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Measuring and Reporting Outreach and Engagement: A

Public Value Perspective

Nancy Franz

Iowa State University Extension

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Who the Heck is Nancy?• 31+ years with Extension in five states

– Agent, volunteer, department head, district liaison, state specialist, project administrator, graduate student, administrator

• Youth and adult education in all program areas

• Research in TL and M&R engagement

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The Why and What of the Public Value

The Push for Public Value– NSF broader impacts– Measuring Excellence databases– Program planning and reporting– Evidence-based movement– Return on investment movement– The political context- government relations– Need more than feeling good about

Outreach and Engagement

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Our Take Home Message

Evidence-based movement

+

ROI on funding

=

Public value movement

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What is Public Value?

The value of a program to those who do not directly benefit from the program.

Laura KalambokidisUniversity of

Minnesota Extension

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What is Private Value?

Personal value derived directly from an Extension educational opportunity.

Nancy FranzISUEO

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Engagement Value Stories

• Teen court– Private – youth stay out of court– Public – reduced court and human services

costs

• Citizen’s leadership academy– Private – gain public speaking skills– Public – sustain civil society through

leadership development

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Common Public Values• Decrease health care costs• Decrease public costs related to risky behavior• Decrease public costs related to financial problems• Decrease public response costs to emergencies and

disasters• Increase academic success for a highly qualified and

productive workforce• Decrease public costs related to dependency on

local, state, and federal services• Increase health and ability of public safety workers

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Institutional Public Value Steps • Understand the difference between public and

private value• Create the case and urgency for public value• Embrace public value in addition to private

value• List and prioritize Extension public values• Develop public value stories• Describing and sharing public value is the norm

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Scholar Steps to Public Value

• Map and prioritize programs

• Determine impact to measure

• Collect and analyze data

• Tell the public value story (tie to research and evidence)

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Common Public Value Concerns

• Damage control for nontrainable decision makers

• Fear of generalization

• Fixation on randomized control trails

• Lack of contributional data

• Fear of change

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Public Movement Lessons

• Be proactive

• Start with early adopters-forget resistors

• Build urgency using real stories

• Seek professional development

• Select public value champions

• Develop a wide variety of public value examples

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More Lessons• Engage clientele

• Engage researchers

• Create a strong statistical and qualitative data base

• Bridge public value groups using middle managers and boundary spanners

• Be selective on programs to show PV

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More Lessons

• Develop PV templates

• Use PV to integrate campus and field perspectives

• Involve economists, program evaluators, communications staff, and stakeholders

• Reward those embracing the movement

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4-H Public Value4-H had 3,666 4-H officers who were seniors in the last year. They showed gains in leadership skills while occupying these leadership roles. At an average salary of $45,400 annually for a public leader this provides over $16 billion in leadership services to communities in the last year. (Texas agrilife extension)

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Ag Public ValueAs a result of pesticide certification training, 15,995 private applicators and 9,315 commercial applicators store, handle, transport, and apply pesticides safely, which benefits the citizens of the state and the environment. The training directly results in jobs retained or created with 9,315 commercial applicators able to obtain jobs or continue working in their current pesticide application position. At an average salary of $45,000/year, this is worth new and retained employment worth $420 million. (ISUEO)

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Ag Public Value

The disposal of pesticide containers poses a significant challenge to agricultural producers and other pesticide users. Improperly rinsed containers are a public health and financial threat. Many containers end up in local waste systems. As a result of Extension’s pesticide container recycling program, 853,730 properly rinsed plastic pesticide containers properly were collected from farms, licensed pesticide dealers and pest control companies, golf courses, and homeowners. (VCE)

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FCS Public ValueParenting programs reduced public costs with 75% of families of children at risk of entering foster care did not enter foster care within one year of completing a parenting education program and of those completing the Juvenile Justice Parenting Program, 85% of their youth did not acquire a criminal charge within one year of the program. (VCE)

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Public Value Story Template

• Success Story Title:(Issue being addressed - include public value reference in title)

• Relevance:(Why is it important to address this issue with education? Include research, statistics, and trends to support importance of issue. What are the desired changes?)

• Response: (Outputs - Identify activities, # of clients reached, publications, services, workshops, etc. used to address the issue.)

• Results: (Outcomes: Identify specific behavior and condition changes, how outcomes were measured, and relevance to public value)

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Your public value adventure awaits!

Q&A