VISION
Background
In 2012, the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy (ECOP) appointed a National Task Force on Health to create a systemwide vision for Cooperative Extension’s work in the area of health. Approved by ECOP in 2014, Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health and Wellness was instrumental in establishing health as a priority for the Cooperative Extension System. That original framework emphasized the promotion of healthy behaviors as a key mechanism for increasing the number of Americans who are health at every stage of life.
We now know that focusing solely on individual behaviors is inadequate. Despite an individual’s best efforts to be healthy, their healthy choices are often overshadowed by a complex array of contextual factors that together have a far greater influence on their health than their individual behaviors.
Development of a New Framework
Recognizing the need for updated guidance for its work in this area, ECOP appointed a Health Innovation Task Force in 2020 to provide recommendations for system level change that would further advance Cooperative Extension’s health-related work. Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health and Well-Being was subsequently approved by ECOP in 2021. That new framework set forth a vision for Cooperative Extension work that augments efforts to promote healthy behaviors with work that focuses on the social determinants of health or, to use more contemporary language, the vital conditions for health and well-being. The vital conditions include basic needs for health and safety, lifelong learning, meaningful work and wealth, humane housing, reliable transportation, a thriving natural world, and belonging and civic muscle.
The updated Framework uses “well-being” rather than “wellness” to align more closely with terminology being used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Healthy People 2030 to describe a more comprehensive state of human flourishing. In addition to the state of one’s physical and mental health, well-being incorporates such things as how satisfied people are with their lives as a whole, the sense of control they have over their lives, and their sense of purpose in life (New Economics Foundation, 2012). Well-being also entails being accepted into and belonging to a community, providing and receiving support from others, and acting as a legitimate contributor to a common world” (Pronk et al, 2019). Moreover, well-being focuses on creating equitable opportunities for people to thrive in every aspect of life and to create meaningful futures.
A Vision for Today
The Cooperative Extension’s new health framework provides a roadmap by which Cooperative Extension can help ensure that all members of a community have the opportunity to live their healthiest possible life. The journey begins with a community-engaged process to identify a level of health and well-being that all people should be able to experience. Cooperative Extension then works in concert with community partners to make sure that the programs, resources, and supports needed to achieve optimum health are available to all.
Recommendations for Action
Cooperative Extension’s National Framework for Health and Well-Being also includes systemwide recommendations for action deemed as critical to advancing Cooperative Extension’s role in health.
- Advance health as a core system value to ensure that all people have a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as they can be.
- Utilize community assessment processes that integrate data science and resident voice to identify and address health inequities with greater precision.
- Invest in the success and visibility of Extension’s health-related professionals, programs, and initiatives.
- Establish partnerships with academic units, universities, government agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and foundations that share a commitment to reducing or eliminating health inequities.
- Utilize a community development approach to advance the work of coalitions focused on influencing the social determinants of health.
