August Extension Skills: Using Actor Mapping to Understand and Improve your Program’s Community Engagement Efforts
August 8th, 2024 2:00 - 300 PM ET 

When making program decisions, whose perspectives and expertise should be included? How do you know if you’re aligned with community needs, or if there are partnerships that could strengthen your efforts? Actor mapping is a method that was developed for systems change work to visualize the context, connections, patterns, and perspectives that influence a system. It is a useful tool for visualizing community engagement efforts and depicting key individuals and organizations. Actor maps allow you to critically reflect on past efforts, identify new partners to engage, and track progress. This is a particularly useful tool for Extension professionals, who are often doing the challenging but essential work of acting as a ‘community convener,’ bringing together partners across diverse sectors to leverage their unique assets and work to address issues. 

In this interactive workshop, participants will learn what actor mapping is, when to use it, and why it is a valuable tool for Extension professionals. The presenters will also share case studies of previous actor mapping processes and how they were used by community partners. Participants will then have the opportunity to walk through the step-by-step process of developing an actor map and will receive resources to conduct their own collaborative actor mapping process with their team.

Hosted by:  The Community Research, Evaluation & Development (CRED) team University of Arizona Extension
The Community Research, Evaluation & Development (CRED) team, based in the Norton School of Human Ecology at the University of Arizona, conducts high-quality, culturally responsive, community-based research and evaluation that promotes the health and well-being of families and individuals throughout the Southwest. For years, CRED has been committed to working on the ground with partners across Arizona, including University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, state and local governments, tribes, justice systems, schools, and non-profit agencies. CRED brings together faculty, staff, and students with expertise in evaluation, research design, data analysis and visualization, and community engagement, with the goal of generating accessible, actionable information that community partners can use to support their program and policy decision-making.