Friday Musings - August 9, 2013

Before you speak.... have ALL the information

When our dog, Bandit, was young we decided to have him "fixed" so he would not have the opportunity to experience fatherhood. My son was in elementary school and worried about his dog having surgery - so to make him feel better I said, "It is no big deal. Human men have this surgery all the time when they have decided to not father additional children - or have no children at all." It made Erik feel better. Well, when Bandit came home after surgery there was an inspection of what had occurred. My son looked at me aghast saying, "You mean men have this surgery all the time?"  "Yes, yes" I said, and then I conducted my own inspection.... and guess what - the surgery was NOT the same that humans have and quite a bit more anatomy was missing! I then had to backtrack and admit I was not fully informed and humans do not have quite as much anatomy removed to get the same result.  So, you might think... what does have to do with our work?

Anoka County just says no to $1M state health grant - If it was YOUR program, what information do you have to respond?

Last week, the Star Tribune reported, "Anoka County has turned away $1 million-plus in aid from the Statewide Health Improvement Program, baffling state officials who say no county ever has declined SHIP grants used to fight child obesity, promote physical activity and decrease exposure to second-hand smoke."  The reason stated in the article?  “This particular grant doesn’t pay for programming or equipment,” Sivarajah said. “It pays for developing policy. Spending millions of dollars on printing brochures does not cause a person to eat less, exercise more or take care of themselves. There’s no measurable outcome.”  Politics aside, this article raises the importance of quality evaluation results. But wait... this is NOT just about evaluation. Our evaluations will only measure our planned education. We need to step back - what issue or problem are we trying to solve? Who do we target for education to solve this issue or problem? What educational activities will help us address these issues or problems? How will we evaluate we made a difference days, weeks, months, and years after the educational program? Then, are we able to boldly and proudly state our impact on this issue or problem? - whether at the individual, family, community, state, national, or international level? I raise this instance as a wake up call for us to be FULLY INFORMED in planning, implementing, and evaluating in order to state our measurable outcomes.  

Don't forget the Contest for Piloting UMConnect Education

Don't forget about the "dog days of August" competition -  (for those Trish Olson supervises). Contest rules: Use UM Connect system, work independently, educational topic and audience is reflected in your plan of work, and your evaluation reflects contribution to family resiliency. Education can be live or recorded for 24/7 access. Please offer to an external audience. Can be 5 minutes to 30 minutes in length. After the education has occurred and before August 31, submit the following: What did you do? Who attended? Why did you do what you did? What did you learn?  A $50 gift certificate (PL's personal funds) will be awarded the winner. Winner will be announce and sharing of this experience will discussed on our September FR FRM call. Have fun!!!!!

Trish on jury duty the next two weeks - so my schedule is ambiguous! Please email or text me if you need to reach me.

Note from the author of this blog: Hello. I am Trish Olson, a program leader with the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Family Development. I write this blog primarily for the team I work with in Extension, and welcome others who find it a useful weekly reflection. My goals for writing this blog are to stimulate informal discussion, look at local and world events in the context of our work in the Center for Family Development, and perhaps put a smile on your face. I do heavily quote from other sources - but always put quotation marks in " " and cite the reference through web links.  I really encourage the use of the comment function to fully benefit from this blog. If you have received this because someone forwarded it to you and  you would like to be added to the notification list contact me at pdolson@umn.edu. Have a nice day.