Health and Wellness: Leading Cooperative Extension from Concept to Action

Abstract

This article describes the health and wellness journey of Cooperative Extension from a task force to action teams. It provides background on (a) Extension health and wellness programming, (b) establishment of the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) Health and Wellness Task Force, (c) acceptance of the Task Force Report, and (d) appointment of the ECOP Action Teams. The article explains the opportunity to align an Extension system around a health framework, as well as actions and vision for the new Culture of Health partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The article draws on articles published in the Journal of Extension, the 2014 ECOP Task Force Report, and documents about the Cooperative Extension–Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnership. Authors supply first-hand observations and comments based on their roles in developing the Extension focus on health and wellness from concept to action. The article challenges Extension personnel and partners to advance programming to improve health and wellness of individual youth and adults; families; organizations, including Extension; and communities. Theoretical frameworks to use in programming; ideas for partnership development; and implications for research, education, and policy are included.

Keywords

• cooperative extension
• extension
• health and wellness framework
• ecop action teams