Resources

By: Jenny Rea, Ph.D. , Edited by Anna Peterson Arizona is home to 500,000+ service members, veterans, and their families. I recently had the opportunity to attend the Arizona Coalition for Military Families’ 13th Annual Statewide Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona. This annual event is Arizona’s only conference that brings together the military, government, and community. The symposium focuses on strengthening services and support for Arizona’s military-connected population. As Extension...

Edited by: Anna Peterson Written by: Karen Shirer, Ph.D. The popular media continues to draw attention to the national mental well-being crisis among children and youth, including those in military families. The CBS television station affiliate in Minnesota, WCCO-4, recently aired a three-part series on the pandemic’s impact on youth mental health . The reporter, Esme Murphy, interviewed the following national experts on youth development regarding the crisis: Doctor Sarah Jerstad, the...

What is gratitude ? It's a sense of wonder, thankfulness & appreciation for life . Gratitude helps increase optimism for life. It promotes positive thinking. It helps us cope with daily stress & traumatic events. Appreciating things in our life and focusing on the positive can help us move forward with purpose. Gratitude can also strengthen our relationships. People who feel gratitude towards others feel closer to them and report overall better relationships, even if they don't...

By: Jenny Rea, Ph.D. Adapted by Anna Peterson Did you know… 25% of active-duty spouses reported food insecurity in 2021? The 2021 Survey of Active Duty Spouses found that 27% of families with children under six experienced food insecurity. Among this same group of active-duty spouses, 41% were unemployed. These findings echo those mentioned in Noelle Harden’s (Health and Nutrition Educator, University of Minnesota Extension) recent blog post . Noelle provided an overview of nutrition...

By Noelle Harden I recently talked with my mom and grandparents about hunger and food insecurity in the military. My grandpa served in the air force, then worked for the Veterans Administration. My mom spent her childhood moving across the country from base to base. They shared their struggles to be able to afford healthy and affordable food. Food Insecurity in the Military The RAND Corporation released a report last month on food security in the military. They found that 15.4% of active...

When you think about how societies have grown and developed in the past, can you identify efforts where, “ good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental conservation,” were prioritized? Unfortunately, most stories of development tell tales of exciting economic growth and ignore the inequity that serves as the foundation for their success. However, some countries are shifting from economic-focused standards of development to factors centered...

Thank you to Dee Walls and Maxwell Wallace from the University of Illinois for leading a webinar last week on the Community Seminar Series. The Community Seminar Series (CSS) is a collaboration between the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) and Illinois Extension that began in March 2020. It serves as a platform for graduate and postdoc students to share their health research with community members, faculty, and healthcare professionals. During this presentation, Dee Walls ,...

Are you serving aging adults or individuals with disabilities in your community? If so, it may be helpful to get connected to your local Area Agency on Aging (AAA). AAAs, not to be confused with the travel club, are entities established by federal law to provide information and resources for older adults and caregivers. An AAA serves every county in every state – find your local AAA based on your zip code using Eldercare Locator . Area Agencies on Aging administer federal, state, and local...

The framework was approved by the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) in 2021 and was designed to serve as a roadmap for advancing the health-focused work of the Cooperative Extension System. The framework is organized around three core themes: health equity, social determinants of health, and working through coalitions to increase community health assets. This webinar, recorded on October 25, 2022, provides an overview of the framework and shares resources for Extension...

As all nutrition professionals, educators, and researchers know, nutrition science is constantly evolving, and staying up to date on new and emerging research is important. The Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) at USDA’s National Agricultural Library is making it easier to receive credible federally and privately-funded research updates from Agricultural Research Service (ARS) priority nutrition journals with a new, free Research Publications (Nutrition) feed. Why is FNIC’s...

Soldier with children | IStock

By Jenny Rea, Ph.D. While many separating Service members successfully adapt to civilian life, 40 to 75% describe some difficulties managing this major transition (Castro & Kintzle, 2017; Zoli, Maury, & Fay, 2015). For instance, within the first year of transitioning to civilian life, Veterans face increased challenges with homelessness, family integration, employment, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance abuse, all of which can increase the risk for suicide ( VA,...