At the OMAFRA public value workshop last week, a participant suggested that in order to make a strong public value case for Extension programs, we cannot only provide funding for program delivery. We must also invest in research and program evaluation that will provide the data to support public value messages. She said that in the following diagram of a public value message, we need to “fund the arrows”–the links between the stages of the model. Not only will funding the arrows help us make our best funding case, it can also help us choose which programs to prioritize. For anyone with budgeting responsibility, what do you think? Should we “fund the arrows”?
