ABSTRACT
As the authors have done in hundreds of other communities, Everyday Democracy supported the dialogues as part of Horizons by creating dialogue materials, training dialogue facilitators, and providing coaching and training to organizers. Horizons partnership with Extension demonstrated the potential of higher education to build communities democratic capacities at a large scale. As the authors coached and trained Extension staff, they were able to work with local partners to support engagement of 10,000 grassroots participants across 283 communities. Although the impact on communities capacity to address poverty was ultimate aim of Horizons, the initiative also had a significant, lasting impact on the ways in which the Extensions partner with communities. One of the greatest challenges in the work of democratic dialogue for community change lies in sustaining the financial resources necessary for supporting the work. Although external evaluators of Horizons noted that relatively modest resources leveraged real changes in community capacity, those resources were essential.
