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In the United States, 12.8 percent of children under 18 have special health care needs. Ninety percent of youth in America with special health care needs and/or disabilities can now be expected to reach adulthood. Youth with special health care needs and/or disabilities are less likely to experience successful transition to adulthood in comparison to youth without special health care needs. This article presents a person-centered, asset-based community development approach that assisted youth in achieving transition and inclusion-oriented outcomes. Examples are drawn from a Healthy & Ready to Work demonstration project in Wisconsin. At the center of our approach to transition were community connectors -- adults who knew the personal interests and assets of youth and who found opportunities in the community that matched individual youth interests. Implications for youth development professionals as successful community connectors are described.

AbstractEvaluation capacity building, or ECB, is an area of great interest within the field of evaluation as well as in Extension evaluation. Internal Extension evaluators have long offered training and technical assistance to help Extension educators conduct evaluation. Today ECB in Extension encompasses myriad activities and processes to advance evaluation practice and evaluative thinking. They can be described in a three‐component framework: professional development, resources and supports, and organizational environment. This chapter describes the Extension experience, highlighting practices and challenges within each component, and presents the case of logic model dissemination as an illustration. The authors discuss the distinction between evaluator and ECB practitioner and call for clarity in purpose, role delineation, and expectations. They include a simple logic model for evaluating ECB, which focuses on linking ECB investments to individual, team, program, and organizational change. The authors conclude with a list of their own learnings and reflections as they have faced the challenges and many rewards of building evaluation capacity in complex organizations. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The research reported here examined the impact of the Government Performance and Results Act on accountability and evaluation activities in two state Cooperative Extension Systems. Accountability was examined using five dimensions from Koppell's (2005) framework. Findings indicated both Extension systems transferred accountability activities to county-level educators through increased reporting expectations. There was not a strong connection between GPRA and changes in program evaluation practice or understanding in either state. Clear definitions of accountability within Extension and close examination of the role of evaluation may enhance accountability efforts and result in not only using evaluation for accountability but also for organizational learning.