Program planning generally begins with a vision. It is assumed that Extension Agents and Specialists have a larger strategic plan with a written vision of where they are going in the next three to five years, a Plan of Work, a written mission statement of what their Cooperative Extension system is about, and larger state-wide needs assessments through their state specialists and other land-grant university faculty.
Additionally, their community may have already established community benchmarks such as decreasing juvenile violence, school dropout rates, or decreasing domestic and child abuse rates. These larger social indicators are what stakeholders and decision makers often use to guide funding decisions and to seek information about program success. It is not necessary to repeat this involved process of assessing global needs, but it is important to keep the values, vision, and mission in the forefront of one's thinking to assure one is staying focused and in synchrony with one's county and state strategic plans.