Moving Beyond "traditional" Extension

Many CLD engagement efforts are initiated by faculty and staff with Cooperative Extension appointments. Others are initiated by faculty on teaching/research appointments, the Non-Profit Leadership Initiative, or the Center for Leadership Development. Whether officially Extension or not, much of what we do does not resemble “traditional” Extension specialist programming. We have a diversity of audiences and may do a program/training for or collaborate with Extension and/or non-Extension audiences.  

Community and Economic Development 

The objective of Dr. Lori Garkovich’s Extension program is to build the capacity of local organizations and communities to define a desired future and to design a concrete plan to implement that future. Therefore, her program focuses on the components of strategic community planning. They include (1) a community visioning process which involves a local group organizing and implementing a citizen-based process to obtain residents’ preferences on the future of the community, (2) socio-demographic analyses of local trends, (3) organizational and comprehensive community planning, and (4) leadership development. She has facilitated this process in numerous Kentucky communities and for numerous organizations. 

Dr. Rick Maurer conducts the Business Retention and Expansion program jointly with Gae Broadwater at Kentucky State University. It is a community-based program that helps communities survey local businesses to determine the local business situation and makes recommendations to help keep existing businesses in the community. Professor Maurer also participates in Rural Health Works which is conducted with the State Office of Rural Health and assists local communities with health services analysis and planning.  

New Products Development and Commercialization targets small rural manufacturers in Kentucky. Dr. Maurer participates in the program which is conducted jointly between the UK Center for Manufacturing and Cooperative Extension. His portion of the project helps identify potential rural manufacturers with new product ideas and facilitates assistance from the resources of the University in product and process development and marketing. 

CLD faculty are involved in international, as well as domestic, rural community development efforts. At the invitation of the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and USDA, Dr. Hustedde has led two seminars in rural Serbia and he is preparing a manual which will be used to “train the trainer” in Serbia in 2007. He also served as a facilitator for a pan-African meeting of community development professionals in Cameroon in 2005 which led to an African community development manifesto which is being used as a guide for programs throughout the continent. 

Other CLD efforts in the area of community and economic development include Dr. Hustedde’s work on public conflict analysis and resolution. This work extends into such areas as agri-bioterrorism where Dr. Hustedde has conducted workshops focusing on anticipated conflicts associated with natural and human-induced disasters in rural communities and into conflict resolution education where he routinely conducts seminars and workshops for other state Extension systems. 

Demographic Data, Analysis, and Trends

Dr. Julie Zimmerman’s Extension program emphasizes enhancing the information-based decision-making of local communities. Based upon the belief that informed community decision-making requires customized information, knowledge of community change and the forces behind it, and skills in interpreting the information, her program both provides local demographic data and seeks to empower users to both find and interpret it. Dr. Zimmerman’s “Kentucky By the Numbers” program provides topic-focused statistical profiles for each of Kentucky’s 120 counties and is available on the Social ‘N Agricultural Resource Lab (SNARL) web site which she maintains at http://www.ca.uky.edu/snarl/ 

Program and Staff Development

Dr. Nall’s work centers around staff development, leadership and volunteer development, and program development. She focuses on providing educational experiences for professional staff in which they develop skills and gain knowledge needed to conduct effective county Extension programs. This is accomplished through orientations for new agents and specialists, core agent training, and one-on-one conferences with agents. 

Other CLD efforts in the area of program and staff development include training sessions on communicating with clientele groups and mass media and promotional writing which Drs. Weckman and Witham conduct as part of core training for new county Extension agents.

Youth Development

With a 60/40 split appointment with 4-H Youth Development, Dr. Kenneth Jones’ work focuses almost exclusively on youth development and his Extension program has two major dimensions. One is building the capacity of 4-H Youth Development agents. Since many new 4-H agents have limited knowledge of youth development theory, Dr. Jones’ program involves assessing agent needs and then working to enhance their knowledge of youth development theory, research, and trends through in-service trainings and the production of a quarterly Youth Development Update newsletter. A second dimension of Dr. Jones’ work involves forming collaborations between Extension and other organizations with priority on children, youth, and families in the Commonwealth. As the only youth development subject matter specialist at UK, Dr. Jones has conducted seminars at the Kentucky Great Kids Summit, facilitated a workshop for African-American males on topics related to dating and sexual health (Project Alpha), presented workshops on understanding teens and teen culture, and consulted with Kentucky Child Now, an America’s Promise affiliate, to evaluate the experiences of Americorps members working with youth involved in service learning.  Members of the Kentucky Partnerships for Youth have adopted Dr. Jones’ model of evaluating youth-adult partnerships at the community level.  http://www.uky.edu/Ag/CLD/YD/YD_index.htm.

Other CLD youth development activities include the long-time service of three faculty members (Garkovich, Hansen, Zimmerman) on the Kentucky Kids Count Consortium and Dr. Keiko Tanaka’s participation in the Kentucky 4-H biotechnology education and outreach program and her annual presence on an ethics panel at the 4-H biotechnology camp.