Who is Penn State Cooperative Extension?

In every Pennsylvania community, Penn State Cooperative Extension’s county-based educators work in collaboration with campus-based professors to provide informal education with direct relevance to peoples’ daily lives. Our strength is this combination of local and university-based experts, which gives our programs a strong research base, and the ability to help people, communities, businesses, and government solve their problems and reach their potential. We work to make Pennsylvania stronger from the local level on up by building leadership, increasing citizen participation, improving decision making, and nurturing local entrepreneurship.

Economic and community development have been a constant part of Penn State Cooperative Extension’s work throughout its rich history. Early programs, such as Washington County’s series of 32 ‘Community Development’ meetings held in 1916, focused on civic improvement, roads and infrastructure, leadership development, and public policy. Most of these issues remain challenges facing local businesses, communities, and businesses, though the specific details have changed.

We operate in each county as a local partnership, funded by a combination of county, state, and federal funds. Because it is locally-based, each county’s Cooperative Extension office responds directly to local concerns and needs, drawing upon university-based professors and staff as appropriate. The programs offered in any one county thus reflect, in part, the needs of that community.

Visit our website for more information about Penn State Cooperative Extension’s economic and community development programs and a calendar of upcoming workshops, or contact your local county extension office for more information.