Missouri
Missouri AgrAbility marketing, networking, and assisting client farmers and their families' activities during June 2023 included:
Liz Harrison and Tina Edholm, both of Health and Human Sciences at the University of Missouri Extension, attended the Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture (CCUA) Field Day on Sunday, June 25th. They chatted with approximately 75 rural and urban community members during the 5-hour event. Tina offered Missouri AgrAbility information as well as mental wellness resources, teletherapy cards, 988 business cards, and water bottles, while Liz provided information on upcoming nutrition and health courses and healthy recipes.
MU Extension field and campus faculty attended the 3rd Annual Veterans Resource Fair hosted by the CCUA with sponsorship from the Wounded Warrior Project. This FREE event featured local employers looking to recruit, community resources, social organizations, extension programs, and activity groups for veterans and their families. Debi Kelly, field specialist in horticulture, Adauto Rocha, assistant Extension professor and, Karen Funkenbusch, director Missouri AgrAbility Project, all from MU Extension, as well as 
veteran volunteer Eric Work facilitated questions and handed out resources for MO AgrAbility on accessible beekeeping, Heroes to Hives Missouri Chapter, farm and ranch stress, suicide prevention, farm safety, and other education-based agricultural materials for farmers with disabilities, socially disadvantaged, and beginning veteran farmers and their families.
Jenna Korff is wrapping up her internship with Missouri AgrAbility at the University of Missouri Extension. A student at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Jenna is working toward a degree in health sciences with an emphasis in rehabilitation science, and minoring in human development and family science. Her Missouri AgrAbility internship project includes assisting with onsite farmstead assessments, collecting and entering demographic client data, and designing three education-based resources for client farmers and their families. Her final resources will be shared in the August AgrAbility e-Note.
Submitted by Tina Edholm, Eric Work, Jenna Korff, Susan Jaster, and Karen Funkenbusch
Missouri AgrAbility marketing and networking activities during June 2023 included:
- Sponsorship recognition at the BIA-MO Survivor and Family Seminar - Western Missouri on June 3 in Kansas City with attendance by 75 AgrAbility clients.
- An exhibit during the Missouri Rehabilitation Association Conference with visits by 200 vocational, rehabilitation, agricultural, and other professionals between June 5 and 7.
- Being a featured sponsor at the Brain Injury Association of Missouri One-Day Regional Camps in Western Missouri on June 24, and Southwest Missouri on June 27 with a combined participation of 100 survivors of brain injury and their family members.
- Missouri AgrAbility being discussed during the BIA-MO Networking Coffee for Professionals on June 20 as a resource for farmers receiving rehabilitative care at Southwest Missouri hospitals, community-based service providers, and Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation. This discussion included nine professionals in fields of employment services, vocational counseling, physical therapy, service coordination, legal services, meditation training, agriculture, and brain injury.
- The sharing of Missouri AgrAbility information with 14 individuals receiving BIA-MO community resource services for the first time.
Submitted by Maureen Cunningham