The Extension Foundation recently announced a series of five conversations focusing on identifying and documenting evidence-based programming in Cooperative Extension. The goals of these conversations are to:

• Discuss the importance of identifying program evidence for Extension.
• Identify what we know about evidence in Extension programming
• Discuss examples of how Extension programs achieve evidence.
• Establish common language when talking about “evidence”.
• Identify at what level Extension should aspire to evidence in programming.
• Develop methods to gauge Extension programming evidence.
• Pilot developed methods to gauge Extension programming evidence.

The first conversation: What does evidence mean for Extension Programming?  was held Monday, January 24, 2022. This is the first of five conversations to be held in Q1 2022. A total of 18 Extension professionals from a wide range of backgrounds participated, including subject matter specialists, evaluators, and administrators.

The Mentimeter polling tool was used to gain insights from the group, including:

• Area of professional expertise
• Why they chose to participate
• The value of identifying evidence in the Extension Program

After a brief presentation participants went to one of three breakout rooms, where volunteer participants facilitated discussion and reported back the discussion to the larger group.

Questions asked in the breakout rooms were:

• What does evidence-based programming or evidence-based practice mean to you? What words come to mind when you think of evidence-based?
• How do you define evidence-based Extension programming?
• Are there examples in Extension that you consider evidence-based or reaching evidence? Share Links…
• Are there research articles that we should be reading to learn more to help frame common language? Share Links …
• Who is missing from this conversation?

Information gathered in the breakout rooms was shared back with the larger group and can be arranged in the themes around clinical research methods to achieve evidence, data-driven programs, conflicting definitions of evidence among different disciplines, barriers in reporting from county to state levels, and the connection of evidence to successful funding. These areas and more were discussed.

One participant noted the value of identifying evidence in the Extension Program this way:

“...To demonstrate that the Extension system and its community-based approach has relevance for the 21st century. We can return to our relevance to community change.”

Our next conversation - Evidence in Extension - is slated for Monday, February 7th at 9 am PT, 11 am CT, 12 pm ET. Register here

Other conversations will be held on: February 21st, March 7th, and March 21st. We hope that you'll join us!

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash