GRIZZARD KNOWS ABOUT INNOVATION

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993                   TAG: 9304020441
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY                    PAGE: FD-12   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
GRIZZARD KNOWS ABOUT INNOVATION
Marilyn W. Grizzard, director of the Prince William County Cooperative Extension unit, is an innovator and one of two winners of the Virginia Tech Alumni Association Extension Excellence Award.
Grizzard, who was in Extension in Chesapeake and Giles County before coming to Prince William as an Extension home economist in 1975, has made it a habit find new ways to help Virginians.
She was one of the first agents to organize a personal finance program for people needing counseling and financial information. She began by reTcruiting a volunteer manager to build a network of trained volunTteers to reach those in financial trouble.
The program grew in stature as other social service agencies and the courts began referring clients for assistance. What began as a volunteer organization now provides community education, debt counseling, and rent - and mortgage-default assistance to more than 500 people people annually.
In parenting education, she trained volunteer adults to lead the Systematic Training for Effective Parenting groups. Once again, demand outgrew availability of services so she hired a part-time professional to recruit and train more volunteers.
The program now helps 200 families each year by reaching both middle-class families and those who do not traditionally seek parenting education.
The 1970 Virginia Tech graduate is credited with initiating partnership between citizens of an apartment project and city officials to bring about change through lowering incidence of crime and drug use while improving city services and providing youth resources.
She encouraged her staff to enlarge the gypsy moth program from a part-time monitoring project to being a county division which is a valuable communication tool about the value of Extension to residents.
The volunteer program each year performs the equivalency of 13 full-time employees. Consequently, the county government and citizens believe they "get their money's worth from Extension."
Since she became unit director, the Prince William Extension office has won two Epsilon Sigma Phi achievement awards, a National Association of Counties Award for the gypsy moth volunteer program, a National Association of Counties Award for its education program for latch key children, the Virginia Cooperative Extension Director's Award, and the National Association of Counties Award for its homeless intervention support services.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB