Ontario

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”?

 

Last week I spoke about creating public value with animal health and welfare programs at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) Animal Health Forum in Guelph.

I also taught a public value workshop for OMAFRA and University of Guelph Extension professionals. If you picked up the url for this blog at the OMAFRA events, welcome! Feel free to explore the site and contribute comments and/or questions on any of the entries. Or, if you prefer, email your comments and questions to me at kalam002 at-sign umn dot edu. Also, if you participated in the March 9 workshop, look for an email with a link to an end-of-workshop survey. The survey contains only a few questions and should take very little time to complete. I will use the results to evaluate the workshop’s effectiveness and to improve future public value offerings. Thank you for your feedback!