How USU Extension is addressing priority issue areas of residents

I recently published a featured article in the Journal of Extension, titled Application of a Three-Phase Needs Assessment Framework to Identify Priority Issue Areas for Extension Programming. My co-authors on this manuscript were my USU Extension colleagues: Dr. Lendel Narine and Dr. Amanda Ali. Here is the abstract:

Cooperative Extension strives to deliver relevant programming to residents. However, problems facing communities are increasingly complex. We used a three-phase needs assessment to describe Utah residents' perceptions of issue areas for Extension programming. We gathered data from 1,043 Utah residents. Results highlighted four priority issue areas for Extension programming. These were environmental quality, conservation capacity, community development, and agriculture and food safety. On the basis of our work, we recommend that Extension allocate resources to addressing priority issue areas and implement a formal needs assessment framework for monitoring issue areas to inform relevant and quality programming in response to emerging needs.

Read the full article at joe.org.