Urban programs must develop options for youth including career choices, health choices, and positive leadership opportunities. Families at risk from financial instability, poverty, and disruption, and the fragile elderly are present in high concentrations in cities. Extension programs can help them learn nurturing and coping skills. For those in or near poverty, education can stretch family resources and prevent expensive, nutrition-related health problems, especially for infants and the elderly. People will need to learn strategies for preventive health care and securing access to treatment.
Environmental quality is especially critical to city dwellers.
Public policy education can focus on issues such as solid waste, air and water quality, and the development of parks. Natural resources in cities will need to be preserved or enhanced. Extension education can help people choose cost-effective responses to landscaping, which is a valuable amenity that requires major investment by homeowners, government, and the commercial sector. Many urban communities need revitalizing, just as rural communities do. Neighborhoods that have become gathering places for the disadvantaged need self-help strategies.