The community is the key stakeholder to the Athens-Clarke County Extension Office. The Athens-Clarke community includes homeowners, gardeners, landscapers, farmers, etc. Almost everything that comes out of the office is for the community, and it is made to help inform them about different things and benefit them.
Community engagement is important for the office because each year the office has to send to the county how many emails they send out, how many people go to the farmers markets, and other information about what is out for the community to receive.
In addition, many of the things I do targets the community. For example, in my last blog I talked about the social media strategy, and social media helps with informing the community on what we are doing in the office and at the market. Instagram helps with engaging the community in the stories and posts on the feed. Also, I sort and bag seeds that people can get at any three of the farmers markets on Saturday at the UGA Extension table. I enjoy being able to see the different seed donations we receive, and people get to choose at the farmers markets what kind of small bags of seeds they want to take to plant. I included a video at the end of some of the donations we received. I sorted by year, kind of seed and warm or cool season. Sorting the seeds helps us know what seeds we should pack and send to the farmers markets.
Furthermore, I understand that social media is big in helping out with getting information to the community, and creating flyers, content etc. helps with sending out information to the community. Before I started interning at the UGA Extension office in Athens-Clarke County I did not realize how important engaging with the people in the community was. In my hometown I did not utilize the extension office, but now I see how many people use this resource for the questions they have.
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