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USING PUBLIC VALUE LANGUAGE WITH STAKEHOLDERS AND FUNDERS OF MISSOURI EXTENSION PROGRAMS

Agricultural Issues

Mark Stewart
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI EXTENSION
Jefferson City

Abstract

Extension nationally has aggressively communicated the return on investment to our local, state and national government stakeholders. In the past this has satisfied stakeholder’s needs for justifying the expenditure of public dollars for extension programing. Now new questions of accountability have arisen; “Shouldn’t participants of these educational programs be covering the costs of these programs since they realize a private good from these efforts?” While there is little doubt extension programing provides substantial “private good”, much of our work provides a public good as well. Extension programs across our nation are uniquely situated to benefit from promoting our public value return on investment and it is imperative that we show how non-participants benefit from our extension program efforts. The University of Missouri Extension” Public Value” self-directed work team is working with Missouri extension councils and professionals, helping them respond to this opportunity. Since 2008, MU Extension has been utilizing the principles defined by Dr. Laura Kalambokidis, University of Minnesota Extension, Professor of Applied Economics, to develop tools for faculty and staff to strengthen their writing about program impact and the public value underlying that impact. MU Extension faculty and staff have increased the use of public value statements in annual reports, stakeholder information sheets and communications with extension councils. They have worked with extension councils and other supporters and public value statements are included in "elevator speeches". Funders are beginning to note the public value of MU Extension programing. Authors: Crawford, C.E., DeLong, T., Stewart, M. , Marson, V., Metzgar, K, Lamers, N.,
  1. Crawford, C.E. Family Financial Education Specialist, University of Missouri Extension, Missouri, 65340
  2. DeLong, T. County Council Coordinator, Universty of Missouri Extension, Missouri, 65211
  3. Stewart, M. Interim Regional Director, University Of Missouri Extension, Missouri, 65211
  4. Marson, V. Family Financial Education Specialist, Universtiy of Missouri Extension, Missouri, 65101
  5. Metzgar, K Regional Director, Universty of Missouri Extension, Missouri, 65047
  6. Lamers, N. Family Financial Education Specialist, Unviersity of Missouri Extension, Missouri, 65653
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