Dr. Judith Ramaley, University of Vermont President along Dr. Larry Forcier, Dean and Director of Extension support staff to engage with community collaborators to address community issues. Engagement is an initiative characterized by shared goals, a shared agenda, agreed upon definitions of success that are meaningful both to the university and to community participants, and the pooling and leveraging of funds. It is mutually beneficial and is likely to promote learning for all parties and build capacity and competency for all participants. Truly, this is a goal for UVM Extension and strength of the ECC Project effort. Thirty Extension professionals in Vermont working directly or indirectly with children, youth and families were identified for the survey.
Several strengths are apparent in the data.
There appears to be a group of committed personnel who are knowledgeable and skilled in serving children, youth and families at risk. Most feel supported by the administration in terms of finances, time and priorities. These same attitudes were apparent in the responses to questions regarding hiring, recruitment of volunteers and work with diverse audiences. The majority reported that they are both skilled and comfortable working with diverse audiences. Indicators monitored toward the Children and Youth Outcomes are related to number of children and youth reached with educational programs on life skills along with observed behavior change.