Cooperative Extension Service offers Arkansans online help for ‘Navigating Life’
By Seth Blomeley
U of A System Division of Agriculture
May 11, 2018
Fast Facts:
- “Navigating Life” emails provide quick tips for better living
- https://www.uaex.uada.edu/navigatinglife
- Extension seeks to sign up 10,000 enrollees by the end of May
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LITTLE ROCK — Look around at your friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Everyone is facing some sort of personal challenge or challenges. They may not talk about it, but there is something going on in everybody’s life.
If what you are facing feels insurmountable, take heart. You are not alone.
The key to improvement is education, learning how to overcome, or cope with, personal adversity.
The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service is offering an easy way to obtain tips relating from everything from substance abuse to sleep deprivation and everything in between.
A program called Navigating Life enables people — everyone is eligible — to sign up for regular email updates filled with useful information giving keys on how to best make it through life’s sometimes rocky journey.
“With Navigating Life, we provide quick tips for better living in the areas of personal well being, relationships and parenting,” said Ashley Foster, a program associate with the Family Life team at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. “We try to give little tidbits so people keep interest without giving them too much to read.”
During the month of May, the Cooperative Extension Service is spreading awareness about mental health and encouraging residents to sign up for email updates.
Currently, the Navigating Life program has 7,468 people signed up, and Foster said a goal would be to reach 10,000 people.
Foster is also urging people to “like” the program on Facebook at Navigating Life and follow them on Twitter.
Mental health issues affect many Arkansans
More than one in five Americans have some sort of mental health issue they are struggling with. That’s more than 40 million people, Foster said.
Navigating Life, which began in 2011, also provides information through a blog on the UAEX website as well as on Facebook.
“We have a lot of people who want to know more about fostering friendships, co-parenting and divorce,” Foster said.
Managing stress is another hot topic in people’s lives, she said.
The information comes from researchers around the country and also from experts with Extension Services in other states.
Positive results
According to one user of the Navigating life service: “The Navigating articles allow me to reflect — all for the positive though there may be negativity or pain going in my life. It’s OK that life is messy sometimes, but it's our attitude towards life's vacillations that is important, and Navigating reminds me to slow down and put things in perspective."
To access the Navigating Life blog and to sign up for informational emails, go to https://www.uaex.uada.edu/navigatinglife.
Like Navigating Life on Facebook at Navigating Life and follow at Twitter.
To learn about other health and living resources offered through the Division of Agriculture, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on five system campuses.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
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Media Contact: Mary Hightower
Dir. of Communication Services
U of A Division of Agriculture
Cooperative Extension Service
(501) 671-2126
mhightower@uada.edu