The Southern Rural Development Center, in association with Community Development specialists across land-grant universities (1862 and 1890), delivered two workshops on community development concepts and applications.
The specialists developed a curriculum and hosted and trained over 40 professionals at the two train-the-trainer workshops on Community Development (CD) concepts and applications for Extension professionals at the National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals meetings in Charleston, WV (June 2025) and the Community Development Society meetings in Geneva, NY (July 2025). Participants were trained on the following topics over a 3-hour training workshop:
- Principles of good practice in CD,
- Rural community engagement and workforce development approaches,
- Strategies focused on the sustainability of community, workforce, and economic development efforts in communities served by Extension,
- Power in the community context and how it affects engagement,
- Practitioners CD tools and concepts,
- Community capitals and assets as agents of change,
- Implications of rural community demographics and workforce development, and
- Data analysis and visualization.
The training team included community development professionals from 1862 and 1890 institutions - University of Tennessee, University of Arkansas, Southern Rural Development Center hosted at Mississippi State University, University of Kentucky, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, University of New Hampshire, Colorado State University, Cornell University, Purdue University, and Prairie View A&M University. The key audience for the training included community and economic development agents, specialists, faculty, and practitioners at land-grant agencies, as well as other community development professionals and practitioners whose work incorporates community development principles, such as 4-H, Agriculture, and Family & Consumer Science Extension professionals. At the end of the workshops, evaluations were collected to improve training efforts in the future.
Grace Langford with the Southern Rural Development Center led this effort in collaboration with Hunter Goodman (University of Arkansas) and Sreedhar Upendram (University of Tennessee). The Southern Rural Development Center has funding as part of the Serving Rural America Through Land-Grant Colleges & Universities: Unlocking the Workforce Development Potential of Extension Services project. Sarah Torres Lugo, with the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), attended the NACDEP meeting and provided an overview of the organization and their goals in supporting community development.
Photo: Community Development Workshop Training Team with Sarah Torres Lugo (NCHEMS) and University of Arkansas Summer Interns at National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals Annual Conference in Charleston, WV (June 2025).
*Story Credit: Sreedhar Upendram, University of Tennessee