M. Cassandra Wiggins, Ed.D North Carolina State University, USA

1. Increasing the Impact of Extension Services’ Programs Through Collaborations at the National, State and Local Levels M. Cassandra Wiggins, Ed.D North Carolina State University, USA MM

2. Collaboration Children’s Environmental Health is a process which: 1) people, groups and organizations work together to achieve desired results 2) identify common issues, problems, strategies to achieve desired results 3) recognize differences – more powerful than working separately

3. Leadership Communication Community Development Sustainability Participation by citizens Unity Informal organization Successful accomplishments Key Factorsinfluencing the collaborative process: Children’s Environmental Health

4. Extension Professionalsmust understand the collaboration process in order to: Children’s Environmental Health Seek and secure resources expertise new perspective To effectively address complex problems improve program outcomes increase impact of Extension Services’ Programs achieve program sustainability

5. The Children’s Environmental Health Collaboration- An Integrated Model Is a collective approach involving partners and various disciplines planning and implementing one or more change strategies to impact the individual and their immediate environment and community organizations, systems, policies, rules including cultural and economy that are associated with one or more identified issues. Children’s Environmental Health

6. North Carolina Integrated Program Model Children’s Environmental Health Community Development Social, Economic, and Environmental Issues County Issues NCAT USDA EPA Region 4 CEH Collaboration NCCES-CEH Collaboration NCSU 13 Land-Grant Universities NC State Agencies USDA – United States Department of Agriculture NCAT – North Carolina A &T State University NCSU – North Carolina State University NCCES – North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service CEH - Children’s Environmental Health EPA – Environmental Protection Agency County Issues EPA Region 4

7. North Carolina Cooperative Extension Children’s Environmental Health Collaborators

8. The success of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Children’s Environmental Health Collaboration can be attributed to: 1.     Shared leadership 2.     Focused on identifying shared goals to be accomplished.     3. Achievement of essential trust between partners • Establishment of well defined roles and responsibilities • Respect for individual team members contributions, values and opinions • Active participation from Extension and external partners • Team approach to secure resources for project sustainability • Multidisciplinary team expertise Children’s Environmental Health

9. Implications for Future Extension Collaborative Efforts Children’s Environmental Health • Continue to expand Extension educational outreach efforts on the local, state, national and international levels • Virtual Universities - Extension Virtual University • Seek funding from Corporations and other funding agencies that are located in several countries – support multi-countries projects • International organizations, conferences: opportunity to expand or generate collaborative efforts

10. What is Children’s Environmental Health (CEH)? The world’s children are The world’s future Children’s Environmental Health