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building and collaborations have led to increased positive
reputation and awareness within communities. Overall,
panelists highlighted the importance of becoming embedded
in their community to impactfully engage and develop trust
with members, including by serving on local and regional
policy councils.
In addition, panelists expressed they are continuously
justifying the necessity of CES to grant-funding organizations,
colleagues, and universities' upper administrations.
As universities shift toward performance-based budgeting
models, there is not an equivalent measurement-budget plan
within CES. As such, although funding organizations are particularly
interested in data documenting the impacts of CES,
documentation takes away time and resources from program
delivery. Similarly, university-guided performance-based
metrics are more difficult to measure in community settings
compared with the evaluation and performance metrics of
teaching and research.
Monetary challenges
Access to sufficient and consistent financial resources has
proven challenging for CES educators. The original funding
model, in which costs were shared among federal, state, and
local governments, has shifted to primary reliance on publicprivate
partnerships, private philanthropy, and revenuegenerating
programs (3, 10, 20, 21, 50). Panelists, having
previously relied on fewer, larger streams of money are now
relying on a combination of soft-funded sources and publicprivate
partnerships. Now, monetary sources include smaller
streams of funding from grant-making agencies, unspent
money from other programs at the end of the fiscal year to
fund the next year of programs, or one or two primary revenuegenerating
programs per year; this results in multisource
funding made up of smaller amounts of money, but with
increasing deliverables. Resources that could otherwise be
spent on delivering impactful programs are instead allocated to
managing the stress of keeping programs financially solvent.
Delivery and educational challenges
CES educators are continuously adopting new best practices
for connecting with communities and sharing educational
materials. Previously, when CES educators' efforts were
primarily focused on agricultural production, in-person
support was offered (e.g., via on-farm visits and in-person
instruction). Although these practices still occur and continue
to meet a vital need to specific audiences, CES currently
provides less in-person services because of increasing training
and educational needs (and increase in topics and subject areas
covered) coupled with fewer individuals employed by CES. At
the same time, an increase in Internet connectivity and access
to digital technologies allows and creates opportunities for
online-only and on-demand programs to maximize resources
(16). CES operations have leveraged online technologies
through online courses that have been effective for PSA
training with farmers, because many farmers are unable to
attend an 8-h in-person course. Although a shift to digital
technologies allows participants to complete a program in their
own time, it is neither a perfect nor ideal solution because of
the lack of live engagement and focused learning. Panelists
deliberated on " ideal " platforms for online engagement and
the limits of adapting a program to a technology that will
likely change or become obsolete. As discussed previously,
it becomes incumbent upon the educator to learn how to
use digital technology (e.g., online learning platforms) and
adapt materials accordingly; both actions are time- and laborintensive
for an already occupied group. However, panelists
cautioned against going so far as to solely offering onlineonly
educational experiences, because Internet connectivity
remains limited in many rural U.S. areas, internationally, and
within specific communities that avoid technology (e.g.,
Plain communities, including Amish and Mennonite). Even
when Internet connectivity is available, clientele may not
have access and/or adequate resources to support a stable or
reliable Internet connection needed for activities such as video
streaming and taking online assessments. Although there has
been a push toward maintaining an online presence, panelists
often face the need to justify to funders that online technology
is " not the silver bullet " for education; in fact, it is imperative to
continue developing hands-on and in-person content to " meet
more people where they are. "
ADDRESSING CHALLENGES AND RESPONDING
TO CHANGE
CES educators have responded to challenges with a variety
of creative solutions including adapting personnel roles,
fostering and facilitating inclusivity, and evaluating successes
to increase interest and awareness in CES and to adapt to the
changing world.
Personnel shifts
As a means of addressing shrinking personnel in specialized
subject areas, Area Specialized Agent (ASA) roles were
established by CES administrators. Rather than focusing on
multiple program areas as many Extension educators do, ASAs
are responsible for a " specific content area over a designated
multicounty area " (12). For example, in recent years, North
Carolina Cooperative Extension hired two ASAs to assist in
food manufacturing and processor training and three ASAs
to focus on consumer and retail food safety (14, 22). In
addition, Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) created a
food safety ASA initiative after an influx of food safety and
food entrepreneurial questions that diverted time from CES
specialists. Faculty in the Virginia Tech Department of Food
Science & Technology drafted a proposal for additional food
safety-based personnel and justified the request using program
and evaluation data (including Virginia-specific food-related
outbreak data, subsequent medical costs, employee work time
lost, and other data) (5). District directors approved three ASA
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