Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the project expands the…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** the project expands the knowledge, skills and capacity of osuextension (osue) and other partners to respond to train derailments following the devastation affecting the citizens and economic vitality of east palestine, ohio. Our project engages all four extension program areas of agriculture, community development, family consumer sciences, and youth development with designed curricula, community leadership presentations and tabletop exercises in the event an emergency of this nature occurs in other regions of the state. Through print, electronic and video resources the curricula will increase extension's ability to respond to community emergencies. A capacity assessment and customizable communication plan will take into the account the professional development needs of educators; train-the-trainer curriculum will be developed for extension educators to lead local community efforts on topics of emergency readiness. The goal is to maximize efficiency and response to public needs during disastrous railroad incidents or similar events.guided by four objectives, the project will deliver extension education to people and communities affected by the 2023 ohio train derailment:1. Determine organizational capacity and identify needs of professionals to better serve ohio for emergency readiness, knowledge of management plans, and response coordination.2. Develop emergency management curricula for train derailment and other community-wide disasters, including customizable community action guides and video vignettes.3. Deliver train-the-trainer materials and educate use of electronic formats to other extension educators and partners to multiply programming efforts for a variety of audiences.4. Share emergency preparedness educational resources for train derailment response with other extension and professional organizations.at the completion of this project, osue will have higher organizational capacity to understand roles and response protocols to emergencies; improve technical capacity of our crisis response team; and provide leadership to local government and community organizations by teaching emergency train-the-trainer programs.