Promotion of internal collaborations between Extension 4-H, family and consumer science, agriculture, community development, and other university departments in programming for children, youth and families at risk across the state. Promotion of external collaborations with community, county, state and federal agencies and organizations to strengthen programs and policies for vulnerable children, youth and families. An important part of Children, Youth and Families At Risk Initiative involves empowering states and counties in their efforts to more effectively reach children, youth and families who are most vulnerable. This work is relevant because system-wide changes in organizations depend in part on changes in behavior of the individuals and groups within those systems. The unwillingness or inability to change by individual staff members constitutes a significant barrier to organizational change.
Individuals also differ in their beliefs about the possibility of change.
Self-reported behaviors of staff members in community organizations are consistent with the beliefs they express about change. Group responses to change can either be passive or active and may include resistance, opposition, acceptance, ritualistic response, acquiescence and leaving. These constituent preferences, as well as social needs and constraints, are evolving, not static, so effective organizations are those that evolve along with the larger society. Over time, effective organizations satisfy constituent preferences through niche expansion, a process which may involve expansion to include new constituencies. Organizational evaluation models need to be flexible enough to provide management with enough information about these contextual changes to inform managerial decision making.