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University of Illinois Extension is the flagship outreach effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, offering educational programs to residents of all of Illinois' 102 counties-and far beyond. Extension programs may be offered as hands-on workshops, field days, self-paced tutorials via the World Wide Web, or in other formats that are suitable for the audience and subject matter. More than 2.5 million Illinois residents take part in Extension programs each year, including nearly 300,000 who participate in 4-H youth programs. Each month, U of I Extension web pages draw more than 10 million page views, and people in more than 200 countries access Extension's web-based information. Volunteers who serve on local advisory councils provide direction for U of I Extension programming, ensuring that programs continue to meet critical needs.
Your local Extension Unit located in Arthur and serving both Moultrie and Douglas counties, has experienced some financial change this past fiscal year. The funding allotted for Extension programming at the state level has continued to remain the same for many years, while the operational cost of the program keeps rising. You add in the instability of available state funds from this past spring and the reduction of funds for the coming year, and the whole Extension system has to look at how to continue serving clientele on decreasing resources. The hours of the Moultrie-Douglas staff have decreased and attention to cost-cutting measures around the office have increased. More attention to revenue generation is being made, which results in having to charge nominal fees for certain programs. Extension has always and will continue to rely on its volunteers and on donations to successfully deliver programs, and there is a huge amount of appreciation to all who help out physically and/or financially. Enjoy reading this report and see how Extension benefits so many county residents. Our mission continues to be: "helping others put knowledge to work."
