In this week’s issue:

• Happy New Year
• FCH Panel Discusses Blue Zones to Packed House
• Communication and connection opportunities
• Annual Conference photos available
• Extension Web Update
• Diversity Highlights
• What are you reading?
• Extension in the news

Happy New Year

This is the last ConnEXTion newsletter for 2018. The next edition will be January 8, 2019.

FCH Panel Discusses Blue Zones to Packed House

On Nov. 2, Family and Community Health Extension’s Patty Case, Mandy Hatfield, Cheryl Kirk and Lauren Kraemer presented the College of Public Health and Human Sciences’ Friday research seminar. In their presentation, which drew a standing-room-only crowd at the Hallie Ford Center, they provided an overview of the framework, strategies and evaluation methods used by the Blue Zones Project and how they are applying it in each of their communities.

Blue Zones are geographically defined areas where people live measurably longer lives. Researchers studying these areas have developed a well-being model for community transformation called the Blue Zones Project (BZP). This model focuses on people, places and policy through multisector engagement in schools, worksites, restaurants, grocery stores, faith based and civic organizations.

At the core of Blue Zones Project is a concentration on community-supported health. Results have been encouraging and in 2018 the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded Klamath County with its coveted Culture of Health Prize.

Communication and connection opportunities

Is there anything about which you are interested, curious, or concerned? Here are some ways to share and ask:

• Online form to submit questions (Think of this like a virtual comment box.)
• OSU Extension Slack workspace or informal communication and collaboration
• Read ConnEXTions weekly, and contribute!
• O&E blog with First Monday videos (Engage via the comment section!)
• Outreach & Engagement Quarterly Conversations (Next: February 15, 2019)

Annual Conference photos available

Extension Web Update

Analytics update for six months post-launch. See the top 20 in our blog.

Diversity Highlights

Please contact analu.fonseca@oregonstate.edu with any questions or comments or if you have suggestions for events or news stories to include in Diversity Highlights.

Video of the Week:

What Women With Autism Want You to Know | Iris

Here’s what women with autism want you to know.

Events & Resources

LGBTQ+ Community Potluck: Join the Human Dignity Coalition’s potluck on December 29^th at 1:00 pm in Bend. Open to allies, community members of all ages and identities. For more information visit the event page.

PDX Civic Forum: The Impact of Incarceration: Join in on January 31^st from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm as the Portland Leadership Foundation unravel the issues regarding incarceration in Oregon. December 31 in Portland, for more information visit the event page.

Creating Equitable & Culturally Inclusive Environment: Join Jane Waite (SJEI) for critical inquiry: Why do students experience the same classes differently? How does who we are impact the ways we teach and learn?  What constitutes an equitable environment? January 15 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm in Corvallis, for more information visit the event page.

We are all Treaty People: Sweetwater Nannauck: Join us for a day of learning together with Sweetwater Nannauck as part of the We Are All Treaty People Speaker Series. Two workshops will take place on January 12, for more information on times and locations visit the event page.

In the News

All Abilities Tri4Youth Allows Everyone to Compete

No one sits on the sidelines at the All Abilities Tri4Youth. For the second year, Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District (THPRD) and FACT Oregon proudly hosted the safe, fun, fully-accessible race that emphasizes inclusion.

Linguistics prof gets NEH grant to protect indigenous languages

To date, more than 7,000 languages are spoken around the world. As Gabriela Pérez Báez explains, languages hold critical knowledge about the history of survival of the communities of speakers, their ecological perspectives and their well-being.

Literature for Justice: Stories of Incarceration

5 Books That Explore Our Nation’s Prisons and the Crisis of Mass Incarceration.

Making a Dream Come True: USA Football

Klamath Tribal Member, Ollie Herbert has received an invitation to play on the Team USA women’s football team in the Cancun Bowl in Cancun, Mexico on March 9, 2019.

Kindergarten teacher writes bilingual children’s book on how to use gender neutral pronouns

If the walls of Sylvia Mendez Elementary School could talk, they would speak in a sophisticated Spanglish. The long corridors are painted in two different shades of blue, a rich vibrant teal adjacent to a pastel turquoise. Towards the end of the hall, kitty-corner to the all-student restroom, is room 101, Lourdes Rivas’s kindergarten classroom.

What are you reading?

Please share an interesting book, blog, or article you’ve read lately. What’s one insight you gleaned?

Extension in the news

Researcher identifies new weapons against slugs
Capital Press
An added advantage of these oils is the rapid mortality they cause in slugs, whereas one of the most common chemical molluscicides used by Oregon farmers, iron phosphate, simply causes them to stop feeding, said Rory McDonnell, Oregon State University’s slug specialist.

Oregon’s top forage growers honored
Capital Press
Mylen Bohle, an OSU Extension forage specialist in Central Oregon, said the quality of the Hay King entries was “very good.” He said the top two entries in one category were separated by less than a point and another category was almost as close.

Wallowa County ag leaders win state awards
Wallowa County Chieftain
Three Wallowa County ag supporters were recognized last week at the Annual Oregon State University Conference.