Engagement mechanisms:

• Community centers/senior centers and YMCA/4-H/clubs/schools are easy target areas to reach people; summer meal sites-especially closed sites where people must enroll for the program 
• How to stretch the food dollar
• Need to go to where people are and speak their language- like point of  purchase education (live demonstrations) 
• Change what is normal/easy purchasing and consumption of food to make behavior change. Those at farmers’ markets have already made the step to nutrient-dense foods
• Web-based information materials: 
  • Websites 
  • Social media 
  • Text messages 
  • Important for the cultural change that is happening in our society 
  • Provides a lot of “touches” 
  • Make games for kids (physical activity)- run so many steps, etc.; make it fun and trendy
• Increase awareness of Extension as a resource 
• Schools 
  • Just as important to teach nutrition education as math, etc. and that seems to be less and less in schools “how to eat healthy”
• Being involved in policy (in schools, etc.) 
• Junior master gardeners 
• Conferences ok for professional development 

Priority Audiences:

• If you change a kid’s thinking, then we change adult thinking 
• Low income and at-risk populations who have less resources 
• Eliminating health disparities 
  • Call out inequity in racial and ethnical minorities 
• Educators 
• Over 70% of the population of tick habitation is within 200 yards of ticks- opens it up to all  demographics 
• Seniors/elderly 
• Those who do the grocery shopping and cooking are important, but the kids drive what is on the grocery list. 

Potential Partners:

• 4-H is a natural match; encourage 4-H clubs to do a garden and donate to a specific food bank 
• Outdoor and nature education groups  
• Within the schools, help develop curricula (like science) 
• Organizations that do healthy food access 
• Work with ethnic communities to tailor health standards/recommendations to meet the cultural needs and with low-income minorities- how to use foods in the pantry 
• Chefs that work with cuisines
• Partners where resources can be purchased (like Stop and Shop; demonstrate how to use a vegetable; provide a coupon to purchase it) 

Resources to leverage:

• Collaborations
• Partnering with other universities- like Johnson and Wales (because they are food-safe certified and chef, recipe-development)
• 4-H existing material that is already out there

Other Comments:

• A lot of dietary recommendations, etc. come out and don’t match up to cultural dietary habits
• Use demonstrations to show how easy it is to prepare healthy meals 

Engagement mechanisms:

• ● What was done initially, they set up a survey across the state to see the density of the lime disease tick transmitters. So now knew where high-risk neighborhoods were. At risk people and risk mitigators need to come together, but they don’t know each other. Ex: based on a demonstration, one neighborhood decided to spray entire neighborhood and they haven’t had ticks since. 
• People asked for brochures for websites. 1.1 million people viewed the website last year. But people still like a piece of paper; too many words don’t seem to work- often seen in a brochure. Use high-impact graphics to make the point. 
• Have a contest for kids for the website to get kids to know your website and also to be familiar with the kids. 
• Train-the-trainer to spread the knowledge (like with groups who work directly with kids to provide education to the kids) 
• Maybe think smaller in what is taught—just focus on one topic, not all tick knowledge 
• Possibly utilize university students (for credit, etc.) to train and then they go out and educate. 
• Maybe push “check for these ticks” which may agree with people’s ideas of not wanting to spray  chemicals 

Priority audiences:

• Over 70% of the population of tick habitation is within 200 yards of ticks- opens it up to all demographics. 
• We educate children

Potential partners:

• Health insurance companies (their health risk measures are ot tied to that, so it’s not on their list to accomplish) 
• Minute clinics (like CVS minute clinics) to educate CVS staff to know to go to TickSpotter 
• Providence Urban Wildlife 
• Homestead movement that do natural tick repellants 
• Local partners

Other comments:

• Associate ticks with weight as in “don’t be like the fat tick”

Engagement mechanisms:

• Kids learn great from kids
• CE involved in policy (like with schools and incorporating mindfulness like yoga into everyday practice in school)

Priority audiences:

• Obesity part affects kids across the spectrum, so with 4-H it affects all demographics.
• Two topics can be addressed through 4-H: food intake and emotional/peer pressure/unhealthy situations

Potential partners:

• URI debate club with 4-H debate club (big brother/big sister situation)
• Mediation center on campus? If so, that could be a good resource for peer-mediation
• URI students could have a larger role (they all have experience with conflict, etc.).
  Schools: afterschool programs

Other comments:

• Focus on healthy mandates (social and emotional well-being)- empower kids; this will lead to  leadership at home (to make decisions on what they want to eat) and also so kids don’t turn to food when things go bad
• Anxiety depression and social well-being are a real concern by cities for the kids
• Put cooking back into 4-H…less on the other focus areas like STEM
• Put a theme into 4-H to use throughout the year

General comments:

• If you are looking to save dollars, working with seniors and the elderly because they have the chronic diseases. If you are interested in long-term prevention, look at kids and families.
• It is more about preventing people from getting sick, not treating the sickness.