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So, first of all, let's kick things off. Hello to everybody! Welcome to the fourth Health Equity Webinar. I'm Sue Higgins, and I'm a community research associate representing the three NIH funded research centers hosting this webinar from Montana State University in Bozeman. These are the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity, Montana INBRE, and the American Indian/Alaska Native Clinical and Translational Research Program. I'd first like to acknowledge and honor with respect to be indigenous stewards on whose traditional territories MSU now stands and whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day. MSU is located in the common hunting ground and major traditional crossroads for Plains and Plateau Native Nations including Blackfeet, Shoshone, and Nez Perce. Today's webinar is one that's been requested by many health researchers who undertake community-based participatory research or CBPR to conduct their projects in rural and Native communities they've been wanting to learn more about the expertise and function of MSU Extension in these communities and how to better collaborate with extension agents and specialists in their work well today we're really lucky to have the experts here to share information to answer any questions you may have on that topic of questions we're gonna wait till our three presenters have presented and then you can submit your questions in the Q&A function which might be at either at the top or the bottom of your screen our first speaker is gonna be Dr. Cody Stone. He will kick things off he's the executive director of MSU Extension he holds degrees in biochemistry and agricultural education and received his doctorate in adult and higher education administration from ?. Dr. Brianna Routh is a Health and Human Development assistant professor at MSU and she's also an extension specialist with a background in public health Human Development and nutrition and as a researcher working with extension already. Dr. Mark Schure is an assistant professor of community health at MSU he is an NIH funded researcher of depression among older adults and his current projects include a study of an internet-based intervention in support of mental health well-being in rural Montanans and of a project to evaluate a trauma-informed program for the crow nation a few other final notes as I as I said before will have asked our three speakers who present and then we'll have question in the answers which you can enter in the Q&A function and we're also recording this webinar and a link will come to you at some point for all who have registered and we'll also be posting this on our website if you know people who miss this thank you very much for joining us today and we hope this finds you doing well in these really unusual times it's great to have you here and with that I'll ask dr. stone to please kick things off and he's muted so hang on just a second Cody I'll get you unmuted here thanks ooh Thank You Cody go ahead oh I think there's probably a lot of people out there that would like to have a mute button for me ever so I hope everybody is doing good thanks for joining us it's just really exciting time to talk with a group about engagement with communities and in what communities are looking for in regards not only to kovat 19 needs but also in regards to community based or locally identified needs and how MSU Extension is poised to meet those but can partner with researchers and educators across the university system and across the university to really address some of those locally identified needs and and match with that so we're gonna give a brief overview of kind of what we're gonna be talking about today on our next slide again Breanna is one of our extension faculty members and then we've partnered with mark on several different projects as well but we're gonna really talk in regards to what extension is and how does that relate to health and identified needs in regards to health we're all gonna also going to talk a little bit about how can researchers engage and partner with them su extension on various different levels from our agents across the state to our subject matter specialists who are on campus as well how to approach the extension and and how can we engage in a conversation and a deliberative dialogue about looking for ways to truly partner as we're moving forward with these collaborative efforts I talked about some of the experiences in regards to partnering with the extension and then because of the times that we are currently and also talk about kovat 19 and what might be some specific considerations in our communities across the state of Montana msu extension is strategically placed to meet the needs of the people in the places of montana our mission is to improve the lives of Montana citizens by providing unbiased research-based information in education we integrate learning discovery and engagement to strengthen social economic and environmental well-being of individuals families and communities next slide so you please things so we do have a system or a network of faculty and staff both on campus but also across the state and it's important to understand and and and articulate that we have faculty members that represent and serve all of our 56 counties and seven reservation as extension agents they are faculty members with MSU as well and we also have subject matter expert specialists that are individuals who are departmentalized within colleges and departments on campus at MSU our agents that are in the field have an opportunity and a need for engagement in research and in scholarship and in development of scholarly products many of the scholarly products that we develop an extension are readily available for consumption by that by a consumer or by a partner group or individuals that we work with we have a series of educational guides we call macht guides that focus on specific topics that are that are peer-reviewed and provide that research-based knowledge and information as well as both journal reviewed articles practical articles and lay publications regarding health as we're really thinking about extension we're still back on the other slide sue thanks Andy that one you went the other direction back to slides sorry about that that correct one more one okay so when we're talking about engagement with that with scholarship but specifically as it relates to health we really take a broad holistic view of health and really engaging across the state in working in many different areas within community from food and nutrition to chronic health fiscal health personal well-being mental health and then across generations as well as gerontology and integrating that work in regards to more holistic views of health as it relates to extension an important aspect though is that we're really focused on meeting state and locally identified needs and those needs that are identified on the local level or are identified by our state specialists or groups of agents that might be that might cross across our state as well but we're really focused on that locally identified need and in meeting those needs the other thing that again I would just articulate is that extension is the mechanism by which the university can articulate that the entire state is our campus with our extension presence across the state we can move to the next slide so when we're talking about engaging and partnering and ratio research and developing those partnerships between university faculty members and extension faculty whether they be on campus or faculty members in our communities again we would drive home that those are driven by our Faculty's interest that they may have within their local communities and then locally identified needs these could include communications with communities and can engagement with community needs assessments program delivery assessments in regards to needs and evaluations and then direct programmatic efforts as well so Brianna's going to talk a little bit about some basic communications with those communities thanks Cody so again just wanting to share some of the ways that continual communication really happens across extension but particularly when we're thinking about research in extension or with extension we really want to think about communicating what is happening with that research with the community throughout the process so that can be things like sharing what the research efforts might be through websites or social media so that communities are aware of what's happening in their community it can also be things that I know many of you are doing like advisory boards but also things like community presentations to different stakeholders who might be taking part in the research itself or advising on the research but also generally community members that may not have anything to do with the research but just wanting to know what MSU is doing in their community it can also be communication through things like needs assessments to understand but also share back that information and as well as using one of the wonderful things that we have in extension is those community faculty members who are on the ground in those communities and they can often give insights into what that communication might best look like so even if they aren't maybe members of the research team that's happening in that community having them be aware of what's happening because they might have ideas around what that communication could look like to ensure that the community knows what's happening there too the other component that we wanted to talk about was research design and what that might look like within extension so we often hear that something like randomized control trials are maybe a gold standard when we're thinking about research design and while that may be true in some circles that's not always the best approach when we're thinking about what research outreach and engagement might look like with an extension one of the reasons that that might be is because we don't necessarily want to say that certain groups would not receive the intervention or we may not gather an understanding from that group of people as well so thinking about things there may be just some slight shifts from an RCT thinking about can there be a delayed control or some sort of alternate resource that people might be able to get instead of a strict RCT but additionally thinking about what are those practical applications from that race and thinking about that throughout the research design process so thinking about how is this something that can be used in the community but also when thinking about the research design how does that practically play out within a community so one example that I can give is we had a randomized controlled trial that did have a delayed control but thinking about how do you randomize people we didn't want to randomize the individuals instead we randomized the families or the people could register within a group because we thought that it was really important to be able to have that support network as a part of this health and wellness effort that we were doing and that that was not only adding to the potential efficacy of the study that we were testing but also was more practical in terms of what that long-term sustainability might look like people are more likely to join a class if they have a friend that's coming to it for example so that brings me again to our next point here which is thinking about throughout the research process what is that sustainability flexibility and equity of those outputs and outcomes of your research and outreach efforts so this can be things like is this a program that can continue and how would it continue after that grant funding is gone this can be a big challenge so I know many of you are thinking about us researchers but you know we want to have a good name for MSU and MSU Extension moving forward and one of those ways is to not maybe say do a research study and then disappear from the community after that's done similarly sharing back those results with the community but also thinking about how does that programming continue or maybe even expand beyond the region that it was able to be done in the grant cycle process additionally I would also like to put in a plug for flexibility that's a big thing in our MSU Extension you may have be aware of other extensions that function in different ways but in our extension agents within their communities have a lot of flexibility in terms of how they do programming and what programming they do and so thinking about what does that look like if you are developing say an intervention that consider are there other possibilities to have an effective program without say a scripted dialogue the facilitator might need to use or what types of adaptations could different communities make to different program offerings but you could also potentially test in different research designs but thinking about what does this look like in the long term for involving flexibility and having that equity so it is something that could be used in a variety of different communities in a variety of different approaches Cody did you have anything to add to that I think it's great I think you articulated that really well I think it's important to think what are those ethical kind of concerns if we're looking at working within a community as it relates to trials and in those samples and made there might be that delayed intervention that's able to happen which i think is important to articulate but then again flexibility of new ways of doing those things and honoring that that local knowledge that the Extension agents bring and that flexibility that they have as faculty members as well as important to think about and Sue let's go go to the next slide I will just share briefly about a research effort that myself and a few other colleagues have undertaken Michelle croaky and Kerri ash we have conducted a statewide health needs health and wellness needs assessment in the last year or so with the support of our department and extension and it was specifically focused on extension but I think that the results will apply broadly and so I wanted to share just a little bit about what that is and put in a plug that will have some more information coming soon but the kinds of things that we looked at and also hope to share with other researchers to hopefully inform maybe their next steps in research as well are looking at what are the meanings that people have of health and wellness what are different supports and barriers to health goals that people identified community resources topics of interest in delivery methods that people were interested in and some brief highlights we were able to get almost a thousand respondents from over from all 56 counties and over 13 tribes represented and that did include over half of the respondents who are not currently Extension participants so we got a fairly wide variety of folks to respond and some of the highlights in terms of top resources people found that physical locations like indoor outdoor rec space farmers markets were more supportive than things like peer support or school wellness programs again this did vary by demographics as well and our top three topics of interest we looked pretty broadly but kept it somewhat within topics that we address in extension they included stress management physical activity and food preparation were the top three topics overall and we're also looking at delivery methods found that in-person traditional delivery methods were the highest but they were under 50% of participants and most were only interested in one or two classes so that's also something to consider but at the same time thinking about what does that mean for health behavior change you might consider a varied approaches in terms of thinking about technology and the audience demographics to see what is most likely going to have the most benefit and as I mentioned we will be having sharing a report about that here in coming weeks it's being finalized at the moment and we hope to also have a webinar that we can share those results and brainstorm as well what some next may be research and outreach steps might be in the state based on some of these findings and so you can go on to the next slide so we just wanted to share a couple different examples and this is by no means an exhaustive list but some different ways that you might consider approaching extension if you are thinking about wanting to work with extension in a research or outreach capacity in the future and so first and foremost as I'm sure many of you are aware it's about beginning those discussions and relationships in advance of the funding opportunities so really thinking about meeting with different researchers and faculty as well as stakeholders to identify what those local challenges might be as well as thinking about can you look at what maybe has already been done in those communities to identify different needs as well as the feasibility this might be connecting with those community stakeholders or also connecting with folks in extension to see where that discussion might lead and so that means also not necessarily coming with a definitive research project or outreach project but being open to where that conversation might lead as well sometimes it can mean coming with a specific project though as well I will say but when you're thinking about how you want to approach the faculty we have as Cody mentioned we have agents who are faculty in the counties as well as content specialists on campus both of which can take part in all areas of the research and outreach process and so I just listed a variety of things here that might get you started to think about what types of things extension faculty might be able to do as a in a partnership with you the community agent faculty would be great in terms of consulting and thinking about who are those community experts as well but that's not their only area that they can help in they're great too in terms of being able to help recruit and connect to participants and stakeholders they also often help in data collection in intervention development so not just the delivery of an intervention but also the whole scale development of what that might look like and they can also help in things like practical analysis and dissemination they may not necessarily want to take the time and effort to do SEM modeling for example but some of them may as well but definitely thinking about how can you utilize and benefit from their expertise in terms of what can this look like from a practical community-based perspective to some may also be interested in grant writing but also I would say that both agents and specialists also have full plates - in terms of research that they're or outreach that they are already doing so just remember that when you think about asking them and come with specific questions in terms of what asking them what they would be interested in but having some ideas around what folks might want to do as well and similarly thinking about specialists again I'm a specialist but there are specialists in all variety of areas on campus and we can also again partner in all of those outreach or research efforts or help to potentially connect you to communities and and things like thinking about the needs assessment that I just shared we can maybe point you in the direction of different ideas that are happening broadly across the state as local agents can tell you things that their community might specifically be interested in and as well as we can help consult in both the process and the content that you might be thinking about across the the research timeline and I would also just say thinking about - what ways that you can include agents and specialists in your grant if you're thinking about funding possibilities it is important to to consider it again that time so thinking about what that time is going to look like for them as well as if they have any monetary needs or travel needs - there are some particular things that are easier or maybe more difficult to do and it's dependent on the agent and the county that they're in as well for funding so it's also important as you're thinking about that process to be in contact with either someone within extension or specifically the grant specialist with an extension to to see what monetarily that support could look like Brianna I think it's a great point that you pointed out beginning at the very start talking about involving early particularly with our County agents our tribal agents and our specialists we do also have a grant coordinator with M MSU Extension Kristin Scott who can help through the process of development and if there are opportunities for engagement with in budgets Kristin can help P is as they're developing that if they're partnering with the extension there was one question Brian as you were talking about the three main topics of interest that came out of the needs assessment stress management physical activity and the third was yes the third was food preparation and there's a whole host of other topics I just wanted to give you a teaser of what those top three were so now I think we'll move to the next slide and can turn it over for Mark to share a little bit about his experience okay Guinea hear me hello everyone this is mark and glad to be part of this forum I think my role here is to give you an example of how researchers can interface with extension agents and I've got three examples here that I've been directly working on for the last several years here the first is it's right for Montana research project that's right for Montana just to give you a little background there there's a thing that's comparable across all of these things and that is mental health and one of the main issues that we've been tackling within this in the state is has been mental health and suicide rates so the origins of the tribe for Montana the youth or as a mental health as well as a youth mental health awareness campaign that you see on the slide are all efforts to address some of the mental health disparities that exist in the state primarily with Montana being a rural US state were exemplary of issues that are going on across rural America anyways the drive for Montana research project actually originated from Ms use Center for mental Health's research and recovery and this started back in 2016 we went in with this idea of some external researchers and then the den director of the center thinking that we've got to come up with some evidence-based interventions that could add direct directly a tackle these some of these sticky issues in the state tribe for Montana's is is basically a project that's focused on delivering an internet-based cognitive behavior therapy program called fraud early on we were aware that for this to be successful to go beyond the urban centers of the state we needed to part we needed to have key partnerships one of those being MSU Extension another being a nonprofit called one Montana both of which do really good at being able to basically connect with their communities throughout the state particularly of challenge I think for a lot of MSU research and other universities in a state is really being able to get into the rural communities throughout the state and then that has really been a challenge I think among a lot of projects so we feel that by partnering with MSU Extension we felt that was our way those were our gatekeepers into those communities and let me go back to a needs assessment that Breanna I think you talked about periodically every few years the office of rural health in Montana does community needs assessments around health and consistently over the last several assessments the top two health issues that have been raised our mental health and substance abuse problems and so we have been able to take that information and say okay dis validates us doing what we're doing but let's go before we start doing real RCT like you said Brianna whether or not we should do randomized control trials drop down let's go in and see whether or not these programs are actually going to work for rural Montana as much less Montana's in general so we decided and we worked with MSU Extension to do this was to arrange community meetings focus groups so that we can get information from community members about their feedback on the program as it existed and we feel that doing that has really enhanced the the impact of what we are doing fully in Montana with Drive I'll say essentially that what we've been hearing back from MSU is that well this program is viable and and can be very effective because it's a video based program that uses example videos to you know basically show how the program can work in real life is that we needed to bring a rural flair into that and so we effectively took that information and decided to modify or adapt the program so that it can be or can resonate more effectively with world Montana's so we move forward with that at that new program adaptive program and we essentially then decided to randomized control trial in the state and we feel like that has really paid dividends but let me feedback about essentially what what this means as far as our partnership with that mr. extension we not only partnered with extension to promote the tribe project they have essentially been the gatekeepers in their communities for us to interface with community members promote it but it's also enabled us to really hear what rural Montana's and hanen's from rural communities are telling us about it and and the Extension agents in each and every County have really been a boys for us to understand them so I feel like partnering with MSU Extension has paid dividends as far as our research but I hope it also has paid dividends as far as I'll reach an impact for real Montana's throughout the state I want to speak briefly although I'm not directly involved with this is with the youth awareness of mental health which is another program that came out of the Center for mental health research and recovery it has now been in implemented in over 30 schools throughout the state there has been a concerted effort to make sure that this program which is youth driven and it's implemented within school systems that it's not only being implemented in in the major urban centers of the state but is also reaching the rural communities in which are probably even most in need of this this intervention and MSU Extension has been an instrumental part of doing that we've been able to train over 20 MSU Extension agents to implement this program throughout the state thus far and we we see that this is a growing there's a growing potential for this intervention to to be in all state schools that need it related to this is the last bulleted item on here the youth mental health awareness campaign which I have been invited to participate with the principal investigator Stephanie Davison who is with MSU Extension and this is a USDA funded project that is really wanting to track in in to tribal communities in the state the Flathead nation and then the rocky boy tribal area in implement a youth driven mental health awareness campaign and to see how effective that is in reducing a number of mental health related indicators including stigma and other behaviors associated with mental health and mental health care so you know I think MSU Extension has a lot to offer and I don't want to take up much more time I want to leave time for questions and answers but I just think that MSU Extension is one of the most essential entities out there that really ties University work University research outreach and education to all ask all parts of the state so I think right now I just like to say that overall my experience with MSU Extension has been very positive and continues to be a learning experience learning experience about what they do and how effective they can do it so I'll end it there thank you thank you mark and to all three of our speakers I see there's another slide here was this your slut or is this mark mark easy no this is this is Kody and Breanna slide but I did just want to say mark thanks so much for the kind words I didn't even have to pay you for it but partnering it has been a pleasure as well and you appreciate those opportunities in which we can engage with faculty members who are not connected with extension but are looking for a place to really include work that really is meeting the needs of the people in the places of Montana we just wanted to overview briefly two things one is in regards to some research-based information and now we're sharing that MSU Extension has a kovat 19 website as a place in which individuals can go for resources and connections and we have information there about Community Health and connections their families and children AG producers business and communities and two new resources one through embryo and care a resources for Native American communities and then also a link to a website which is a kovat 19 blog site that has been put up in a sponsored by the disease e call ecology lab with the department of microbiology and immunology and just wanted to bring that to the attention I think Breanna's going to talk about three things and then I'm gonna wrap it up with a little needs assessment that we also recently did as it relates to Cove at 19 Thanks so yeah I just wanted to again reiterate that really what we're attempting to do in extension is share that research based outreach with as many people as we can reach in the state and that means making sure that that research-based information and resources are geared towards that public audience and so a couple different that we do that and also invite not only extension folks to participate in but also our wider research community at MSU we have a thing called lives and landscapes which is a oh now you can see me on video which is a magazine that is again research-based but geared towards the general public we also have wellness wednesdays just a brief plug for those Michele grouchy and myself have been putting those out weekly now since the Copan demek has been going on but this is again sharing research-based resources from all over the country with the public through our website as well as through msu extension facebook so if you see those and want to share them but also if you have any additional resources that you might want to share with us that we can put out to the larger community and this effort also is again taking that research-based information but we love to share things that come from MSU researchers as well as I wanted to put in a plug and I see that there is a question about this as well our Family and Consumer Science agents as well as I'm seeing it in agents across the state in a variety of different areas are doing different webinar series we also have things like snap education that's happening through Facebook live events so we're using a variety of different technologies whether it's WebEx or Facebook or different things to try to reach the public and still share that research-based information but again we're also open to guest presenters if anyone would like to share things that you are working on or might be relevant to the public as well and now I'll turn it over to Cody to talk about this needs assessment that I think will answer another question I saw in the box - excellent and we can get back to that as well good to see everybody now I'll give a big wave out to everybody virtual high five since we can't slap each other's hands right now I will speak a little bit towards med or later March as our Extension administrative team was entering in to remote work in then thinking about what does this gonna mean for the people in places of Montana what's this going to mean for extension as we're moving through kovat we started to have some visioning conversations and some philosophical conversations about what are going to be those emergent needs and so we asked our administrative team members to engage with the agents that they work with to engage with the specialists and agents that they may work with in their program areas to start thinking about that and so we started having those conversations as an administrative team and we also developed a survey that we sent out across our system that was saying what is it that you're hearing what are what are you hearing from local individuals what are you hearing from communities what are you hearing from local municipalities and/or county commissions in regards to what are going to be some really important aspects as we're moving through and past these the Cova 19 pandemic and so we developed a philosophy document from those that input and that visioning and in the survey that we developed and some of the major themes with that we're community vitality resiliency and leadership development really working with local communities to be engaged and be active in their own futuring and community-based leadership development food security high on the list in regards to food safety home horticulture local food systems nutrition agriculture production across the system economic development in financial security thinking about farm and ranch businesses Community and Economic Development and individuals personal finances as well came up through that survey in envisioning practice as well communicating science-based information again that's connected to the roots of what extension does is produce and and engage the community with information and education and engagement opportunities with research-based unbiased information so communicating that science base was important and again I'll just reiterate and this was shared by both Breanna and Mark well-being and mental health and I think that's really important with this audience thinking about our programs that mark talked about in working with mental health first aid with um in partnering with mark on thrive our farm and ranch stress opportunities opioid prevention nutritional wellness and then also thinking about riding wills advance directives living wills people were asking for information such as that so those are just to wrap up just some opportunities that we've seen perhaps for expanded opportunity for engagement with MSU Extension and opportunities where the university can really meet a need that individuals have identified both on a local and a statewide basis as it relates to kovat 19 I do want to just thank sue for organizing this but also for Breanna and mark for their great presentation as we moved forward with this and I think we'll try to monitor some of the questions and answers and see if we can move through that in our remaining time yes thank you very much twelve three of you this is very interesting good information I have the we're gonna look at your questions in the Q&A function so please type your questions in @qa I have a quick one from that we get from many researchers in communities and they'd like to know how you share the best ways that they can and maybe with extensions help share their research outcomes in community you mentioned this is a really important aspect of any research that's conducted in communities but what you consider are the best ways to try to share information in a way that's useful and applicable in those communities one of you want to grab that one yeah I can start out and see what others have to add I think that that is sometimes community dependent so it's continuing that converse within the community to see how best do they want to receive that information sometimes it might be an article in the local newspaper sometimes it might be something like working with an extension faculty to make a Mont guide that Cody mentioned that we really view as again those research presentation of information that can be used by the public and it's also thinking about what are the types of things that the community wants to hear so there if the thinking about who the audience is not necessarily are they always going to want a full rundown of all of your research methods necessarily they want to know what the implications are for them for their community for their families as well so thinking about how you present that information but sometimes for for us it can range from something like an infographic to visually represent or it might be a community meeting where you're talking about what you've found and have time for that kind of again continued communication or something like a publication again where you're sharing that information as thinking about what that audience might want to know most about that outcome or the bindings I'd reiterate that and I would also say ask again as Bree and I say ask participants make sure we're we're bringing that information back but then if there's opportunity for transferability to other communities and for impact with that engage with the extension see if there's ways in which we can help amplify that message and get that to the stakeholders or individuals that may be within the population that your research is is targeting but if it is transferable from specific communities as we can do that look at ways in which we might partner on developing a communication plan but also maybe some scholarly documents through mont guides or other scholarly products that can really be within the hands of individuals in in reading and getting that information from your research projects right Cody and as a follow up there is a question that just popped up here people are interested in learning about the expertise of agents and specialists and how do they find out those people and their expertise is it on your website or how do they understand who suit the websites a great place to start you can search individuals by a subject matter area particularly for our on-campus individuals you can search individuals through who represent or who are embedded within our communities both tribal and county extension agents through that website it's pretty interactive you can identify some subject matter expertise particularly for the campus based individuals our field faculty have great expertise as well and and do have subject matter knowledge that is specific in some discipline areas and so some of that may be a conversation you might have to start if you're looking for individuals across the state you might have to start with our office and we can help you identify who might be individuals that could have a subject matter area that you might be wanting to partner with but I would say for the specialist it's pretty easy through our website a little more difficult with our community-based Extension and tribal agents but we can help identify that for you in part and help identify some of those potential partners with interest that would be in various locales across the state how did you do that your study how did you find people to work with in communities through extension yeah that's a great question and when I first came on establish the tribe project dr. sandy Bailey was part of the extension faculty who had some programming going on with the Center for mental health research and recovery at that time particularly around the youth awareness for mental health I want to note though I mean I want to tie into the original question here at what Cody answered very well is that over the last couple of years MSU has hired several health extension special one being Brianna Michelle groggy another and then most recently a mental health specialist Alison Brennan now very few states have been on top of hiring an extension specialist around mental health and I applaud MSU for being on top of that and and being ahead of the curve on that but I think that's where if you're interested in health research that's where I would start is with at least of those free and Cody you may have others identified at this point but I think that's where I would start right there's a question there's a question that's something about how agents are reaching out in these days and I think through a variety of mechanisms they are being very innovative and effective in continuing to meet the needs of the people in the places of Montana through Facebook live activities through webinars and those types of things through finding out practical ways to to us to go and get and help an individual process a soil sample as we're perhaps entering into the growing season so weird we're just adapting and looking to find new and creative ways to continue to meet those locally identified needs but there are excellent ways in which they've been engaging with the people in the places in Montana yes it's certainly a creative time and we are thinking about the agents everyday and the work they do in rural and urban Montana yeah it's it's a time to be creative with how we connect there's another question here is Extension helping with particular covet grants right now I assume these mean research grants around over 19 I would say we are we are King now that we've identified where some of the he's locally identified needs many be we're looking at different funding opportunities but I would articulate that if he was a researcher are looking for partner yes and if any of these health equity and inequity issues that we've talked about today are of interest to you we're ready to help partner with that and you can reach out to me or you can reach out to any of our agents in or specialists to talk about those funding opportunities but we're starting to review what some of those opportunities may be and how we may be engaged and involved with those I will say I don't know that there's any funding behind it at this point which is also kind of a great way to do research too but myself and Michelle grouchy have done some help as well with a food security survey in food insecurity survey that you might have seen going around feel free to take it and share it as well the dr. Carmen biker shanks has been working on as well so there are some efforts happening in the research realm but I would say that there's probably a lot more opportunity for that and probably a lot of interest as well great thank you for reminder on that will help get that information out as well um a question we often get and please those of you out there please continue to type your questions in the Q&A function but a question we often get from researchers is how do we build into our budgets our work with extension and we think this is an important piece to not forget about that and make sure it's very intentional and do it if you want to comment on that piece I mean I'll start up again in and I think it depends I think the key is to involve and engage early but there are opportunities for including salary for agents or salary for specialists there's opportunities for different expenses that I know Brianna talked about I think it really depends on what is the nature of the grant what is the expectation of the individuals who are engaged and involved within that and then how do we build within those budgets and again I articulated we do have a grant coordinator who has really adept at helping with that process and what that would look like for extension and so as we're thinking about coming on as a partner or if we're leading an opportunity and engaging with researchers that we're seeking out as well I think it depends on the nature of the funding the ways in which it can be expended and what is the actual work that we're asking individuals to do that's what I would say but mark is partnered with us on some and bringing as as well may have some other ideas yeah if I might I think from my my experience working with the agents they're busy people and they have to prioritize based on their community needs right but they're also invested in the Wellness of their communities and so I mean I think that they're willing many are willing partners in whatever projects that that you may pitch to them but if you're asking a lot of time and effort from them it would be great to build in your budget to account for some of that some of that money being spent for facilitating and hosting community meetings yeah maybe that might be an option so it could be a variety of time and effort to you know support for for meetings and so forth so I again I always look to the agents to tell us what they need to make that happen so that to me is the the main message that that I would convey that's a very good message I would agree with all of the things that have been said so far and I see that there's another question that comes in around compensation of agents beyond salary and I think that definitely salary is something to consider for agents and specialists but at the same time.i I think that I'm correct in saying most of us are 12 months so it's not you know sometimes it's easier for other faculty to say oh I'm gonna add on salary for summer or something but we don't have that option so we have to think of different ways and sometimes it's grant dependent in terms of what that budget is what's allowable in that budget but also there are some different opportunities in terms of not necessarily a mini grant but different ways that you could sponsor different locations to do different programming that might also meet needs that they have identified in their community is one way that some folks do that but also thinking of non-monetary compensation mechanisms things like working with agents on publications too because they also are in the tenure many of them are in the tenure process and so may appreciate the opportunity to be able to work on a presentation or think about what is that communication dissemination that they can also help with and utilize in their communities too so thinking about all variety of things but I would highly recommend talking with Krista in the grant specialist because she can clarify all the ins and outs and different faculty are different there's different types of faculty community faculty agents that different funding structures are okay or not or they have specific amounts in a year that they can accept so it's just always better to talk with her to have those things clarified as you're thinking about the budget so you don't add in a line item and then find out that it's not something that it's doable for that particular agent that you're working with for example great advice thank you are there any other questions out there anything else that you panelists would like to add on I did see there was a question that we might have missed this might be for mark how does yam compare to the mental health awareness campaign yeah thanks Briana was I was hoping they'd answer that as well yes it's a great question so the youth or the youth awareness campaign and in these two areas of flathead and rocky boy again as the USDA funded grant the the inner lap there between that and yam actually is that we have two yam agents in those those areas that actually are going to administer the yam program as its intended to do and what they're going to do then is recruit a cohort a small group of students from that cohort of yam students to actually be part of the awareness campaign so they're gonna be implementing a leadership program and they're also going to be doing a technology program where they're going to produce some sort of technology like an app or something that will be used to create awareness around this issue in their communities so that that's the connection between yam and and the youth awareness campaigns okay thank you mark for that clarification any other questions from anybody for comments from our panelist well thank you very very much it's great to see your smiling faces I finally got you up on the screen I apologize for that little technical difficulty and a few other things but we'll get it better next time thank you all for attending today and we will provide a link to a recording of this webinar and I hope you have a wonderful evening thanks so much.