Future Opportunities for Rural Workforce and Rural Development (FORWARD) Sponsored by Ascendium Education Group, the FORWARD curriculum is designed to support Cooperative Extension Professionals (CEPs) working to address workforce development issues in rural communities. This project expands upon Cooperative Extension’s experience with youth engagement and career development to target non-traditional…

The Economic Opportunity Mapping (EOM) Tool provides interactive online maps that allow users to visualize potential county-level economic opportunities for businesses in different industries across the United States. In addition to county summary statistics, the EOM tool provides a visual representation of results of a model producing expected industrial predicted…

The Beginner’s Guide to Grant Writing (BGGW) workshop is an award-winning two-day in-person training in which participants draft a proposal, give and receive feedback on each other’s proposal, search for funders, and learn the importance of building relationships with partners and funders. The BGGW workshop is an efficient, economical, evidence-based…

As the old saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” For first time visitors, the way a community presents itself is of equal importance. The look and feel of the community experienced by a visitor will most likely influence how long they stay, if…

The health of any organization is directly related to the skills of that organization’s employees. Further, community developers understand that healthy organizations are necessary for a vital community. University of Illinois Extension Educators developed an educational program aimed at improving the customer service skills of staff people in local businesses,…