ECD

2+2=<4: A Case for Extension "In-Reach" Efforts

Extension has always done a great job of outreach - building partnerships at the local, state, national, and even international levels. We need to be equally as successful in building partnerships within our own institutions. The land grant universities have a wealth of resources that can help communities yet most university schools, departments, and centers lack a distribution system for outreach and engagement. Some exciting win-wins can occur when we build relationships with some of these non-Extension institutional partners. Today I'm presenting at the annual NACDEP Conference and this is the focus of my talk. You can download a copy of my presentation here.  

Top 10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs

In the "old days" what was important was one's resume and formal credentials. Valdis Krebbs who specializes in mapping social networks recently made the following observation: "Don't show me your degree, masthead, card, URL, etc. Show me thh network you are in embedded in." With that in mind, here are the top 10 social networks for entrepreneurs, according to Dan Schawbel.

Energy Efficiency for Local Government

Here is an example of linking and leveraging university assets to provide even greater value to the people of Indiana.

Purdue Technical Assistance Program (TAP) and Purdue Extension are teaming up with a local Indiana community to pilot a new program help local governments cut their energy-related expenses and reduce their energy consumption and environmental footprints. This a program TAP has done with industry for several years. This new partnership with Extension is helping transfer that expertise to the public sector. 

In these lean budget days, local officials are looking for opportunities to cut costs and to align local government’s programs and services with the increasing need for environmental sustainability. Energy efficiency is just one piece of sustainability leading to reduced costs, better work environments, and environmental stewardship. The challenge is that these changes must involve everyone (policy makers, management, operations employees, etc.) to be lasting.

In the program, local government staff learns the basics of energy efficiency and green/sustainable practices.  University staff works with staff from the city/county to perform opportunity assessments of the municipality’s main buildings.  The program finishes with a session at the water treatment facility where operators will learn how to reduce the energy consumption of energy-intensive systems. The opportunities identified are summarized in an action plan that the local community conducts with the university staff staying in touch for a year to collect impact data and help perform benefit analysis.

Here is the program agenda:

Day 1: Energy Efficiency Generalist Workshop– This one-day workshop covers the ABCs of sustainable business practices. Attendees learn by doing. Purdue has created an interactive simulation that involves everyone in the class. Attendees learn the common concepts of sustainability and participate in the discussion of what makes sense or doesn’t for their facilities.

Day 2: How to Incorporate Energy Efficiency into Financial Decision Making –This one-day workshop covers the why and how of incorporating life-cycle costs such as energy consumption and maintenance into a purchasing decisions.  Through participating in a simulation and working through real-world case studies, attendees gain the knowledge and skills to start considering energy in financial decisions.

Day 3: Opportunity Assessment–The Purdue team of specialists work with city/county operations personnel to go through the larger buildings and identify opportunities to save energy and reduce environmental footprints. Afterwards, opportunities are quantified and to determine feasibility.

Day 4: Waste Water Treatment Plant Survey & Workshop– as the most energy-intensive operations in the city/county, a  full day is at the plant looking at opportunities and performing business case analyses. We’ll start with a short workshop on motor-driven systems efficiency, follow with a discussion on projects other treatment plants have implemented, and then finish with an assessment of the facility and its opportunities.

The Purdue specialists then create a final document report listing all of the activities and participants. The report summarizes the ideas proposed, opportunities identified, solutions justified, and can be used as an action plan for the local community.

This program is currently being piloted in one community as we search for resources to expand statewide. If you are interested in more information about the program, contact me.

Meet George Okantey

George Okantey is an Extension Educator in the area of Economic and Community Development at the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service in Marion County. Prior to joining Extension in 1999, George worked in London, England as a Financial Planning Consultant where he consulted in the areas of life insurance, savings, investments, and estate planning. He moved to the US in 1992 and in 1993 founded the cultural organization, African Speakers Bureau, Inc in Indianapolis. He was the Executive Director until 2002. As director, he provided leadership, created organizational structure and directed school and community-based cultural networks in Indianapolis. Between 1995-97, he worked at IUPUI Neighborhood Resource Center where he coordinated business development activities of the Westside Business Alliance (WBA) through a Community Outreach Partnership Grant (COPC). As a Lila Wallace Museum Studies scholar, he worked with the Indianapolis Museum of Art and was instrumental in the creation of the first “Africa Fest” celebration in Indianapolis. He also provided leadership on the “Fabric of African Life,” an outreach, traveling exhibition.

George holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indianapolis and a BA in Organizational Communication. He is a graduate of National Training Lab, Transforming Interpersonal Relations and Group Dynamics www.ntl.org and a certified Facilitation Application Specialization Training (FAST) instructor. He is a National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship certified Instructor (CET), and Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are high. George is a qualified instructor of Myers Briggs Type (MBTI) and Strength Finder instruments. He is committed to lifelong learning opportunities that enable individuals to better themselves and make informed choices. He is dedicated to facilitating best practices leadership development in Indiana communities.

George has a demonstrated record of leadership and expertise in asset-based human and community development. His competencies include coaching, strategic planning processes, building organizational networks, entrepreneurship, and leadership and civic engagement. He enjoys work that taps into his facilitation and project management skills and has a love for inspiring, leading and coaching people from diverse backgrounds and persuasions to experience excellence. His Extension work include collaboration with Junior Achievement of Central Indiana, The Simon Property Group, and Indiana Small Business Center to establish BizPrep Enterprise Academy http://www.ces.purdue.edu/Marion/lcd/lcd.htm a youth entrepreneurship academy in Indianapolis. He created and directed the Science Bound parents program with financial support from USA Funds Group to assist parents in supporting their children in the Purdue Science Bound program. Prior to Science Bound, George provided leadership to a similar program “High Hopes” a silver medalist of Epsilon Sigma Phi Extension Programs of Excellence in 2002.

George established a partnership with Marion County Jail II to teach positive parenting to pre-release non-custodial fathers. He also created and coordinated Youth Financial Literacy and Leadership Academy in three Indianapolis High Schools. He collaborated with the Indianapolis Chapter of Black MBA Association to establish the Leaders of Tomorrow program (LOT) to teach leadership skills to youth in Marion County. He represented the north central region on Extension Committee on Organization and Policy, National Diversity Task Force. George facilitated the National Extension Diversity Task Force to establish Pathways to Diversity Reaffirmed (2003), a systems document, focused on diversity and pluralism in the Land Grant University System http://pubwiki.extension.org/mediawiki/files/9/93/pathways.pdf.

George is a member of Purdue Intercultural Action Committee, an ECD innovator award winner, and currently serving on the board of directors of IEEA representing the central district. George serves on the boards of the Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center www.inrc.org. He assisted in the creation of the Indianapolis Community Building Institute (ICBI)—a leadership development program for veteran and aspiring community leaders in Indianapolis. He is also vice president of the Indiana Leadership Association www.indianaleadership.com. George is a United Way of Central Indiana Agency Evaluator, a 2007 Leadership and Renewal Outfitters Executive Journey Fellow, http://renewal.typepad.com/fellows, volunteer coach at Beyond Your Best Coaching, www.beyondyourbest.com, and principal at MpactPlus Training and Consulting, LLC— www.mpactplus.com, a consulting company with a focus on building leadership capacity of non-governmental organizations in developing countries.

In February 2009, George provided Crucial Conversations training for 498 University of Wisconsin Extension educators and faculty in four districts. He has accepted an invitation to conduct a workshop at the 2009 Public Issues Leadership Development conference in April http://www.jcep.org/pild.htm. George is providing leadership on the Marion county Program of Excellence team that is working on helping the Southeast Neighborhood implement their Quality of Life plan. http://www.greatindyneighborhoods.org/. He enjoys working with people to solve their own problems. He feels present when facilitating people to think and explore different perspectives on issues. He is committed to making a difference in the lives of people every day. George can be reached at 317-275-9263 or e-mail: [email protected].

Economic Re-Engagement Video Now Available

The video recording of the March 25, 2008 "Community-Based Strategies for Economic Re-Engagment" is now available. You can view it here. Note that there is about 60 minutes of dead air as locations were working on their local plans. Once you get to that spot, you can fast forward to about the 1:56:53 minute mark to pick up the last half hour where some of the locations share their strategies and Ed and Scott share a few additional thoughts. The PowerPoint presentation is available here.