Applying FURI to Work

Strategies that Guide the Network

Increase the focus, urgency, reach and impact of nutrition education for low income people in Michigan.

Focus: SNAP-Ed money is meant to fund nutrition education and identification and promotion of appropriate physical activity. Michigan Nutrition Network is working to increase SNAP-Ed focus by:

• Carefully administering an application process that ensures that selected partners fit the eligibility requirements of the funding
• Assigning Liaison’s to each partner who are charged with working to help the partner stay on target
• Administering the Compliance Review Program to provide a regular, organized process for ensuring Partner accountability for their focus
• Identifying and developing partners that have natural opportunities to incorporate nutrition education into their work
• Building collaborative partnerships with other USDA FNS programs to ensure the best use of cross-program resources

Urgency: There are over 1.3 million people on nutrition assistance at any time in Michigan. Every person who receives assistance without having any nutrition education is a loss in terms of health and prevention of chronic disease. MNN is increasing urgency by:

• Administering broad campaigns like “Grow Your Kids with Fruits and Veggies” Social Marketing Program
• Developing new broad-based approaches to service delivery like “school garden nutrition education” (SGNE)
• Working with the partners who have the most direct links with the target population – food banks, Center for Civil Justice, ElderLaw
• Work with health organizations to emphasize the urgency of preventing chronic diseases.
  

Reach: A key determinant of SNAP-Ed success in Michigan is the percent of the people eligible for SNAP-Ed who receive it. MNN is working to increase reach by:

• Extending the opportunity to participate in providing SNAP-Ed to as many partners, and partners with as broad a reach, as possible
• Working to provide resources that enable partners to reach diverse populations, otherwise limited by language, cultural competency
• Connecting resources with schools where youth, a high percentage of nutrition assistance recipients, can be reached
• Organizing statewide approaches that target nutrition assistance recipients in non-traditional locations like grocery stores.
• Providing a central resource for products that support statewide efforts at nutrition education
  

Impact: SNAP-Ed needs to be achieving behavior change to be of value. MNN is helping ensure that SNAP-Ed is achieving behavior change by:

• Working with partners to build their organizational capacity to have impact
• Linking SNAP-Ed partners and projects with University based evaluation resources
• Provide communities the opportunity to become engaged in nutrition education in a manner that best serves their communities
• Providing recognition for excellence in the SNAP-Ed program

The Urgency Challenge

I've been thinking lately about what makes something urgent. Why do we prioritize? How do we pick what we work day and night to get done versus what we let slide on our to-do list? I've been thinking about it because there are so many things that I think should be urgent that others apparently don't. My conclusion so far - pleasure and pain. We either apply ourselves with urgency to something because that will result in us achieving greater rewards, or we do it because failing to do so will cause us some sort of pain. Urgency can be applied at the personal level and at the organizational level. An organization will have an expectation of urgency if those in charge believe that applying the resources of the company to its products with urgency will result in greater rewards or not will result in greater loss or pain. Urgency and power are interrelated.

Programs Need More FURI

I'm writing this blog as a way to capture my thoughts in an organized way. If you want to follow what I'm thinking about you are welcome. FURI stands for Focus, Urgency, Reach, and Impact. For years I have worked in the delivery of programs funded, either by generous donations from private citizens or by taxes. I believe that these are both appropriate ways for some programs to be funded. On the other hand I see much too much waste in the delivery of these programs. FURI came out of my experiences with the wasteful programs. They make me mad. I believe there is a solution and that is to be sure that all programs have Focus, Urgency, Reach, and Impact. This blog will explore my experiences in moving in that direction. It is not and will not be a straight and narrow journey. It is a worthy destination.