This important area of Cooperative Extension focuses on increasing involvement in the public work of communities. As such, Extension work in this area can take on diverse roles - but always with the objective of empowering citizens to discover and use their voice as citizens effectively. Through issue-based forums, town halls, informal discussions, and through serious in-depth research and analysis, Delaware Cooperative Extension works side by side with community members on both short and long term issues of importance.

"It is to the extension department of [the land-grant] colleges, if properly conducted, that we must now look for the most effective rousing of the people on the land. It is of the greatest consequence that the people of the open country should learn to work together, not only for the purpose of forwarding their economic interests and of competing with other men who are organizing, but also to develop themselves and to establish an effective community spirit." (Commission on Country Life 1909/1911: 128)

Delaware Cooperative Extension concentrates on programs in the following areas:

• Economic Development
• Community Development
• Leadership