Rising poverty, shrinking economic opportunities, disengaged citizens and contentious public discourse, and racial inequality have become some of the greatest challenges communities are confronting. In efforts to maximize participation in addressing these issues, universities, community organizations, corporations, local government entities, and foundations are, independently or collaboratively, devoting resources to develop local leadership capacities. This chapter examines these community leadership development efforts and details two cooperative extension programs in a Midwestern US state. Through analysis of these case examples, the chapter offers a vision for how to reimagine community leadership programs so that they are more responsive to the complexity of current and emergent community challenges. An argument is made that US university extension services, because of their strong ties to local communities and networks nationwide, are well placed to support community leadership development that promotes community-identified strategies to address a wide range of local issues among diverse stakeholders. Insights from this chapter can inform future research and influence the design and implementation of community leadership development programs around the world.

Early childhood is a time of profound growth and development and early experiences during this period have important implications for life-long health and development. Evidence for the benefit of investing in early childhood is so strong that it is considered a public health issue by many researchers and policymakers. This chapter explores efforts within Cooperative Extension in fostering health and well-being among young children, suggesting a holistic approach that involves supporting children’s parents and caregivers, early childhood educators, and fostering a positive context in which children can thrive. Extension continues to play important roles in providing culturally responsive education to families, working with families to cocreate knowledge, and assisting communities in supporting the well-being of young children for lifelong success. Specific examples of promising programs are provided to highlight the impactful work conducted by Extension to support young children around the country.

Rural communities. Rural families. Both face challenges and opportunities for viability and security. The Rural Families Speak Project has been studying rural families with low incomes for over twenty years, listening to the voices of families and sharing their stories of challenges as well as resiliency with policymakers and community educators. Select findings of this rich body of work focused on four domains – food insecurity, economic security, health, and family well-being – and are shared in this chapter along with implications and recommendations for community outreach and education. In particular, the roles that Extension can play in serving rural communities and families are presented. This chapter illustrates the translational linkage between research and Extension work highlighting the importance of integrating research and practice.

Extension’s commitment to improving the quality of life through nonformal education remains apparent across the rural–urban continuum. While urban, suburban, and rural communities share common issues such as food access and health disparities, addressing concerns of well-being in urban areas requires approaches that recognize the scale, diversity, complexity, and urban–rural interface of metropolitan areas. This chapter provides an overview of Extension’s strategy in metropolitan areas. It describes and discusses the National Urban Extension Leaders (NUEL) network, which is a steering council developed to guide Extension’s approach to urban programming. NUEL’s focus areas include improving our health, enriching youth, feeding the future, strengthening communities, and protecting the environment. Using a case study approach, the chapter then includes examples of Extension programs across the country that address issues relevant to urban populations. The chapter concludes with insights from earlier programming and scholarship, and provides recommendations based on a synthesis of common threads and unique considerations in urban programming.

As the largest publicly funded, nonformal education system in the United States, Cooperative Extension (a.k.a. “Extension”) has played a critical role in how technologies and innovations generated through state agricultural experiment stations (AES) and land-grant universities (LGUs) in the United States have been translated and shared directly to its constituents for over a century. Extension has served as a unique and robust system to collaborate, generate, and disseminate research, as well as to engage in mission-oriented work to support communities in optimizing their current and future circumstances and through collaborative partnerships shaping the ways in which we cultivate and preserve food, how we educate and care for our children, manage our finances, work with communities, and support populations disproportionality affected by structural inequities. The current volume brings together leading scholars to discuss Extension’s contributions to the well-being of children, youth, families, and communities; and to critically reflect on Extension’s future directions in light of significant shifts in the context in which it now operates.