Archive for Capacity Building and Facilitation

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2023 NET Conference upholds tradition of seeding new connections and collaborations

More than 80 members of the National Extension Tourism network (NET) gathered in Milwaukee, WI, in September for four days of networking, learning, and experiencing greater Milwaukee. NERCRD staff provide support to the conference planning team, and participated in several presentations and workshops.

Enhancing the Viability of Underserved Small Farms and Rural Communities Using Insights from Emerging Network Science

The NERCRD brought together partners including Delaware State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Tennessee State University for a competitive USDA capacity building grant. This project will provide the opportunity to expand networks for small farmers in Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. This project team has produced a substantial training manual for Extension Educators […]

Linking Health Care Reform and Economic Development in the Agriculture Sector

Researchers and Extension professionals engaged with this project explored how health insurance decisions affect farm and ranch families. Activities included interviewing farmers, hosting webinars, analyzing policy impacts, and developing tools for professionals who work with farm families.

AMS Grant Writing Workshops and Technical Assistance (AMSTA)

Launched in 2014, this project funded by USDA Agricultural Marketing Service and National Institutes of Food and Agriculture shared knowledge through in-person grant writing workshops and additional tools and materials provided through the AMSTA website. In Phase I, 137 state trainings focusing on effective grant-writing practices, with an emphasis on USDA’s Farmers Market and Local […]

USDA AMS Local and Regional Food Systems COVID-19 Rapid Response

NERCRD partnered with the University of Kentucky and Colorado State University on a one-year Cooperative Agreement with the USDA Agriculture Marketing Service to research the impacts, adaptations and innovations of COVID-19 on U.S. Local and Regional Food Systems nationally. This highly engaged, real-time project focuses on capturing rapid responses of initial and ongoing COVID-19-related changes […]

Northeast Digital Equity Summit

The Northeast Digital Equity Summit was held September 19, 2023, and provided an opportunity for land-grant University educators and researchers across the Northeast region and beyond to learn from one another and expand capacity for digital equity programming. Follow the link below for more information.

NERCRD Small-Grants Program

In 2015, NERCRD launched a small-grants program aimed at helping Northeast Land-Grant University faculty and educators document the impacts of their work while also encouraging collaboration across state lines. Since then, the program has been offered in 2017 and 2019, and has engaged 53 people in 12 states, resulting in new collaborative knowledge-sharing networks in […]

National Extension Tourism Network

NERCRD and the National Extension Tourism Network (NET) have a longstanding partnership, with NERCRD providing substantial staff support to the network since 2018. This page provides a brief historical outline of the ways in which NERCRD and NET have partnered over the years. More information about NET is available on the NET website: https://extensiontourism.net. 2018-2019: […]

National Extension Outdoor Recreation Working Group

Since 2023, NERCRD has provided administrative and communications support to an initiative emerging from its collaboration with the National Extension Tourism Network, in response to the 2022 USDA Interagency Memorandum of Understanding on Supporting the Nation’s Outdoor Recreation Economy (MOU). The MOU states that building the U.S. recreation economy is one of the USDA’s top […]

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NERCRD honored with National Extension Tourism Partner Award

The award, given by the National Extension Tourism (NET) Design Team at its biennial conference in September, recognized the NERCRD for its contributions that have made a significant positive impact on the NET organization, including support of a strategic planning process and partnership on a project-accelerator grant.