The Regional Ohio Action for Resilience brings together community groups, concerned citizens, religious leaders, social justice leaders, non-profits, businesses, educational institutions and governmental entities to collaboratively create a more resilient region.
We like to get our hands dirty, planting the seeds of change and watching them grow. ‘Seeds’ can be ideas or projects just waiting for the right people to guide them.
What is growing now
Climate Change Resilience in Ohio Agroecosystems Summer 2023
A summer internship focused on Climate Change Resilience in Ohio Agroecosystems is running from June 12 to July 27, 2023. Sponsored by the Stinner Endowment from the Ohio State University Agroecosystem Management Program (amp.osu.edu), the program gives its ambassadors gaining hands-on experience with best practices for regenerative farming and food system innovations to positively address our looming climate crisis.
Participants are gathering as a cohort and participate in a series of training workshops, hands-on service-learning projects with youth from diverse rural and urban communities, and direct experiences with innovative farmers during this six-week program. Participants will be certified as ‘Stinner Climate Ambassadors’ who can help build a bioregional regenerative network that brings together young people to share knowledge, expand awareness, and take the lead on transforming agroecological systems to improve climate resilience.
More details:
https://amp.osu.edu/collaboration/annual-stinner-summit/Stinner_Project
Stinner Climate Ambassadors will:
- · Gain an understanding of climate resilience, agroecological/regenerative practices that boost climate resilience, and issues of food security, food sovereignty
- · Build relationships with one another and ties to the network of diverse individuals and groups working on climate-resilient agriculture and food system issues in Ohio
- · Experience working with and mentoring rural and urban youth (grades 8-12) interested in climate adaptation and resilience, and will possess the skills to build bridges and relationships between this network and other youth to raise awareness and action on climate resilience topics
- · Be encouraged to bring the project back to your respective colleges and communities and lead efforts/programs there using the connections you have gained in this program
- · Document their experience via writing, film, podcasts, and social media, to reach as broad an audience as possible.
Tentative Schedule:
- · June 12 – 15: Team bonding and immersion in regenerative agriculture
- · June 19 – 22 and June 26 – 29: Engagement with urban farming sites in Columbus
- · July 1 – 9: Week off, with 1-2 online check-ins
- · July 10 – 13: Intensive engagement on-site with rural farming projects near Athens
- · July 17 – 21: Intensive engagement with a third site in southwest Ohio.
- · July 24 – 27: Week of gathering our knowledge, finishing up media products and hosting a “closing gathering” for all participants.
Each Climate Ambassador will receive a summer stipend of $2500, along with on-site housing, food, and some transportation to various model sites for 3 – 4 days a week. Upon completion of the program, each ambassador will receive a Stinner Project Certificate, to be useful in job and graduate school applications.
The planning team:
- Doug Jackson-Smith, Director, AMP (Agroecosystem Management Program), OSU
- Tim Van Meter, Associate Professor & Director of Ecological Initiatives, Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO)
- Kathy Dickson, Director of Vocational Discernment & Community Engagement, MTSO
- Minister Aaron Hopkins, Director, South Side Family Farms (Columbus)
- Susie Huser, Director of Outreach, Community Food Initiatives (Athens)
- Dianne Kadonaga, Educator & Native Plant Grower, Sunny Glen Farm (Columbus)
- Jeff Dickinson, Farmscaper, Stratford Ecological Center (Delaware)
- Ramanitharan Kandiah, Professor of Environmental Engineering, Central State University
- Amy Ciric, Professor of Practice, Renewable and Clean Energy Program, University of Dayton
Party for the Planet Collaborative Group – Local environmental organizations, students from Ohio Weselyan and Delaware City Schools came together for a post-pandemic strategy session and potluck at the Andrews House in Delaware on Jan. 28. It was decided that the focus for the next 2-5 years would be on renewable energy (aggregation, agro photovoltaics, solar, wind etc) and creating pollinator habitat in urban areas. Email Terry Hermsen for details. thermsen1115@gmail.com.
Proposed Intel Chip Plant near New Albany in Licking County – Intel announced plans in January 2022 for an initial investment of more than $20 billion in the construction of two new leading-edge chip factories in Ohio. The investment will help boost production to meet the surging demand for advanced semiconductors, powering a new generation of innovative products from Intel and serving the needs of foundry customers as part of the company’s IDM 2.0 strategy. To support the development of the new site, Intel pledged an additional $100 million toward partnerships with educational institutions to build a pipeline of talent and bolster research programs in the region. ROAR is opposed to this development in its current form as it will destroy numerous wetlands and other natural areas on the site.
Westerville Conservation Corridor – Several parks departments, universities, individual contributors are in the planning stages of creating a conservation corridor to connect habitat blocks together in the area that includes Alum Creek South Park, Walter Cherrington Park, Westerville Senior Center property, the riparian zone that surrounds Alum Creek, Otterbein Cemetery, Hannah Maye Park, Otterbein Lake, Otterbein Campus Grounds, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Spring Hollow Wildlife Education Area, Alum Creek Park North, Heritage Park, the Westerville Community Center and Sports Park property and some smaller parcels. This initiative is dependent on the results of the visioning process of the RAPID5. The vision plans were released in July 2022. Read more about RAPID5 here.
