Maine

UMaine Extension has created a bi-weekly Victory Garden for ME video series - short, pre-recorded videos geared towards Mainers growing their first vegetable garden. On August 13, Ellen Gibson and Leilani Carlson presented "pain-free gardening," sharing information about how to plan a day in the garden, proper stretching and lifting techniques, selecting ergonomic tools, adapting existing tools to improve their ergonomics, designing a garden to match one's abilities, and much more. As a follow-up to this video, Ellen Gibson presented an hour-long webinar about pain-free gardening, ergonomics, arthritis, and AgrAbility on August 31 as part of the UMaine Extension Summer Series.

With the pandemic limiting in-person activities, Maine AgrAbility's Brie Weisman (OT), recognized the need for OT students to gain experience. Staff developed a Level 1 virtual experience for OT students. It is a list of educational activities and opportunities available to students that can be conducted virtually with guidance from an AgrAbility professional. Staff have worked with one student so far and gotten positive feedback.

Richard Brzozowski has started a fact sheet working group comprising SRAP members from across the US. The goal of this working group is to create a fact sheet collection with a searchable library of relevant topics for AgrAbility audiences. If anyone is interested in being part of this group, email maine.agrability@maine.edu.

Staff have taken this "down" time to reconnect with their larger network of partners to learn more about specific topics to enhance Maine AgrAbility's programming. So far, staff have had presentations from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) with a special focus on veterans' issues and a presentation from Jade Integrated Health with a focus on chronic pain and management techniques.

Submitted by Lani Carlson