Understanding and identifying the professional development needs of 4-H youth development professionals should be the first step in developing the Extension workforce. However, 4-H professionals find it challenging to use the Professional, Research, Knowledge and Competencies (PRKC), which consists of 348 unique competency items, to guide…

Conducting needs assessments serves as a valuable way for Extension educators to ensure that they are designing programs that meet community needs. We developed a needs assessment tool kit that educators across urban, suburban, and rural communities can use to answer the question "What are the youth development needs in my county?"…

This article describes the curriculum and program development process that was used to create the North Carolina Extension Master Food Volunteer program. We used a rigorous program development process, including conducting a needs assessment, piloting and evaluating the program, incorporating revisions based on feedback, and receiving external…

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…

Volunteer recognition is an important component of Extension programs. Most land-grant universities have implemented a state volunteer recognition program. Extension professionals, however, are too overburdened with meetings, programs, and activities to effectively recognize volunteers locally. Utilizing a state model is an efficient means of…

Describes results of a study focused on the role and relationship of 4-H agents working with program management volunteers in clubs, communities, and counties. Factors found to be instrumental in the expanded involvement of key volunteers include agent self-confidence, belief in volunteerism, strong support system, and careful volunteer selection.…

Delegation involves responsibility and authority for each staff member in the 4-H program. (ABM)

This study was to determine the tasks 4-H project leaders performed, to secure leaders' and agents' opinions concerning the tasks that should be performed by 4-H project leaders, and to determine the opinions of 4-H project leaders and extension agents concerning the qualifications of 4-H project leaders to perform 55 selected tasks.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of Extension agents and volunteer 4-H Club leaders regarding a newly proposed concept of using county leaders in the conduct and expansion of 4-H Club work in Idaho. An objective was to find out if volunteer 4-H Club leaders felt qualified to conduct: (1) 4-H leader training, (2) planning…

Extension, the process of extending the knowledge of recent advances in science and technology to the people who need it, has been emphasized in India since the introduction of the Community Development Programme in 1952. Community development involves two distinct processes--extension education and community organization--and has had four…

This annotated bibliography dealing with cooperative extension contains 109 indexed and abstracted entries arranged under the following headings: (1) administrative organization and management; (2) training and staff development for extension workers; (3) organization of people to participate in extension; (4) volunteer local leaders; (5) program…

This training manual, the second volume in a four-volume series of curriculum guides for use in training Peace Corps agricultural development workers, deals with extension skills. The first chapter provides suggested guidelines for setting up and carrying out the extension skills component of the agricultural development worker training series.…

This manual is intended to serve as a guide for those who are helping future Peace Corps volunteers to acquire basic food drying and storage skills. Included in the guide are lesson outlines and handouts for use in each of the 30 sessions of the course. Representative topics discussed in the individual sessions are scheduling, solar dryers,…