The volunteer's skills and knowledge can, to a point, be guaranteed. The volunteer's time is committed by agreement before training is offered. Volunteers have been known to increase outreach beyond all reasonable expectation, contacting people who might never have been served by Extension, bringing greater diversity to our clientele, and targeting specialized groups. In some cases, volunteers have provided a special quality of contact no Extension professional has time for. This is particularly true in situations where the client has multiple or daunting problems that are best addressed through a labor-intense coaching approach.
Volunteers can be credible, comfortable, and unintimidating mentors.
The advantages to Cooperative Extension and the home economist are multiple. Visibility and image-building goals are served. Public service work, which the Extension professional must often forego in favor of more sophisticated problem-solving work, can continue. Volunteers can be trained to help with program evaluation data collection. They can service county fairs, deliver programs, or answer telephones nights and weekends.