Missouri

MU Extension completed a successful social media campaign with the Brain Injury Association of Missouri, Inc, its nonprofit disability collaborative partner. Each day during the month of March, for Brain Injury Awareness, Missouri AgrAbility used its MU Extension social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to post a brain injury fact of the day, resources, and tool2thrive, or to showcase an ambassador client farmer success story. To learn more about Missouri AgrAbility March Brain Injury Awareness, go to the MU Extension Missouri AgrAbility Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/MOAgrAbility/.

To address the needs of its customers, Missouri AgrAbility continues to build service capacity across the state through education and networking. With this in mind, during the month of March, Missouri AgrAbility:

1. provided two direct onsite farmstead assessments to client farmers with disabilities who are engaged in farming or, want to become involved in a farming-related occupation.
2. used marketing activities to direct the public to initiatives in AgrAbility-related education, networking and assistance.
3. facilitated four education programs within the context of production agriculture:
   
   • safe selection and placement of assistive technologies
   • SMART technologies
   • adapted devices
   • how to use ergonomic principles to teach participants how to work smarter and not harder

How to avoid secondary injuries for farmers with disabilities was also discusses with participants.

Missouri AgrAbility through its collaborative efforts with the North Central Region Farm and Ranch Stress grant disseminated its behavioral health/mental health tool kit to farm families, agriculture groups, stakeholders and others. Behavioral health/mental health resources can be accessed on Missouri AgrAbility's Show-Me Strong Farm Families Facebook page by clicking here and Missouri AgrAbility's website here.

During the Mental Health Services for Farmers Briefing, participants heard from an Iowa psychologist and farmer who has spent over 30 years helping farmers get mental health assistance, a pharmacist and farmer who talked about the immediate multiplying pressures that Missouri farmers and ranchers face every day, and Kathy Dothage who is a professor with MU Extension and education director for home and family science. Dothage has worked for MU Extension for many years, most of those in the field providing informal classes to the citizens of Missouri, and she is a part of the Missouri AgrAbility program. Professor Dothage presented the MOST Policy Initiative aimed at bringing scientists and policymakers together to improve the livelihoods for people and communities in the Midwest. The Missouri Science & Technology Policy Fellows Program is the core, inaugural program under the umbrella of MOST Policy Initiative. A recording of the briefing is available here.

On March 31, Travis Harper, Joni Harper, and Karen Funkenbusch, who all work with the Heroes to Hives (H2H) Missouri State Chapter, facilitated its first online ZOOM class to student participants. Mr. Harper, the lead instructor for Missouri, informed students that H2H is a unique program offered through Michigan State University Extension that seeks to address financial and personal wellness of veterans through professional training and community development centered around beekeeping. Students will participate in a nine-month comprehensive education program that couples online lectures with hands-on learning in apiaries located in Missouri. Students will receive two to six hours of lecture content every month from March-November that is pre-recorded so that they can learn at their own pace from Michigan State University Extension. Online instruction is then coupled with on-ground training April-October on hive handling, hive inspections, pest and pathogen management, and beekeeping ergonomics. Students who complete the course are eligible to receive a certificate of completion from MSU and can transfer credits to the Great Plains Master Beekeeping Course offered through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. H2H in Missouri is co-sponsored by Missouri AgrAbility, Missouri's Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, and NC Farm and Ranch Stress Alliance programs. More can be learned about H2H Missouri State Chapter by checking out their Facebook page here.

Submitted by Karen Funkenbusch, Kathy Dothage, Travis Harper and Tevin Uthlaut

Mr. Nahshon Bishop, Mrs. Susan Jaster, Mr. David Middleton, and Ms. Kendra Graham are working on a presentation for the AgrAbility National Training Workshop. This virtual event will take place April 20. The presentation will cover:

• Safe livestock handling practices
• Designing safe livestock handling infrastructure
• Hands-on Jesup Wagon 2.0 demonstration

Missouri AgrAbility Staff have been designing curriculum for farmers with mobility issues using drone technology. Outline of video series:

• Review of existing resources
• Identifying locations for video production throughout the state of Missouri.

Submitted by Shon Bishop

Brain Injury Awareness Month featured the "Brain Injury Fact of the Day" sponsored by Missouri AgrAbility during March. A unique Brain Injury Fact was posted each day on numerous agricultural, rural living, weather, brain injury, and healthcare websites and social media sites. This campaign resulted in more than 10,000 impressions, 750 engagements, and increased website visits to learn more about Missouri AgrAbility and the Brain Injury Association of Missouri (BIA-MO).

Maureen Cunningham with BIA-MO highlighted Missouri AgrAbility during the Networking Coffee for Professionals - St. Louis. Fifteen vocational, veteran services, and healthcare professionals who serve AgrAbility clients gained knowledge about the Heroes to Hives program and other Missouri AgrAbility activities.

Individuals learned about services of Missouri AgrAbility during the BIA-MO Survivor and Family Seminar that was hosted online March 20. The event recognition featured Karen Funkenbusch, Missouri AgrAbility Co-PI, detailing services available and how farmers can contact Missouri AgrAbility for assistance.

Submitted by: Maureen Cunningham