Utilizing volunteers in integrated Extension programming

Success Story

Traditional volunteer structures have been successful partnerships for Extension and met many mutual purposes. Frequently though, at the community level, as programs strive to become more integrated across content areas, there is a need to develop a more integrated volunteer core that can serve Extension beyond traditional roles.

In North Carolina there has been an organizational change effort to make Extension programming more integrated across content areas to create a more powerful and lasting impact as well as increase the visibility and vitality of all of Extension. This requires structural changes at all levels of the system, including our volunteer base. Additionally, the natural evolution of traditional volunteer groups has resulted in a need to revitalize and rethink how we structure our volunteer base.

A team of specialists, county and district directors, and department heads are working to develop volunteer training around this need for an integrated volunteer core.

Workshop participants will:

• Understand a brief history of the project
• Analyze a model of change that integrates programming across content areas
• Integrate components of volunteer development in relationship to this model
• Apply this model to the revitalization of their Extension volunteerism programs