Progress 08/25/23 to 08/24/24
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this project includes teens aged between 14 and 19 years attending high school and older adult community members 50 years or older at one site each in both Columbus, Ohio and Amherst, Virginia. During the September 2023-August 2024 reporting period, BRIDGE2Health programming launched. Using data gathered in Year 2 via survey, community participatory meetings, and focus group interviews with participants, the BRIDGE2Health (B2H) team recruited or retained participants, educated them about the B2H program, enrolled interested participants, and led twice monthly programming sessions to support life skills and resilience among youth and adult mentors. The programming sites were chosen to serve racially and socioeconomically diverse participants. Approximately half of the potential teen participants are foster children or are being raised and living with grandparents. The Cuyahoga site is in an urban area, while the Amherst site is in a semi-urban area. Cuyahoga County enrolled 31 participants (12 teens and 19 adults), while Amherst County enrolled 22 participants (13 teens and 9 adults). The mean age of the teens was 15.9 years (range:14-18). The mean age of adults was 68.4 (range: 52-79). Ohio participants all identified as Black or African American (10% Hispanic), while Virginia participants all identified as non-Hispanic, White. All sites are in areas that lack needed resources related to life skill development and resilience. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? 1. Six team members attended the CYFAR Professional Development Event in Bloomington, MN in June 2024. 2. Two team members attended the Gerontological Society's Annual Scientific Meeting in November 2023. 3. One BRIDGE2Health team member completed the Generations Working Together International Certificate in Intergenerational Practice (Summer 2024). 4. Four team members attended the National Association of Community Development Extensions Professional conference in Houstin, TX in June 2024. 5. New staff at the Ohio and Virginia sites completed intergenerational best practices training in winter 2024. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? 1. A Cohort 1 Community Report was created and shared with community partners via the project website and social media accounts (September 2023) (see provided file) 2. A Cohort 1 2022-2023 Project Summary was created and shared with community partners via the project website and social media accounts (September 2023) (see provided file) 3. A Cohort 2 demographic infographic was created (see provided file). 4. The Cohort 2 Community Report and Project Summary is being developed during summer 2024. 5. BRIDGE2Health prepared/posted 4-8 monthly messages at its Facebook and Instagram pages in Year 3. Posts celebrated intergenerational connections by: sharing B2H events, highlights from the B2H Cohort 1 Community Report and Cohort 2 infographic, accomplishments of B2H team members, and work by other organizations dedicated to intergenerational programs. ? 6. Communities of interest include research and practice audiences. Team members have presented on B2H within invited presentations and publications; see listed products. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During Year 4: 1. BRIDGE2Health programming will recruit participants from some additional settings to increase and diversify participants. Both sites are focusing on recruiting younger teens who can then age up within the program. In Virginia, staff will recruit outside of 4H connections to recruit a larger cohort of teen and adult mentors. In Ohio, staff will recruit new adult mentors who are not grandparents of teen mentors. 2. Aligned with Intergenerational Best Practices and based on participant and staff feedback, programming will begin with a single generation orientation and training (e.g., teens only and adults only) session to increase comfort among participants and enhance preparedness for interacting with mentors from another age group in a manner that reflects evidence-based practices. Intergenerational programming will initiate after these training and community-building sessions during Year 4. 3. Intergenerational BRIDGE2Health programming will commence following orientations, consent and baseline survey collection. Programming is anticipated to occur during ten sessions between September 2024-June 2025 one to two times monthly for 90-120 minutes per session. Scheduling programming to meet teen and adult schedules and needs (e.g., adult mentors' preference not to drive at night) may result in changes to scheduling, e.g., fewer sessions for longer periods that take place during the day on a weekend. Programming will be scheduled throughout the school year. 4. Each site will work towards developing a sustainable program format (4-H Club/SPIN Club/Advisory Council). ?5. Program impact and stakeholder experience will be assessed using quantitative and qualitative measures to inform the effectiveness of intergenerational mentoring and to evaluate the benefits of intergenerational strategies to an adapted 4-H curriculum. 6. Annual focus groups will provide insight as to how BRIDGE2Health programming in Year 5 should continue to adapt. ?7. ?B2H team members are piloting 11 sessions that will result in an Extension curriculum that supports intergenerational relationship building and can be used to support professionals who want to adapt single generation curriculum for intergenerational delivery.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Short-term goals 1. Through a CBPR approach, community stakeholders, site staff and possible participants will regularly communicate towards sustainable programs and program evaluation. Continuing in August 2023, Building Relationships Intergenerationally through Guided Mentoring (BRIDGE2Health) acted on plans developed in the previous years utilizing the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Feedback from adults and teens guided us to incorporate life skills and resiliency programming including preparing nutritious meals, mental health/stress reduction, and money management. Focus groups were conducted in May-June 2024 with participants for continued communication towards improved and sustainable programming. A webmaster has maintained the project's website and social media accounts with scheduled posts shared weekly to keep community stakeholders and possible participants aware of programming. 2. Participating teens and older adults will build life skills by engaging in peer and intergenerational mentoring coordinated by Extension and community partners in the two communities. In this second B2H cohort (2023-2024), Virginia teens demonstrated significant improvement in thought processes, which represent the ability to think through ideas and decisions, t(8) = -2.4, p = .043, d = -.80. There were no significant differences for pre and post scores for Ohio teens for any of the life skills scales. However, there were positive changes in communication with others, goal setting, and decision-making for Ohio teens. For Virginia teens, there were positive changes in goal setting, problem-solving, and decision-making. Adults did not show significant differences in life skills in Virginia and Ohio. However, positive changes for Ohio adults include decision-making, thought processes, communication with others, goal setting, and problem-solving. Positive changes for Virginia adults include thought processes and communication with others. Teens from both Ohio and Virginia did not show significant differences in self-efficacy across the pre- and post-testing scores. However, the means were higher in the post-test for Ohio and Virginia teens. 3. Participating teens will build resilience by engaging in peer and intergenerational mentoring coordinated by Extension and community partners in the two communities. Resilience is indicated in the short-term and long-term goals. Teens and adults in Cohort 2 (2023-2024) were highly resilient prior to programming. There was no significant change in participants' resilience between pre and post evaluation. Positive changes for Ohio teens include personal resilience and caregiver/relational resilience. Positive changes for Virginia teens include personal resilience and caregiver/relational resilience. 4. The overall impact of the experience will result in positive youth development Youth development was measured with the 4H Developmental Relationships scale (scored 1-7). In the survey, teens had a median score of 5.38 on the Caring Adults measure and a score of 5 on the Youth-Adult Partnership Scale (YAPS). These scores reflect high youth development levels. 5. Reports on social support will increase for participants from both age groups. Cohort 2 teens showed increased prosocial orientation, social competence, and connection with others. 6. Staff will adapt curriculum to align with intergenerational practices Based on findings from focus groups with participants and staff logs during the second year of programming, staff are developing an evidence-informed curriculum for Cohort 3 (Year 4 of the grant) to align consistently with intergenerational practices. 7. Participation in programming will meet older adults' desires for generativity The analysis of the Generativity scores for older adults in our program showed a high level of generative desire and achievement before programming. Post-programming scores did not significantly differ. 8. Short term results in support of the desired long-term outcomes includes consistent and frequent engagement of teens and older adults The second year of programming included 10-11 sessions at each B2H site. On average, teens attended 8 of the 10 sessions while adults attended 9 of the 10 sessions. Using the CYFAR engagement measure (with possible scores ranging from 8-32 with higher scores indicating higher engagement), B2H participants in Cohort 2 indicated moderately high engagement with the program (teens mean score=25; adults mean score=26). As this was the second year of programming, the findings are focused on short-term objectives. We anticipate reporting findings related to long-term objectives in future reports.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Juris, J., Jarrott, S., Scrivano, R., Tyler-Mackey, C., Tanner, K., & Doss, L. (2024). What is Cooperative Extension and how can it support intergenerational programming with evidence-based curricula? Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. https://doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2024.2382280
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Tanner, K., Lester, D., Juris, J., & Jarrott, S. (2024, June 20). BRIDGE2Health: Working together across disciplines, generations, and states to build community capacity to address mental health needs. National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals Annual Meeting, Houston, TX.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Juris, J. J., Jarrott, S. E., Fallcreek, S., Lanier, C., Stone, R., Tyler-Mackey, C., Tubbs, C. (2024, June 12). Accountability and accessibility through data visualizations. CYFAR Annual Professional Development Event, Bloomington, MN.
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Progress 08/25/22 to 08/24/23
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this project includes teens aged between 14 and 19 years attending high school and older adult community members 50 years or older at one site each in both Columbus, Ohio and Amherst, Virginia. During the September 2022-August 2023 reporting period, BRIDGE2Health programming launched. Using data gathered in Year 1 listening sessions with intended participants, the BRIDGE2Health (B2H) team Cooperative recruited participants, educated them about the B2H program, enrolled interested participants, and led twice monthly programming sessions to support life skills and resilience among youth and adult mentors. The programming sites were chosen to serve racially and socioeconomically diverse participants. Approximately half of the potential teen participants are foster children or are being raised and living with grandparents. The Cuyahoga site is in an urban area, while the Amherst site is in a semi-urban area. Cuyahoga County enrolled 27 participants (12 teens and 15 adults), while Amherst County enrolled 13 participants (8 teens and 5 adults). In both states, the mean age of the teens was 15.5 years. The Ohio adult mentors were 70 years of age, on average, compared to a mean age of 64 years among Virginia adult mentors. Ohio participants all identified as Black or African American (30% Hispanic/Latino), while Virginia participants all identified as non-Hispanic, White. All sites are in areas that lack needed resources related to life skill development and resilience. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? 1. Five BRIDGE2Health team members completed the intergenerational program training in Year 2 provided by The Ohio State University "Intergenerational Programs: Evidence in Practice." 2. Six team members attended the CYFAR Professional Development Event in Phoenix, Arizona in May 2023. 3. Two team members attended the Gerontological Society's Annual Scientific Meeting in November 2022. 4. One team member (Tanner) completed Mental Health First Aid training in 2023. 5. CITI training was completed by Fallcreek, McGee, Shahi, Button, and Owen for Responsible Conduct of Research and Human Subjects Research. 6. One BRIDGE2HEALTH team member attended the R2 Resilience expert training (February-March 2023). 7. Two members will have attended the Generations United Biennial Global Conference on intergenerational relationships in July 2023. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? An infographic was created to represent baseline survey data (see provided file). An infographic representing pre-post results for the first year of programming is being developed during summer 2023. An annual report designed for project stakeholders will be created in July 2023 and disseminated in August 2023 via the project website and social media accounts. BRIDGE2Health prepared/posted 4-8 monthly messages at its Facebook and Instagram pages in Year 2. Posts celebrated intergenerational connections by: sharing B2H events, holidays, accomplishments of B2H team members, and work by other organizations dedicated to intergenerational programs. Communities of interest include research and practice audiences. Team members have presented on B2H within invited presentations and publications, including the Alzheimer's Association summit on modifiable risk factors of Alzheimer's and Related Dementias in Atlanta, Georgia (May 2023) and book chapters to be published on anti-ageist, anti-racist models for intergenerational programming (Gonzales & Jarrott, forthcoming).? What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During Year 3: BRIDGE2Health programming will recruit participants from some additional settings to increase and diversity participants. For example, in Virginia staff will recruit at area churches and attend high school back to school events to recruit a larger cohort of teen and adult mentors. In Ohio, a need to recruit male mentors was identified, which will impact some recruitment efforts. Based on staff focus group data, programming will begin with 1-2 sessions of single generation orientations and training (e.g., teens only) to increase comfort among participants and enhance preparedness for interacting with mentors from another age group in a manner that reflects evidence-based practices. Intergenerational programming will initiate after these training and community-building sessions (i.e., October) during Year 3. Shared BRIDGE2Health programming will commence following orientations and baseline survey. Programming is anticipated to occur twice monthly for 90-120 minutes per session. Scheduling programming to meet teen and adult schedules and needs (e.g., adult mentors' preference not to drive at night) may result in changes to scheduling, e.g., fewer sessions for longer periods that take place during the day on a weekend. Programming will be scheduled throughout the school year. The B2H team will explore the creation of a 4-H club as a second site in each state, pending potential participant interest and administrative support within the Cuyahoga County and Amherst County Extension offices. Program impact and stakeholder experience will be assessed using quantitative and qualitative measures to inform the effectiveness of intergenerational mentoring and to evaluate the benefits of intergenerational strategies to an adapted 4-H curriculum. Annual focus groups will provide insight as to how BRIDGE2Health programming in Year 4 should continues to adapt. B2H team members are exploring the creation of Extension curriculum that supports intergenerational relationship building and can be used to support professionals who want to adapt single generation curriculum for intergenerational delivery.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Short-term goals 1. Through a CBPR approach, community stakeholders, site staff and possible participants will regularly communicate towards sustainable programs and program evaluation. Starting in August 2022, Building Relationships Intergenerationally through Guided Mentoring (BRIDGE2Health) acted on plans developed in the planning year utilizing the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach. Feedback from adults and teens guided us to incorporate into a programming framework the GEM (Get Experience in Mindfulness) curriculum and other Extension curricula, such as money management and preparing nutritious meals. Focus groups were conducted in May-June 2023 with participants and staff for continued communication towards improved and sustainable programming. A webmaster and communications intern have supported the launch of the project's website and social media accounts with scheduled posts shared weekly to keep community stakeholders and possible participants aware of programming. 2. Participating teens and older adults will build life skills by engaging in peer and intergenerational mentoring coordinated by Extension and community partners in the two communities. In this first B2H cohort (2022-2023), teen mentors demonstrated significant improvements in thought process, communication, and problem-solving skills. For adult mentors, there were significant improvements in decision-making and thought process skills. Overall, the pilot year of programming indicates improvements in various life skills among both adults and teenagers, with some variations in specific skill areas and no significant differences observed between the program sites (Ohio and Virginia). Teens' self-efficacy mean scores increased post-programming at both sites, indicating that the program might be boosting the self-efficacy of teens. 3. Participating teens will build resilience by engaging in peer and intergenerational mentoring coordinated by Extension and community partners in the two communities. Resilience is indicated in the short-term and long-term goals. Teens and adults in Cohort 1 (2022-2023) were highly resilient prior to programming. There was no significant change in participants' resiliency between pre and post evaluation. 4. The overall impact of the experience will result in positive youth development Youth development was measured with the 4H Developmental Relationships scale.In the survey, teens had a median score of 6.13 on the Caring Adults measure and a score of 7 on the Youth-Adult Partnership Scale (YAPS). These scores reflect very high youth development levels. 5. Reports on social support will increase for participants from both age groups. During the pilot year of programming, Cohort 1 teens showed increased prosocial orientation, social competence, and connection with others.Adults had a slight increase in social support after program participation. 6. Staff will adapt curriculum to align with intergenerational practices Staff completed intergenerational training and worked to adapt the Gaining Experience with Mindfulness (GEM) curriculum for an intergenerational audience during the pilot year of programming (2022-2023). Based on findings from focus groups with participants and staff during the first year of programming, staff are adapting curriculum for Cohort 2 to be more aligned with intergenerational practices. 7. Participation in programming will meet older adults' desires for generativity The analysis of the Generativity scores for older adults in our program indicated a high level of generative desire and achievement prior to programming. Post-programming scores did not significantly differ. 8. Short term results in support of the desired long-term outcomes includes consistent and frequent engagement of teens and older adults The first year of programming included 10 sessions at each B2H site. On average, teens attended 8 of the 10 sessions while adults attended 9 of the 10 sessions. Using the CYFAR engagement measure (with possible scores ranging from 8-32 with higher scores indicating higher engagement), B2H participants in Cohort 1 indicated engagement with the program (teens mean score=25; adults mean score=29). As this was the first year of programming, the findings are focused on short-term objectives. We anticipate reporting findings related to long-term objectives in future reports.
Publications
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Progress 08/25/21 to 08/24/22
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this project includes teens aged between 14 and 19 years attending high school and older adult community members 50 years or older who are partnered with 4-H program sites in both Columbus, Ohio and Amherst, Virginia. During the September 2021-August 2022 reporting period, an introduction to BRIDGE2Health involved partnered Cooperative Extension professionals describing the goals of the BRIDGE2Health project and distributing a project overview flyer to interested community partners and asking community partners and potential participants (teens and older adults involved in programming at partnered sites and 4-H programming) to participate in listening sessions during Year 1 of the project. In total, 7 listening sessions were completed (3 in Ohio and 4 in Virginia). The number of listening session participants ranged between 26 and 34 individuals in Ohio and between 2 and 11 individuals in Virginia. A final listening session will be completed in Virginia in August 2022. Listening session data were used to inform the curriculum that will first be adapted for intergenerational mentoring and implemented at program sites using a community-based participatory research approach. Within the second year of the BRIDGE2Health project, the Get Experience in Mindfulness (GEM) curriculum will be used to promote and support mindfulness among youth and older adult participants who identified needs related to mental health in both states. The programming sites were chosen to serve racially and socioeconomically diverse participants. Approximately half of the potential teen participants are foster children or are being raised and living with grandparents. The Columbus sites are in an urban area, while the Amherst sites are in a semi-urban area. All sites are in areas that lack needed resources related to life skill development and resilience. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Ten BRIDGE2Health team members will have completed GEM training provided by the GEM developers and continuing education on intergenerational practice provided by The Ohio State University "Intergenerational Programs: Evidence in Practice" by the end of August 2022. Training provided by BRIDGE2Health will commend in Year 2 of the grant. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Themes that emerged from the listening sessions conducted in Ohio and Virginia were shared with partner representatives in May 2022 during a Zoom listening session debrief call. Team members were encouraged to communicate these outcomes with participants who attended listening sessions to promote member checking and following a CBPR approach. These communications work to continue building trust with community members interested in the project and who may participate in programming during Year 2. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During Year 2: BRIDGE2Health programming will first consist of a small number of single generation programming sessions (e.g., teens only) to increase comfort and cohesion among participants. Intergenerational programming will initiate after these training and community-building sessions (i.e., September) during Year 2. BRIDGE2Health programming will be assessed using quantitative and qualitative measures to inform the effectiveness of intergenerational mentoring and to evaluate the benefits of intergenerational strategies to an adapted 4-H curriculum. Annual focus groups will provide insight as to whether BRIDGE2Health programming in Year 3 continues to adapt and implement the GEM curriculum or if another need is discussed that informs the selection of another 4-H approved curriculum.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During this planning year, the research team stayed in continuous contact with team members including Cooperative Extension professionals and site partners via formal (e.g., email and Zoom meetings) and informal (e.g., text, phone calls, and in-person meetings) communications. A total of 7 listening sessions with staff, administrators, and potential participants (teens and older adults at participating program sites) in both Ohio and Virginia between the months of March and July of 2022 were conducted. The listening sessions focused on needs and assets using listening session guides that were guided by the CBPR model (Wallerstein et al., 2020). Listening session themes were presented to the BRIDGE2Health team during a Zoom meeting held on May 25th of 2022 in order to conduct a member check, gather additional information, and use the data to choose an appropriate curriculum to adapt for implementation in both Ohio and Virginia. Representatives including Cooperative Extension professionals and site partners attended the meeting. BRIDGE2Health team members are working towards accomplishing the short-term goals of building life skills and resilience and support youth development among program participants after deciding to first adapt and implement the GEM curriculum to promote mindfulness by integrating intergenerational strategies and evidence-informed ice breakers within the programming schedule. During the coach visit to the Virginia site, site team members discussed adoption of 4-H curriculum and data collection strategies to launch in Year 2.
Publications
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