Abstract
Within Extension, environmental scans are most commonly used to assess community or organizational issues or for strategic planning purposes. However, Extension has expanded the use of environmental scans to systematically identify “what programs exist” on a given topic or focus area. Yet, despite recent attention to the topic of environmental scanning in Extension, survey instruments used to conduct environmental scans have not been published. Given the emphasis on implementation of evidence-based practices and programs, having a ready-made survey that can be used to identify programs on a specific topic and that could subsequently lead to an evaluability assessment of those programs would be a useful resource. To encourage the use of environmental scans to identify existing evidence-based programs, this article describes a survey instrument developed for the purpose of scanning for 4-H Healthy Living programs ready for rigorous outcome evaluation and/or national replication. It focuses on the rationale for survey items, as well as provides a summary and definition of those items. The survey tool can be easily adapted for future programmatic environmental scans both within and outside Extension.
Recommended Citation
Peterson, D. J.,
Downey, L. H.,
Leatherman, J.,
Le Menestrel, S. M.,
&
Lang, J.
(2015). Programmatic Environmental Scans: A Survey Based on Program Planning and Evaluation Concepts.
Journal of Human Sciences and Extension, 3(3), 12.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54718/NKPI8388
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
