Employers recognize the impact that mental health and substance use can have on employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention, but struggle to address them. Extension professionals who partner with workplaces on these issues can offer the Compassion & Resilience Education at Work or CREW Curriculum from Purdue Extension. CREW is a…

CREATE BRIDGES is a program designed for multi-county regions to raise awareness of the role retail, accommodations, tourism, and entertainment businesses play in the local economy; determine challenges and opportunities related to those businesses; and develop and implement strategies strengthening those sectors. CREATE BRIDGES was developed through a collaborative partnership…

One Block at Time addresses flooding through green infrastructure projects at the city block scale that center on equitable, community-driven engagement and planning. The toolkit is organized based on project phases of background assessment, community visioning, and implementation. The online resources include process agendas, education and visualization resources, outcomes, lessons…

The Rural Grocery Specialist Certificate Program trains and deploys resource professionals across the country to better serve rural grocers through business transitions. This course includes seven self-paced online modules covering key topics for supporting rural grocers through business transition. Each module consists of between five and 10 video lessons led…

The program supports a collaborative community planning approach to evaluate the relevance and effectiveness of existing community policies and to identify goals, motivations, and barriers for hazard mitigation planning, focusing on water resources, flooding, and green infrastructure. The program includes: Discussions of local community resiliency; Reviewing existing plans and ordinances…

Taking Action to Address Substance Use in Communities: A Protocol for Communities has been developed by a team of health professionals and Extension professionals from Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and The Ohio State University to provide a theoretical framework for Extension professionals as they work with communities…

Future Opportunities for Rural Workforce and Rural Development (FORWARD) Sponsored by Ascendium Education Group, the FORWARD curriculum is designed to support Cooperative Extension Professionals (CEPs) working to address workforce development issues in rural communities. This project expands upon Cooperative Extension’s experience with youth engagement and career development to target non-traditional…

This guide is written to help produce sustainable behavioral changes within communities.

The Beginner’s Guide to Grant Writing (BGGW) workshop is an award-winning two-day in-person training in which participants draft a proposal, give and receive feedback on each other’s proposal, search for funders, and learn the importance of building relationships with partners and funders. The BGGW workshop is an efficient, economical, evidence-based…

The health of any organization is directly related to the skills of that organization’s employees. Further, community developers understand that healthy organizations are necessary for a vital community. University of Illinois Extension Educators developed an educational program aimed at improving the customer service skills of staff people in local businesses,…