by Michelle Rodgers
We have recently received word that Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) has been accepted as an expansion state for the Penn State and Iowa State University PROSPER Partnerships program. PROSPER stands for Promoting School-community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience. Many of you were introduced two years ago to the PROSPER program by Penn State faculty who provided a video teleconference. And over the last several months, several of you completed a survey from the PROSPER partners to assess our state’s readiness to come on board with this program. As a result of participating in the study, Christine Venema, Lapeer County Extension educator, was randomly selected from the survey respondents to receive $500 for professional development. The results of the survey and an interview process ultimately led to our selection as one of 10 expansion states!
So, what does this mean for MSUE? The Iowa/Penn State PROSPER program team will be providing information, education and technical support aimed at building capacity for implementation of evidence-based programming in general, as well as implementing the PROSPER Partnership Model. Funding for this effort is being provided through the PROSPER team grant with the National Institute on Drug Abuse within the National Institutes of Health. The ultimate goal is to help MSUE build capacity and infrastructure to implement evidence-based programming for families and youth. We are excited about the possibility of working with the Iowa and Penn State Prosper team as one of the expansion states beginning in March. This work will largely fall into the Preparing Michigan’s Children and Youth for the Future program institute.
We are currently seeking applicants within MSUE to serve in the PROSPER Partnerships state liaison position. Please go to the following Web site to read the vacancy announcement: http://web2.canr.msu.edu/personnel/vacancies.cfm. The application deadline is February 26, 2010.
