Extension Tools and Techniques to Establish Civil Rights Contact Goals

Cooperative Extension program planners utilize contact reporting tools and techniques to track the diversity of program attendance and facilitate civil rights objectives. Extension educators are orchestrating programs which meet the needs of an ever discriminating audience. Educators hope to ensure that a diverse clientele of stakeholders representative of the population in the geographic areas served participate in planned programs. The cumulative vigilant tracking of program contacts over time provides information on audience diversity and provides measures of marketing impact. Stand alone historical contact tracking data is more meaningful if the data collected is compared with U.S. Census demographic information. Census comparative data helps educators answer the question - are the audiences served representative of the population groupings within a geographic area? Utilizing comparative baseline data can provide measures which guide future marketing efforts for reaching underserved audiences. Without comparative demographic data, educators are left to guess whether programs are serving goal appropriate numbers for population groupings such as White, Black, Hispanics, American Indian or Asian. What should be goal appropriate contact targets for each population grouping? There are tools and techniques which will assist the Extension educator in establishing realistic contact targets and goals.

Tools

A demographic profile for the population of each county in the United States is readily available through FedStats, a reference site sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau. These profiles are continually updated, usually within the ten year cycle of the U.S. Census, with estimated data. Demographic profiles may be accessed on the Internet at the extension tools site. By selecting a state and then county, the demographic profile by category, groupings with actual population value is obtained. Data at this site is also available for selected cities within a state as well as political boundary maps for the area selected. Awareness of the population to be served is the first step in establishing contact targets and goals. Let's look at a sample data set which is accessible at the FedStats site for Cache County, Utah Notice that the table provides population data for both the county and state. By examining the detail in the table, population data can be obtained for groupings as well as the percentage they represent in the total population. For example, note that the population of this county is approximately 98,000, with the single largest minority grouping being Hispanic or Latino representing 8.1% of the population.

Techniques

With the FedStat comparative tool available a technique for establishing realistic contact service standards for each population grouping can be obtained. This can be accomplished through a four step process.

1. Obtain aggregate state contact data from the previous five years and compute an average for the data. This data is used to establish a benchmark of the number of aggregate contacts served by this state. With this aggregate average number of contacts served, calculate what percentage this is of the entire states population. The percentage obtained represents a state contacts service standard which is applied as the contacts service standard to all population groupings. For example if the states contacts service standard is 33% for the aggregate population then the contacts service standard for each grouping White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian must also be 33% to achieve a standard of service equity.
   
2. Using the state contacts service standard makes it possible to calculate, using state or county data, a realistic contacts service standard for that year. By comparing a state or county aggregate number of contacts in a calendar year with the grouping population obtained from the FedStats tables, a percentage contact service level for that year can be calculated. For example if the number of state or county extension contacts in a given year was 25,250 and the FedStats table population for that population grouping was 85,656 then the annual contact service level for that grouping would be 29.4%.
   
3. Now compare the annual contact service level obtained with the state contact service standard. Are there contact deficiencies? Are there any groupings for which the state standard has been exceeded? To answer these questions compare the state contacts service standard of 33% with the annual contact service level of 29.4%.
   
4. Finally establish contact goals for each grouping based on the findings from the comparison of annual contact service levels and the state contacts service standard. For example the grouping annual contacts service level was 29.4%; however, the state contacts service standard is 33%, signifying that the contacts for this grouping need to increase by 3.6% to meet the state contacts service standard. The 3.6% can be translated into actual contacts by performing the mathematical function of converting percentages to actual contact numbers represented by the percentage.

Target and Goal Setting

Setting goals to improve performance has always been a foundational principle of Cooperative Extension. Establishing goals that are specific, measurable and with accountability is critical to performance improvement. It is important that Extension educators critically assess the organizations standing in providing programs with equity to all segments of populations served. Performance enhancement will occur if educators annually use this contacts assessment tool and technique for measuring contacts. The tool and technique will assist them in establishing state contact service standard. In addition, by comparing progress or deficiencies educators can establish realistic targets and goals for serving all population groupings with equity.

Dallas L. Holmes, EdD
Associate Professor, Specialist Institutional Research and Civil Rights
Utah State University
Phone and Cell 435-770-0744
DallasH@ext.usu.edu