Bethany Adams
University of Kentucky
Dept. of Agricultural Economics
304 Barnhart Bldg.
Lexington KY 40546-0276
(859) 257-7272 ext. 246, (859) 257-7290 fax

Eric Scorsone
University of Kentucky
Dept. of Agricultural Economics
304 Barnhart Bldg.
Lexington KY 40546-0276
(859) 257-7257, (859) 257-7290 fax

Economic cost-benefit analysis is considered a leading tool for evaluation social, health, education and other community and public sector based programs. However, this tool has not been deployed in many settings due to technical difficulties and a lack of training curriculum. Economic cost-benefit analysis is an ideal complementary tool to logic models and other widely used evaluation methods. This workshop will focus on developing tools that community development extension professionals can use in their home states and counties to assess the economic evidence to build support for community-based social and health programs.

The first section will focus on measuring and assessing the level of benefits delivered by the program. The second section will explain the techniques for measuring program and social opportunity costs. Finally, these two sections will be brought together to determine return on community investment calculations. These calculations can be delivered in a format that addresses individual stakeholder return on investment criteria and the community-based return on investment perspective. At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to set up and generate a return on community investment analysis for their community-based programs.