Progress 06/01/24 to 05/31/25
Outputs
Target Audience: Coordinating Network (YEA-CN): The primary target audience of this project during this reporting period included each of the selected regional YEA grantees and their sub-grantees. During its second year, the Youth Innovators Empowering Agriculture Across America Coordination Network (YEA-CN): "Together for Innovating Youth in Agriculture" (YEA-CN: TIYA) developed, managed, and encouraged collaboration spaces (such as, individual and group meetings and National Meeting), for all YEA project leaders, their teams and/or partners to encourage networking, efficiency, and sharing best practices. Grantees included: Grantee: University of Maine / Subgrantee: University of Vermont - Oh YEA! 4-H Grows True Leaders project. Grantee: The Ohio State University (in partnership with Iowa State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin at Madison, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kansas State University, and Purdue University) - Empowering the Next Generation Ag & Food Systems Workforce project. Grantee: North Carolina State University / Subgrantee: University of Washington State and NC State 4-H- Juntos YEA: Advancing Equitable Agriscience Pathways Through the National Juntos Consortium and Caminos a Carreras Career Pathways project. Grantee: North Carolina A&T State University (in partnership with Alcorn State University, Fort Valley State University, Kentucky State University, Lincoln University, and Prairie View A&M University) - 1890 Collaborative project. Grantee: Oregon State University - YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project. YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): The Oregon State University- YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project is developing a culturally responsive curriculum that is inclusive, equitable, and reflects the multi-dimensional diversity of youth, with a focus on Pacific Islander, Caribbean, and Indigenous youth. The audience for this curriculum will be youth ages 12-18 (approximately 6-12th grades). As stated above, Indigenous, Pacific Islander, and Caribbean cultures and stories will be centered, and this is a curriculum that is intended to be used by all youth from any background or culture. By centering Indigenous, Pacific Islander, and Caribbean people and knowledge, youth from those populations will see their experiences reflected and represented at the forefront. These lessons will be used in both formal and non-formal educational settings. Changes/Problems: Coordination Network (YEA-CN): There are currently no challenges for the YEA-CN. We may experience delays in future professional development offerings due to discovering we are unable to draw down our federal funding from ASAP. Since March 10, 2025, we have been unable to access the funds to reimburse work already completed. We are being cautious about spending until we receive further verification expenses will be reimbursed. YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): We have delayed hiring of lesson writers for Climate Change Curriculum due to discovering we are unable to draw down our federal funding from ASAP. Since March 10, 2025, we have been unable to access the funds to reimburse work already completed. We are being cautious about spending until we receive further verification expenses will be reimbursed. At this time, example lessons are beginning to be designed in-house. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Coordinating Network (YEA-CN): During this second year, the YEA-CN provided multiple opportunities for training and professional development, including: Workshop: "Building Effective Language Access Strategies" (On Zoom - August 28, 2024) Workshop: "Creating Conditions for Empowered Youth Partnerships" (On Zoom - September 20, 2024) Youth Mental Health First Aid Training (for adults working with/serving youth) (On Zoom - November 14, 2024) YEA: Youth Safety Kick-Off Training (On Zoom - October 4, 2024) Workshop: "Power Sharing: How to Step into a Youth-Adult Partnership" (On Zoom - December 10, 2024) Workshop: "From Commitment to Action: Using Self-Evaluation Tools for Youth Programs" (On Zoom - May 7, 2025) Workshop: "Fostering Belonging in Youth Agriculture Programs for Future Generations" (On Zoom - May 14, 2025) Evaluation Community of Practice (CoP) - "YEA Evaluate!" Zoom Sessions: July 18, 2024; October 31, 2024; January 16, 2025; April 17, 2025 During this second year the YEA-CN coordinated among project teams to recruit the first cohort of YEA participants for integrating the YEA National Youth Leadership in Agriculture Program. This program is designed to empower young individuals with the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to tackle current agricultural challenges. The program will consist of two distinct phases of engagement:1) Leadership Class;and 2) Project Plan Development. Phase 1: Leadership Class Duration:6 Months Objective:The Leadership Class is designed to provide participants with foundational leadership concepts. Over the course of six months, youth will participate in an interactive and engaging curriculum that introduces them to critical leadership concepts. The curriculum will emphasize essential skills such as communication, team building, problem-solving, and strategic thinking, among others. Phase 2: Project Plan Development Duration:6 Months Objective:In this phase, youth will work together to provide insight to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) -National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) about a current challenge/topic they are facing. In this phase, youth will work on a small group of youth from around the country to design and present back solutions/answers to USDA-NIFA and other national youth development leaders, institutions, organizations and partners during a virtual final presentation. Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): Nothing to report this year How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Coordinating Network (YEA-CN): During this second year the Youth Innovators Empowering Agriculture Across America Coordination Network (YEA-CN): "Together for Innovating Youth in Agriculture" (YEA-CN: TIYA) have been using the YEA-CN public-facing website: www.youth-ed-network.org to disseminate YEA project descriptions/objectives, YEA project event descriptions, YEA project staff spotlights, YEA-CN/ YEA projects in the news articles, YEA-CN description/objectives, YEA-CN Events, and reference information on different topics. Additionally, the YEA-CN has been showcasing the work of the YEA projects through the YEA-CN LinkedIn page. https://www.linkedin.com/company/yeacn ?Finally, because of the work conducted by YEA Evaluation Community of Practice (CoP), the YEA Evaluate! team co-created the YEA Evaluate! Key Observations Brief 01 that is available at the YEA-CN public-facing website: https://www.youth-ed-network.org/research-and-evaluation Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): Nothing to report this year What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Coordinating Network (YEA-CN): YEA National Youth Leadership in Agriculture Program:Continue progressing through the two distinct phases of the program: the Leadership Class and Project Plan Development for the first cohort. This includes preparing for the final presentation in December 2025, where participants will address the topic "Youth in Agriculture: Building the Workforce through Transforming Mindsets," as selected by NIFA. We plan to invite YEA Project and NIFA Leadership, as well as other organizations such as FFA, to attend this presentation.By Fall 2025, we will complete the recruitment and selection process for youth members of the second cohort of the YEA National Youth Leadership in Agriculture Program. This cohort will begin its meetings in January 2026, incorporating some former first cohort participants as mentors for the new group. Public-facing website: Continue enhancing the development of a more robust website to improve the user experience. This will include incorporating project impact stories and other key highlights through the implementation of a story map, which will integrate various themes to effectively showcase and narrate the YEA Collective's story. The website will continue to meet or exceed WCAG 2.0 AA ratings and ADA 508 compliance standards. Professional development and Community of Practice: Continue offering professional development opportunities, Community of Practice sessions, and other events designed to support YEA project teams and participants. On-the-Ground Engagement: Increase on-the-ground engagement with YEA projects, including site visits to project locations and events during key programming moments to gather insights and support progress. Building Partnerships: Continue to strengthen relationships with other youth-serving organizations, as well as partners in the agriculture industry and business, to build capacity and create educational workforce pipelines for YEA projects and participants. Coordination and Leadership Meetings: Maintain coordination among YEA projects through quarterly leadership meetings, fostering alignment, addressing challenges, and tracking progress to ensure the success of YEA projects. Cross-Project Collaboration: Continue encouraging cross-project collaboration, fostering integration, shared learning, and the development of a stronger network across the YEA community. YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): Writing Community: The initial plan in developing the writing community was to hire approximately 10 writers. who could be identified through targeted outreach from our Advisory Committee members to their communities and networks. A Curriculum Writer Position Description was created and from that about 30 applications were received. All but one of these were not a good fit for the position and it was decided to approach the development of the writing community through a different strategy. This strategy would include, at minimum, bringing in writers from 1-3 schools at each of 3-5 sites to develop 20-25 lessons as a cohort. Youth and adult partnerships would already be established (as students and teachers). One of the first steps in this new iteration of the writing community would be to learn about the community and youth educator priorities and figure out what else this project can do to support their work (i.e., what are their priorities and wants/needs and what can this work bring to them for their priorities). Important questions and thoughts that arose in the early stages of this process included: What do we need to enter into this relationship because we are trying to integrate communities who have never been brought into consideration and conversation on these types of products (e.g., outsiders often offer the solution, but never come to the community to listen to what is needed and incorporate the reality of those needs). This is going to take time and trust. What cultural contracts do need to be entered into to demonstrate commitments, trustworthiness, and moving resources forward? Before we could begin to implement the strategy, we discovered we are unable to draw down our federal funding from ASAP and we decided to postpone efforts to build the writing community until the funding situation has been resolved. At this time, example lessons are beginning to be designed in-house.?
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Coordinating Network (YEA-CN) YEA-CN supported coordination among YEA projects, leveraging available resources. We convened project leaders during the virtual National NIFA/YEA Projects Update Meeting in December 18, 2024, Evaluation CoP in July and October 2024 and January and April 2025, YEA Projects Leadership Quarterly Meeting in March 2025, Individual Evaluation and Leadership meetings through the year as well as in-person meetings during IGNITE by 4-H in March 2025. We used these interactions to captures information, milestones, progress, and evaluation for each project. During this second year, the YEA-CN developed the second phase of our public-facing website: www.youth-ed-network.org. The website is anticipated to expand by incorporating project impact stories and other key highlights through the implementation of a story map, which will integrate various themes that effectively showcase and narrate the YEA Collective's story. YEA-CN coordinated evaluation resources through the Evaluation Community of Practice (CoP), which comprises representatives from all YEA projects. The YEA Evaluate! Group convened in July and October 2024, as well as in January and April 2025. As a result of the work carried out by the YEA Evaluation CoP, the YEA Evaluate! team co-created the YEA Evaluate! Key Observations Brief 01, which is now available on the YEA-CN website: https://www.youth-ed-network.org/research-and-evaluation After its official kick-off during June 2024 the YEA-CN clearinghouse portal (CP) has been integrated new and refine functionalities for their users. YEA staff has been used the CP to submit artifacts from their projects but at the same time its CRM environment has given the YEA-CN Team the possibility to integrate data from Professional Development attendances, among others. As well as the opportunity to integrate mass communications using its Marketing Cloud environment to distribute our YEA-CN Connections emails as well as specific communications (i.e. Professional Opportunities). The YEA-CN hosted a virtual NIFA/YEA Projects Update Meeting on December 18, 2024, where YEA project and NIFA leadership participated in an informative session aimed at sharing updates and best practices. Additionally, the YEA-CN facilitated the YEA Evaluate! CoP sessions and the YEA Projects Leadership Quarterly Meeting, providing YEA project leaders and teams with opportunities to foster networking, enhance efficiency, exchange best practices and possible cross-partner collaborations. During its second year, YEA-CN coordinated efforts among project teams to recruit the first cohort of YEA participants for the YEA National Youth Leadership in Agriculture Program. This program is designed to empower young individuals with the skills, knowledge, and experience necessary to address current agricultural challenges. The program will consist of two distinct phases: the Leadership Class (6 months) and Project Plan Development (6 months). Meetings are on a monthly based generally during weekends. To date, the program has hosted 6 meetings with 9 youth participants from 4 projects. The YEA-CN hosted 7 professional development workshop, 4 evaluation Community of Practice meetings. In its second year, YEA-CN concentrated on coordinating efforts among project teams to recruit the first cohort of YEA participants for the YEA National Youth Leadership in Agriculture Program, as well as developing and delivering the first phase of the program. Looking ahead, we plan to include members from the National 4-H and National FFA Organization in the final presentation of the Youth Leadership in Agriculture Program, scheduled for December 2025. Offered a supplemental professional development workshop to enhance access to participation: "From Commitment to Action: Using Self-Evaluation Tools for Youth Programs"; May 7 YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP) Focus group listening sessions with all project team members were held in June 2024 with the intent of using the feedback to help inform the development of the Learning Objectives and Curriculum Framework. Project team members were asked for their input on the purpose of the project, curriculum content and essential understandings, youth leadership, and educator development. In summarizing these conversations, the following key ideas were identified about the curriculum: The curriculum should be place-based with an emphasis on connection and connections It should have a local and immediate focus that helps create a sense of purpose Storytelling should be at its heart Community, respect, and mutual support should be core values It should be transdisciplinary and include frameworks to support and elevate belonging, relationships, safe learning environment that support personal growth, emotions & mental well-being Activities should be student-centered and student-led with opportunities for cultural exchange and problem solving in collaborative groups and building strong peer relationships Experiential & project-based activities that move students from passive states to active will help generate spaces of creativity and agency and belonging Flexible and adaptivity are key elements Using the information from these conversations, a draft of the Guiding Values was developed. These include: Reciprocity and connection to land Indigenizing knowledge Centering community connection and relationships to others and self Experiential and joyful learning Strategic and sustainable action In June 2024 an external facilitator was contracted to complete the following: Lead four 2-hr retreat planning meetings to prepare for project team retreat on August 8-9, 2024 Create a living agenda for project team retreat in August 2024 Facilitate project team retreat on August 8-9, 2024, in Portland, OR Write project team retreat synthesis and summary and lead a project team retreat retrospective and summary review meeting Desired outcomes for the planning retreat included: Built stronger connections and relationships with one another Come to agreement on curriculum guiding values Come to agreement on curriculum learning objectives (not discussed) Build shared understanding of curriculum audiences Provided input on curriculum lesson plan road map Provided input on curriculum writer community, job, and role description Drafted timeline, roles and responsibilities for curriculum development Come to agreement on next steps and assignment of responsibilities for next steps A summary of the August 2024 planning meeting (Portland, Oregon) follows. Actions included: A discussion of the draft Guiding Values (see above) and suggested updates Creating a description of the target audience Developing a process or map, for creating the lessons Creating an initial draft of the Conceptual Framework A discussion of the development of the writing community Developing a draft of the youth advisory development plan Input on continued involvement of the Advisory Committee and project team as the project moves forward After the August retreat our work focused on developing final drafts of the Curriculum Frameworks (see below), a Lesson Plan template, and Trail Map (a draft visual representation of the project's development, outlining tasks, milestones, and requirements that was developed in Fall 2024 and further refined in December 2024). Curriculum Framework, including Conceptual Framework Building on the Guiding Values mentioned above, a first draft was developed at the August 2024 planning meeting This was further refined and in December 2024 and January 2025 we shared this with NIFA and the Advisory Committee and met with them to receive feedback A final draft was completed in Spring 2025 In October 2024 a Climate Change Curriculum Facilitator was hired to assist in facilitation and coordination of the project.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2025
Citation:
Youth Innovators Empowering Agriculture Across America (YEA): YEA Key Observations Brief No.1. (2025). Research and evaluation. Retrieved May 19, 2025, from https://www.youth-ed-network.org/research-and-evaluation
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Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:Coordinating Network (YEA-CN): The primary target audience of this project during this reporting period included each of the selected regional YEA grantees. During its first year, the Youth Innovators Empowering Agriculture Across America Coordination Network (YEA-CN): "Together for Innovating Youth in Agriculture" (YEA-CN: TIYA) developed, managed, and encouraged collaboration spaces (such as, Initial Grantee Survey, Calls, National Meeting), for all YEA project leaders, their teams and/or partners to encourage networking, efficiency, and sharing best practices. Grantees included: Grantee: University of Maine / Subgrantee: University of Vermont - Oh YEA! 4-H Grows True Leaders project. Grantee: The Ohio State University (in partnership with Iowa State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Missouri, University of Wisconsin at Madison, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Kansas State University, and Purdue University) - Empowering the Next Generation Ag & Food Systems Workforce project. Grantee: North Carolina State University / Subgrantee: University of Washington State) - YEA: Advancing Equitable Agriscience Pathways project. Grantee: North Carolina A&T State University (in partnership with Alcorn State University, Fort Valley State University, Kansas State University, Lincoln University, and Prairie View A&M University) - 1890 Collaborative project. Grantee: Oregon State University - YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project. The YEA-CN: TIYA started collaboration with other youth-serving partners such as National Future Farmers of America (FFA) Organization to incorporate them as part of the YEA National Steering Committee and to build capacity and educational and workforce pipelines for youth in underserved communities. During our first year, the YEA-CN: TIYA developed the first phase of our public facing-website that will serve as the primary information hub for projects teams and as a platform to highlight the impact of YEA projects for stakeholders, including the public to ensure awareness of and use of YEA products/outcomes. YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): The Oregon State University- YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project started working on the development of a culturally responsive curriculum that is inclusive, equitable, and reflects the multi-dimensional diversity of youth, with a focus on Pacific Islander and Indigenous youth. The hope of this project is for students to be critical consumers of climate change information, to become climate resilient citizens, and to understand climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices. In this first year of the OSU YEA-Climate Change Curriculum project, the primary goals were to select staff, contractors, and key partners essential to success. Additional priorities were the initial development of a scope and sequence, content, lesson formats, as well as holding the first planning meeting. In Fall 2023 the RFP process was initiated to determine a contractor for planning, facilitation, and project management support for the curriculum development, and a contractor was brought on board in November 2023. The Climate Change Curriculum Coordinator also began in their role in November. In December 2023, a five-member Advisory Committee was formed, joining the OSUE team as part of the project team. Representatives from American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Hawai'i, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and the National Climate Assessment Committee are included to ensure that the voices of the target groups are represented (Pacific Islander and Indigenous youth). In January 2024, four Writing Team Leaders were contracted to assist in the development of the curriculum. Changes/Problems:Coordination Network (YEA-CN): There was an approximately six (6 months) delay of hiring the Events and Marketing Coordinator and Program Manager positions, representing a significant impact on the rate of expenditure. Additionally, we hired students until the end of this first year and we haven't had an in person National Steering Committee meeting yet. Both situations have represented a significant impact on the rate of expenditure as well during this first year. ?YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): Following the February planning meeting it was mutually agreed between OSUE and the curriculum facilitator contractor to terminate the contract when it became apparent that their approach to the process would not meet the desired goals and outcomes that OSUE is seeking. We intend to complete these tasks internally, and have made required changes (budget and staffing) to ensure that we have sufficient capacity to address project needs. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Coordinating Network (YEA-CN): YEA-CN has provided multiple opportunities for training and professional development, including: Workshop: "Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation" (Portland, OR/Hybrid - March 6, 2024) "YEA - CN Portal presentation" (Portland, OR - March 7, 2024) Workshop: "Learn to facilitate Community Conversations About Mental Health" (Portland, OR - March 7, 2024) Workshop: "Leading with awareness: Skills for Equity-Focused Leadership" (Portland, OR - March 7, 2024) Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): Nothing to report this year. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Coordinating Network (YEA-CN): During this first year the Youth Innovators Empowering Agriculture Across America Coordination Network (YEA-CN): "Together for Innovating Youth in Agriculture" (YEA-CN: TIYA) have been using the YEA-CN public-facing website: www.youth-ed-network.org to disseminate YEA project descriptions/objectives, YEA project event descriptions, YEA project staff spotlights, YEA-CN/ YEA projects in the news articles, YEA-CN description/objectives, YEA-CN Events, and reference information in Youth Mental Health, Youth Safety and DEAI topics. An article about our First YEA National Conference was published internally on the OSU Extension website: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/osu-hosts-national-conference-focused-innovative-projects-youths-agriculture and externally on Morning AgClips (America's #1 Ag News Source) - https://www.morningagclips.com/osu-hosts-national-conference-focused-on-innovative-projects-for-youths-in-agriculture/ Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): The YEA-Climate Change Curriculum Project website: https://extension.oregonstate.edu/yea-climate-change-curriculum-project hosted on OSU Extension Service has served as a platform for disseminating information about description, objectives, staff, and events. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Coordinating Network (YEA-CN): Clearinghouse portal - On Monday, May 14, invitations were distributed using Salesforce Marketing Cloud to the PIs and Program Managers about the YEA-CN portal kick-off events that will take place the first and second week of June. These events have also been included in our YEA-CN website: https://www.youth-ed-network.org/s/yea-yea-team-events. The goal of these events is to train YEA leaders and YEA partners/affiliates on how to submit data, resources, training, stories, outcomes to the clearinghouse on a regular basis. YEA National Steering Committee - After gathering valuable information during the listening session held during our First YEA National Conference and conducting considerable internal planning, we have begun to lay the groundwork for a NSC that will consist of an enriching experience for youth. Specifically, the NSC youth experience will be composed of two-part engagement: Youth will participate in a curriculum to understand advocacy, policy making, leadership, among other topics. Youth will work in teams to provide input around a problem of practice associated with the YEA- Coordination Network or the (AFRI) Farm Bill priorities, and/or the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) priorities. Our goal is to begin recruitment and selection for youth members during late Summer 2024 and begin youth involvement in NSC during Fall 2024. During Summer 2024, YEA-CN will provide a 2-hours virtual training for NSC Adult members about best practices in youth engagement, understanding adultism, youth adult partnership, among others. Public-facing website - Continue working on the development of a more robust website that could include project impact stories, data visualization, and other highlights. This website will be embedded with the translation tool for all languages and meets or exceeds a WCGA 2.0 AA rating and ADA 508 compliance standards. Mirror site in Spanish will be developed during the second year of this grant. The YEA-CN has recently hired a GIS specialist (starting the last week of May, 2024) that will provide valuable data support including data visualization. This GIS specialist experience in GIS and web-based mapping, data analysis and visualization, and developing custom data dashboards. Additionally, YEA -CN has hired CRM student workers that will support this work. Professional development opportunities will be offered quarterly by YEA-CN. Communities of Practice, Roundtables or Panels will be offered monthly by YEA-CN. YEA-CN will create social media content to amplify outcomes, stories and events for YEA projects and partners across the nation. A Student Social Media Manager and Graphic Designers have been hired to support this work and to develop and lead inclusive and accessible, marketing and engagement efforts to educate public and partners across scale. YEA-CN will continue building relation with other youth-serving partners organizations and Ag Industry and business to build capacity and educational workforce pipelines for youth in underserved communities. YEA-CN will continue ensuring coordination among YEA projects through quarterly leadership meetings. YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP): Information from the February planning meeting was summarized and the next step will be to conduct focus group listening sessions with all project team members to build on these initial ideas and to identify additional resources and partners. These interviews will help guide the final drafts of the Learning Objectives and Curriculum Framework that will be finalized at a second planning meeting in Portland, Oregon on August 2024. Once the curriculum framework is established and lesson templates are created there will be a targeted search for curriculum writers. These writers will be identified from the target communities for the curriculum. Year Two will also encompass the first phase of lesson development and piloting, edits, and deployment of lesson content, and the development of assessments for established curriculum.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Coordinating Network (YEA-CN) YEA-CN supported coordination among regional YEA projects, leveraging available resources. We convened project leaders early in year one during Initial Grantee Survey (Jun-Aug 2023), Initial Grantee Calls (Sept-Nov 2023), the First Initial National YEA-CN Virtual Meeting (December 15, 2023) and the First In-Person YEA National Conference during March 6 and 7 in Portland, Oregon. We used these interactions to create a central inventory of projects and related activities. During this first year, the YEA-CN developed the first phase of our public-facing website: www.youth-ed-network.org that will serve as the primary information hub for project teams and as a platform to highlight the impact of YEA projects for stakeholders, including the public. The website is expected to evolve over time, starting with project descriptions and background information about YEA, and then expanding to include project impact stories and other highlights. YEA-CN coordinated evaluation resources and supported the alignment of grantee evaluation efforts to AFRI and USDA priority areas. The YEA-CN Evaluation team held initial calls (Sept-Nov 2023) with the YEA projects leadership and participated/presented during the First Initial National YEA-CN Meeting (December 15, 2023). Finally, the YEA-CN Evaluation team coordinated/co-presented the "Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE)" workshop during the YEA National Conference on March 6, 2024. In Fall 2023, the RFP process was initiated to determine a contractor for the creation of the YEA-CN clearinghouse portal (CP), and a contractor was brought on board in September 2023. Internal Design and discovery meetings between YEA-CN and contractor took place during Fall 2023. As of May 2024, the portal had been built and tested in "sandbox" (i.e., draft) form, final quality assurance testing has been completed and the portal have been deployed into production environment. An invitation for YEA-CN Portal Kick off events has been distributed to all the YEA partners. Kick-Off events include a Getting to the Portal session and YEA-CN Portal E-Party (both events are scheduled for the first two weeks in June 2024). The YEA-CN held the First Initial National Meeting on December 15, 2023, and the First YEA National Conference (March 6 and 7, 2024) where the YEA-CN Team, YEA Project leadership and NIFA Leadership participated in an interactive meeting designed to encourage collaboration, networking, efficiency, and sharing of best practices. For example, during our First YEA National Conference each of the YEA projects presented updates and challenges about their projects following by a group discussion:" Forging Connections" where attendees had the opportunity to find what connections and synergies they noticed between projects. Partner feedback was systematically collected via breakout group notes and flip-chart activities; the data were subsequently synthesized and summarized by the evaluation team to inform ongoing decision making. YEA-CN started the formation of the YEA National Steering Committee (NSC). During the First YEA National Conference a listening session (Centering youth voices in the National Steering Committee) was integrated with the goal of answer some questions such as: What are your YEA project realities of selecting a regional youth advisory representative to serve on the National Steering Committee? and What are best practices for youth integration into the National Steering Committee? One representative from National Future Farmers of America (FFA) Organization attended this First National Conference as a Non-Voting Member. Some YEA partners have already identified adult members that will be integrating the NSC. YEA-CN hosted the First YEA National Conference in Portland, Oregon on March 6-7, 2024 that included professional development sessions and/or activities. The professional development topics covered during this conference included: Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE); Learn to facilitate Community Conversations About Mental Health and Leading with awareness: Skills for Equity-Focused Leadership. YEA-CN invited a representative of National Future Farmers of America to participate in the YEA National Steering Committee as a non-voting, ad hoc member. The representative of National FFA attended and participated actively during all conference sessions, including our listening session: "Centering youth voices in the National Steering Committee" held during our YEA National Conference on March 7, 2024. YEA-CN provided professional development trainings, that included Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation (CREE) workshop and tabletop discussions during the First National Conference. Some of the questions discussed during those tabletop discussions included: In what ways does your work reflect CREE principles and values? What opportunities do you see for your work? This session was hybrid giving the opportunity to YEA leadership to invite their project evaluator and/or project evaluation team join us virtually. The session was cofacilitated by Karyl J.S. Askew, Karyl Askew Consulting LLC, Spirit Brooks, OSU Director of Outdoor School and Steven Braun, YEA-CN External Evaluator. YEA Climate Change Curriculum Project (CCCP) In this first year of the project, the primary goals were to select staff, contractors, and key partners essential to success. Additional priorities were the initial development of a scope and sequence, content, lesson formats, as well as holding the first planning meeting. In Fall 2023 the RFP process was initiated to determine a contractor for planning, facilitation, and project management support for the curriculum development, and a contractor was brought on board in November 2023. The Climate Change Curriculum Coordinator also began in their role in November. In December 2023, a five-member Advisory Committee was formed, joining the OSUE team as part of the project team. Representatives from American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Hawai'i, Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, and the National Climate Assessment Committee are included. In January 2024, four Writing Team Leaders were contracted to assist in the development of the curriculum. In advance of a project planning meeting in February 2024, one of the primary objectives of Year 1, a virtual workshop was held with the curriculum facilitator in January to initiate the curriculum design process to begin developing instructional goals, instructional strategies, and identifying next steps. The outcomes of the three-day February planning meeting included the development of curriculum goals and guiding statements, draft scope and sequence, and draft lesson components and templates.
Publications
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