Leadership development and community partnerships are very valuable in building communities. Community collaboration is the process of individuals, organizations, and groups within a community working together toward shared goals. This involves pooling resources, knowledge, and skills to address common challenges and create positive learning experiences. Often, there is simply the need to organize leaders and groups to combine their efforts to meet the goals. Many times, these same groups are already working on the same goal independently and combining their efforts can increase results and improve the outcomes on meeting these common goals. 

The Cumberland County Family and Consumer Sciences agent, along with the Extension staff organized two community events with multiple community partners. The first event was the Home and Garden Expo with all extension staff setting up booths to promote gardening and healthy homes. In addition, five other community partners set up to educate youth and adults on healthy foods, gardening and activities. 75 people attended this event and participated in workshops. The second event was a Health Fair that was a collaboration with Cumberland County Health Coalition. There were 11 partners involved in this event. Each sat up displays and gave participants health and wellness information. 78 people attended this event and it was the largest health fair that the community had held in several years. All partners stated they considered both events a success and that they would like to be invited next year if these become annual events.