Mr. Atkinson has been a Federal Coach for USDA's Children, Youth and Families at Risk (CYFAR) Professional Development and Technical Assistance (PDTA) Center since April 2023. This is a multi-state subcontract with the University of Minnesota and Pennsylvania State University as the national leads. During the reporting period, he was assigned to oversee grants in Indiana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Oklahoma. He was also assigned in May 2024 to new awards in Missouri and Wisconsin. Atkinson facilitates monthly Zoom meetings with every state. He was able to complete required face-to-face year 1 site visits with personnel from all states before the June CYFAR Professional Development Event in Minneapolis, MN in June. Site visits with Purdue Univeristy, University of Minnesota/North Dakota State, and Oklahoma State University between April-June 2024. CYFAR grants are required to have a Year 1 site visit and a Year 3 site visit. Deliverables as a federal coach include helping to implement, facilitate and evaluate online trainings based on identified needs; track best practices through Extension nationally; develop materials on underrepresented/underserved audiences; promote Extension enrollment; present at annual national professional development events; attend twice per year face-to-face meetings of PDTA personnel; attend twice per month virtual meetings of national coaches; attend once per month virtual meetings with the coach coordinator at Penn State; consult with and provide oversight to 3-5 grants in other states through: new grantee orientation; monthly contacts; 2 site visits during 5-year grant cycles; monthly newsletter distribution; resource and innovative idea sharing; grant networking; support for hiring and retention and community partner involvement; sustainability toolkit; Common Measures use and refinement; support with logic model refinement, Return on Investment data, short and long-term outcome data, and sustainability data; core competencies for working with vulnerable audiences; annual executive summaries to USDA/NIFA.

Through this federal role, Mr. Atkinson works with Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and USDA to:

Goal 1 - Build upon established systems to further identify, incorporate, and leverage internet technology to facilitate communication and sharing of promising and evidence-based practices among Land Grant University (LGU) institutions, Extension, and Sustainable Community Projects (SCPs).

Goal 2 - Support efforts to engage and improve outcomes for vulnerable populations and educating on inclusion, diversity, equity, and access for underserved and underrepresented populations.

Goal 3 - Advance a comprehensive training plan that uses strategic outreach, professional development, technology and collaboration to support the adoption of promising CYFAR practices across the greater LGU and Extension communities.

Goal 4 - Use a continuous quality improvement process to review and strengthen program evaluation, data collection, and reporting practices across all aspects of the Center’s work. In particular, systems will be created to address grantees’ and stakeholders’ needs for comprehensive collection/reporting of quality data.

Goal 5 - Capture how CYFAR grants are leveraging federal funding to report on Return-on-Investment (ROI) and success in sustaining post CYFAR funding.

As a result of this federal role, Mr. Atkinson represents the University of Kentucky at the national level. He meets with administrators and community partners from all over the country. He is exposed to a large number of ideas and people in a multi-disciplinary and collaborative environment that focuses on positive community change and community capacity building for underserved audiences through Extension. This is his first nationally recognized University and Extension based role.