This article explores the challenges of reporting outcomes of the Extension educational programs at land-grant universities and presents a model highlighting the focus and expectations of reporting in Cooperative Extension. This model provides a rationale for recognizing the relationship between program planning, evaluation, reporting, and…

As community members continue to experience racial trauma at both individual and community levels, our Extension team responded by adapting an anti-racism leadership training program to be more trauma-informed. Our team designed a tool using Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's trauma-informed principles to support public…

University of Idaho Extension 4-H professionals have learned to work with volunteers in new ways to expand capacity and continue to build the quality of the 4-H program in Idaho. This article identifies how defining new position descriptions for volunteer facilitation coaches addressed two program needs, expanded capacity, and provided a higher…

Integrating evaluation into an Extension program offers multiple opportunities to understand program success through achieving program goals and objectives, delivering programming using the most effective techniques, and refining program audiences. It is less common that evaluation is used to guide and validate the effectiveness of program…

In this article, we describe how the recent movement towards evidence-based programming has impacted Extension. We review how the emphasis on implementing such programs with strict fidelity to an underlying program model may be at odds with Extension's strong history of adapting programming to meet the unique needs of children, youth, families,…

In recent years, libraries have become increasingly involved in financial education, and Extension educators are collaborating with them to deliver programs for their staff and the general public. Benefits to Extension educators include increased visibility, access to new audiences, having program logistics and marketing provided by others, access…

As change agents, Extension educators may begin their program planning by identifying the audience's perceived barriers and benefits to adopting some behavior that will benefit the community. Extension professionals and researchers have used in-person focus groups to understand an audience, and they can also administer them as…

Volunteers are central to the delivery of 4-H programs, and providing quality, relevant training is key to volunteer success. Online, asynchronous modules are an enhancement to a training delivery menu for adult volunteers, providing consistent, accessible options traditionally delivered primarily face to face. This article describes how Minnesota…

Assessing program impact can provide useful program evaluation data. It also provides a basis for program development, marketing, and justification. This article discusses recent impact evaluation efforts and findings of a long-time Extension program; referred to as Business Retention and Expansion (BR&E). How such information can be…

Many undergraduates are interested in community-based programming, but at most land-grants undergraduates have little contact with Extension. This article describes a grant project that developed two undergraduate courses about Extension and community-based, experiential education. The academic-year course incorporates lecture, discussion, guest…

To engage recipients of Extension science-based video programming involves understanding what behaviors and decisions the recipients may be considering that can be affected by the programming. Such understanding may be developed through interviews, focus groups, and surveys, which should provide guidance for elements of the style and content of…

Extension is positioned to provide school-based nutrition education programs as required by the 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act. To enhance program acceptance and sustainability, it is important to consider school administrators' and teachers' interests and preferences regarding nutrition education programming. The project…

The growth of the Children, Youth and Families At Risk National Initiative into a base program was charted through a survey documenting changes in 22 participating states' ability to develop and sustain programs. Data from 1997-1998 and 2000-2001 reveal gains in four of six components: statewide commitment, individuals' understanding of states'…