Community

1. Program Inventory and Reach
   1. Complete a program review of learning opportunities for youth, families, volunteers, and community organizations. Identify key characteristics through outcomes of these learning opportunities to move towards holistic community engagement.
   2. Catalog existing Extension civic engagement programs (statewide and unit) by comprehensively and systematically characterizing these curricula.
   3. Catalog existing Extension volunteerism programs (statewide and unit) by comprehensively and systematically characterizing these curricula.
   4. Catalog existing Extension leadership programs (statewide and unit) by comprehensively and systematically characterizing these curricula.
   5. Develop a review process to go through identified program catalogs to look for gaps and strengths. Also, ensure the process includes identifying programs that have had success with diverse audiences.
   6. Review research and peer-reviewed publications to underpin revisions to cataloged programs, along with new program development to fill gaps.
   7. Update and revise cataloged educational and training programs to promote civic engagement, leadership, and volunteering. Identify programs that should be archived or reprioritized and which should be scaled/expanded.
2. Continued Evaluation and Assessment
   1. Evaluate redundancies in civic engagement, volunteerism, and leadership programming to enhance collaboration internally for systems, programs, and policies.
   2. Identify internal & external stakeholders to engage with feedback loops to inform program review and development, as well as policies.
   3. Identify what the feedback loops will look like to inform programs and policies.
   4. Engage internal and external stakeholders in feedback loops/mechanisms to inform decisions related to learning opportunities and policies.
3. Provide Resources
   1. Provide resources for local and statewide environmental scans and futuristic planning to assist in healthy and holistic engagement for youth, families, volunteers, and community organizations.
   2. Create and distribute a final portfolio of targeted programs in the areas of civic engagement, volunteerism, and leadership for staff to reference and use to guide local work. Within the portfolio, identify a set of featured programs within each area (civic engagement, volunteerism, and leadership) that are adaptable and impactful. Make curriculum and materials (including evaluation tools) for featured programs accessible to staff via virtual distribution methods (like Box or Teams)
   3. Provide in-person or virtual training to staff on featured programs within the program portfolio via Zoom, and in-person events like the Extension Annual Conference.
4. Program Delivery
   1. Deliver enhanced and expanded featured programs (from the identified portfolio) across the state that support community leadership, civic engagement, and volunteerism.
5. Extension Volunteer Groups
   1. Assess Existing Extension Volunteer Tracking systems are in place (particularly to track volunteer training/development, and impact and outcomes) to ensure Extension volunteers are getting skills to impact their communities beyond their Extension work.
   2. Look for opportunities to standardize Extension volunteer training and impact tracking across the system.
   3. Review the created portfolio of Extension leadership, volunteerism, and civic engagement programs to identify programs that would be beneficial to and successful with existing Extension volunteer corps.
   4. Create accessible resources to enhance tracking and educational opportunities for learning for Extension volunteers.
   5. Develop an evaluation system to ensure training for volunteers is building skills they can use outside of their volunteer work with Extension. 

• Comprehensive catalog of Extension’s volunteer, leadership & civic engagement programs.
• Portfolio of featured Extension volunteer, leadership & civic engagement programs for targeted implementation
• Review of the research and published literature.
• Number of civic engagement, volunteer, and leadership development programs.
  • New
  • Continuing (as is)
  • Revised/Updated
  • Archived
• Number and characteristics of participants completing programs. (all)
• Number and percentage of participants who report learning leadership or civic engagement skills to impact their life and work. (e.g.: capacity to influence/lead within their communities and/or accepting new leadership roles or opportunities after program completion.)
• Number of new and retained volunteers to lead within their communities through engagement with youth, families, and community organizations.
• Number of community organizations served by civic engagement, volunteer, and leadership development programs.
• Number of community organizations reporting accessing new resources and funding as a result of their participation in targeted Extension programming.
• Frequency of engagement by individual participants in civic engagement, leadership, and volunteer programs.

Primary

Enriching civic engagement, volunteer development, and leadership development programs maximizes positive impacts to support strong and resilient youth, families, and community organizations across the state.

Secondary

Enriching civic engagement, volunteer development, and leadership development programs positively contributes to youth, adult, and community organization engagement in supporting the local economy, managing natural resources in communities, increasing food access, delivering health education, building local partnerships; and promoting digital literacy.

Many local organizations that provide much-needed services and improve local quality of life (e.g., local government, schools, youth groups, health clinics, food, mobility assistance, etc.) rely heavily on volunteer labor (Stukas, Snyder, and Clary, 2016). However, many U.S. communities are experiencing declining civic engagement and volunteerism in recent years (Dietz and Grimm, 2023). Youth and older adults are more likely to be active in their communities, but individuals with lower levels of educational attainment are not. Throughout the Midwest, many rural communities continue to lose young people, particularly those who leave to pursue higher education but do not return (Carr and Kefalas, 2009). These ongoing demographic challenges—net domestic out-migration and an aging population—have been particularly pressing in Illinois (White, 2023).

Extension enriches communities through its existing volunteer corps. Eighty-two percent of 4-H volunteers in the North Central region of the United States reported that they gained skills to use in other roles by serving as a 4-H volunteer. Seventy-five percent reported they felt better connected to their communities and 74% increased their confidence as a leader. They also reported that they felt that volunteering for 4-H makes communities stronger and encourages civic involvement (North Central Region Volunteer Specialists, 2024). Continuing to invest in volunteer recruitment and training to support our work is also an investment in our local communities.

Illinois Extension can promote greater civic engagement and volunteerism by encouraging greater participation, preparing future leaders, and demonstrating the value of these activities to the community. It can also provide educational programs that enable local governments and community organizations to develop stronger leadership, expand partnerships, and access more resources. Greater local capacity is critical for Illinois communities to effectively address ongoing and emerging challenges and, in turn, become more resilient places that will allow families, individuals, and organizations to thrive.