissemination plan. With training completed, project personnel continue to organize weekly team meetings with newly trained Extension coaches to support ongoing program delivery and program fidelity as well as provide additional coach training. Small grant project led by Purdue University: Under this goal, we have completed the quantitative data analysis and qualitative data collection. We are currently transcribing and coding the qualitative focus group data to identify the major themes that emerged among rural child care directors as it relates to their operating costs. Small grant project led by University of Nebraska: A writing team of 10 extension faculty from four states put in countless hours of brainstorming, ideation, development, coordination, and revision. Substantial additions were made in the area of diversity and inclusion to the one-day conversation host training, a more detailed explanation of the marketing process was provided, an expanded conversation host training guide and new corresponding participant workbook were developed and an online library of resources was created.Currently, we are working with communities who have gone through the program offering them the opportunity to develop a short video that showcases both the program and their community.We hope to get three videos and will offer some seed funds to help underwrite the cost.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Bergan, D. E., Shulman, H., & Carnahan, D. (2023). Accuracy Motivation and Policymaker Evaluation of Policy Evidence. Paper prepared for the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, St. Petes Beach, FL.
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2022 Citation: Kennedy, Z., T. Hall and T. Ogle. 2022. NACDEP 2022 Presentation: Using the online CD EXT Library. For more information: https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/2658/submission/77
• Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Adams, L., Bhattacharyya, R., Burkhart-Kriesel, C., Hawkins, J., Horntvedt, J., Linscheid, N., ONeill, K., Schlake, M., Schlechter, P., Sokness, J. (2022). Marketing Hometown America curriculum. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Progress 03/31/21 to 03/30/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience includes rural community leaders and individuals living in rural communities, policymakers, faculty, staff,and graduate students at land grant institutions, Extension faculty and staff, and other academics. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been communicated through monthlywebinars and NCRCRD newsletter. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Small grant project related to community resiliency plans, COVID19 response, and childcare are slated to begin.The Center will continuethe process of facilitating relationships among Land Grant Universities in the NCR. We will continue toenhance the relationships among 1860, 1890, and 1994 institutions. The goal is to increase the collaboration among theseinstitutions to augment the impact of research and Extension work throughout the region.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Community Development Extension Library serves as a national repository of programs, curricula, tools, and fact sheets shared and used among Extension professionals who are part of Community Development Extension programs from across the United States. The CD Extension Library is a collaboration between the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) and the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP). The Library is a resource for sharing programs and best practices throughout the Cooperative Extension System and a forum through which peers can exchange information on practices, program delivery, and impact. Three small grant projects were finsihed related to opiods, natural disasters,and rural business retention. The PIs of therural retention small grant titled "Retaining Rural Business by Transitioning to Cooperative Ownership" dessiminated thier results through and NCRCRD webinar. The natural disasaters project resulted in a published article and one of the opiod projects resulted in a thesis. The NCRCRD continues to facilitate relationships between researchers and Extension professionals through webinars that combine individuals from multi-institutions and doing integrated work. Small grant projectshave been restarted and five new grants were awarded for funding.Titles of projects are: Resilient Couples, Resilient Communities: Enhancing family and community well-being through sustainable, evidence-based programming for couples in the North Central Region Enhancing Cost Estimates of Rural Child Care in Indiana Supporting rural resilience through the Rural Grocery Specialist certificate Translational research in rural economic development and health psychology: Sleep and cardiovascular health in a meatpacking community during COVID-19 Gathering with Extension Professionals from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribal Colleges and Universities in the North Central Region to Seek Understanding and Create Collaborative Partnerships in Aging

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Sun, Q., Mann, J., & Skidmore, M. 2022. The impacts of flooding and business activity and employment: A spatial perspective on small business. Water Economics and Policy.
• Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Other Year Published: 2021 Citation: Siddiqui, Z. & Skidmore, M.2021. Prescription opiod use, opined disorders, and opiod deaths across 22 OECD countries.