\u201cI knew every time I showed up that I\u2019m making a difference,\u201d says Spofford. \u201cThe prisoners were so appreciative of the fact that I would come in on Saturday mornings and meet with them for two hours and teach them about values and spirituality, how to cope with confinement, communication skills, ways to tell an employer about their background, and how to write a resume and interview for a job.\u201d<\/p>\n UConn People Empowering People at Correctional Institutions<\/a>, known colloquially as Prison PEP, is just one in a catalog of UConn Extension programs<\/a> run through the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources<\/a>. Many center on agriculture-related topics, including Extension\u2019s popular Master Gardener classes and food safety workshops. Others, like UConn 4-H, boast STEM, healthy lifestyle, community service, and leadership lessons in addition to traditional agricultural pursuits.<\/p>\n But some, like Prison PEP and its PEP Communities counterpart, extend into the wider community, seeking to engage populations interested in refining certain skills.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always work hand-in-hand with what a community\u2019s needs are,\u201d says Bonnie Burr \u201983 (CAHNR), assistant director and department head with the Department of Extension in CAHNR. \u201cWe do a lot of surveying out in the community. Historically, we have worked around food insecurity, food safety, and we\u2019ve always worked extensively with the agricultural industry \u2013 whether it\u2019s plants, animals, turf, even robotics now with dairy. We also have a strong team around climate change and climate adaptation\/climate resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n Half of Extension\u2019s budget comes from grants, or $21.4 million in 2020, and volunteers, like Spofford, offer the equivalent of around $4.4 million in labor annually from the roughly 142,000 hours they put in. Extension provides 2,800 programs in all 169 municipalities around the state, some that people may not even realize have their roots at UConn.<\/p>\n Burr says Extension has a hand in training farmers how to harvest and keep their fruits, vegetables, and meat safe for sale at farmers markets; working with municipal officials on managing stormwater runoff and keeping road salt out of the groundwater; testing water quality at schools; offering students after-school programming; getting Connecticut-grown produce into school cafeterias; and inventorying the state\u2019s trail system so municipal planners can maximize economic development.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s things like that, that we do behind the scenes, that people wouldn\u2019t necessarily think we\u2019re involved with,\u201d says Burr. \u201cWe really focus on networking with people and making those connections, so a community has the opportunity to flourish in ways it hasn\u2019t before.\u201d<\/p>\n One prime example came about during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Extension educator and Litchfield County 4-H coordinator Bill Davenport \u201986 (CAHNR) constructed Operation Community Impact<\/a> and through it donated, to date, 220,000 pounds of dairy to food pantries statewide when demand from restaurants, schools, and hotels was nil.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are the sorts of things we can do with Extension,\u201d says Burr. \u201cWe\u2019re flexible, we can pivot quickly to identify needs.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Logging_210802a091-300x200.jpg\")
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