RFA Deadline Extended! ECOP Health and Workforce Program Action Teams: Resilient Economies and Community Health (REACH)

RFA: ECOP Health and Workforce Program Action Teams: Resilient Economies and Community Health (REACH)

ELIGIBILITY: Competitive opportunity available to ALL Land-grant universities (LGUs) (1862, 1890, 1994) by completing a simple online application.

The Extension Foundation in partnership with the ECOP Health and Workforce Program Action Teams, is offering two opportunities to apply and be selected to pilot a community development initiative in a community of their choosing. More specifically, successful applicants will have the opportunity to pilot test how Cooperative Extension can catalyze a community-driven initiative to foster entrepreneurship, workforce development, and social determinants of health using a model developed by the Innovation Collective and supported by a corporate partnership. The Innovation Collective is already showing success in Idaho, Florida, and Texas as measured by the number of attendees at community events and start-up businesses formed.

The goal of the pilot is to implement the first year of the 3-year Innovation Collective process to discover its applicability to the work of Cooperative Extension professionals who are catalyzing community health, entrepreneurship and workforce development.

AWARD AMOUNT: There are two opportunities:

Opportunity One:

• $50,000 scholarship for participation in the next cohort of cities implementing the Innovation Collective’s process plus $50,000 to cover an Extension professional’s time in leading the one-year pilot and airfare for participation in one required event (March 2023 – February 2024)  No indirect costs are allowed. (Total Value is $100,000)
  
  

Opportunity Two:

• $50,000 scholarship for participation in the March cohort for the Innovation Collective program described below. No funding for Extension professional time. (Total Value is $50,000)
  
  

SUMMARY: Innovation Collective’s program and support is scholarshipped for the two pilot winners and includes support and resources for both Extension and it’s board/supporters to map, launch, and grow their communities:

• Series of live monthly one-hour cohort online coaching sessions for local leads based on community cadence, covering:
  • How to identify your innovation vertical through strengths and ecosystem mapping
  • Setting your community up for success
  • Building a stakeholder coalition
  • Monthly Fireside Chats: including training of proper interview skills, choosing speakers, and then inspiring the community with their local heroes
  • Bi-monthly Coffee & Concepts meetups where community members take their big ideas out of their head and work on them together
  • Monthly reporting
  • Understanding and identifying stages of growth: staffing, capital, and placemaking needs
  • How to paint your community’s Picture of Success and Roadmap (three year plan)
  • How to secure funding for Level 2
• Access to sequence of on-demand event format and soft skills guides, webinars, and quizzes including:
  • Fireside Chats
  • Coffee & Concepts
  • Local Outreach
  • Facilitation
  • Securing sponsors
  • Securing stakeholder coalition
  • Monthly reporting
  • Picture of Success development
  • Stakeholder management
• Monthly half-hour one-on-one online coaching sessions
• Live one-hour cohort online coaching sessions for local sponsors/funders on:
  • Setting your local lead up for success
  • Building your stakeholder coalition
  • Unlocking real estate 101
  • Investment clubs and angel investing 101
  • Identifying the case to level up
• Plug and Play rolling member and marketing services so each community has a compelling offering and promotional support:
  • Own community webpage on IC website
  • Own community channel on IC Eventbrite to list events
  • Templates for event marketing collateral
  • Own community ICx Facebook group with weekly scheduled posts
  • Global monthly Insider email newsletter flagging event cadence, full of inspiration and tips with potential to feature entrepreneurs
  • Promotion of community stories on IC social channels
  • Opportunity to feature local success stories in national marketing program
  • Eight free tickets per annum for community members to any IC Story Summit (travel and accommodation not included)
  • ICx and Level 1 event licenses
• Access to tools and templates for local leads to run their communities effectively:
  • Access to on-demand content via learning management system with guides, videos, and quizzes
  • Access to detailed project management template mapping tasks and timings for all key experiences
  • Access to Slack for cohort and IC coaching messaging
• Templates for your local Facebook Page, flyers, EventBrite,  and Customized Monthly Insider Newsletter
  

APPLICATION ACCESS:

Apply for both opportunities by December 8th, 2022, January 6th, 2023, by 11:59 PM PT [https://registry.extension.org/223205016126946]

PDF of Application Questions: Available Here

All Land-Grant Universities are eligible to apply.

Program cohort begins March 1, 2023 – February 28, 2024

For questions, please contact Roger Rennekamp at rogerrennekamp@extension.org