Healthy Lifestyle and Life Skill EducationPlan of Work

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Garrard County CES

Title:
Healthy Lifestyle and Life Skill Education
MAP:
Healthy Living and Life Skill Development
Agents Involved:
Lunsford, Hettmansperger, Comley
MAJOR PROGRAM 1:
Food Preparation and Preservation
MAJOR PROGRAM 2:
Active Living and Health Promotions General
MAJOR PROGRAM 3:
Financial Education - General
MAJOR PROGRAM 4:
Nutrition and Food Systems General
Situation:

All of the issues facing today's individuals and families require they have basic life skills to make the best, most informed decisions which will affect their future, the future of their families, and the future of their community.

The County Health Rankings and Road-maps program ranks Garrard County 38th of 120 counties. This ranking helps to understand overall health of Garrard County residents. According to 2022 County Health Rankings of adults, 11% have diabetes, 36% are obese, and 32% are inactive. Garrard County also has a high rate of deaths by all types of cancers. As the data suggests, increasing opportunities for physical activity, promotion of healthier lifestyle choices, selecting healthy food choices and preparing healthy foods are important to the adult and youth of Garrard County.

Garrard County Extension Council (CEC), other program councils and a local survey of community issues and needs supports the need for healthy lifestyle choices programming. The CEC and the survey also recognized the needs in areas such as financial planning and teaching basic life skills in areas such as, cooking, exercise, financial education, food preservation, and improving home environment.

Long-Term Outcomes:

Participants will reduce their risk for weight related or preventable diseases through healthier lifestyle choices resulting in decreased medical and mental health costs. Families will increase physical stamina, increase participation in physical activities and change the local culture to accept and promote active lifestyles among residents in Garrard County. Reduced rate of chronic disease and obesity through intake of nutritious foods, use of healthy cooking methods and home food preservation. Persons will become more proficient in basic life skills such as, increasing their emergency savings funds and be more financially secure, perform basic food preparation skills in preparing healthy meals, and be able to make healthy lifestyle decisions. Increasing knowledge about healthy lifestyle choices will also influence mental health awareness and family and individual stress reduction. 

Intermediate Outcomes:

Participants will decrease use of salt, fat and sugar in diet. Participants will increase consumption of fruits and vegetables. Data will indicate a decrease in number of youth involved in substance abuse practices. Persons will engage in more daily physical activity, create more physical activity opportunities in Garrard County, and participate in healthy lifestyle choices as it relates to mental health and stress reducing activities.

Initial Outcomes:

Knowledge will increase of basic food preparation skills, food preservation skills, and safe food handling procedures. Increased fruit and vegetable consumption will also occur. Youth and adults will increase their knowledge of the legal, emotional, health and financial consequences of substance abuse. They will gain knowledge about the relationship between disease and weight. They will also gain knowledge and improve attitudes, skills, and aspirations to increase physical activity. They will gain knowledge about financial security and methods for financial planning.

Evaluation:

Initial Outcome: Increase knowledge of basic food preparation skills

Indicator: persons reporting food preparation at home using healthy choices

Method: survey of participants

Timeline: year-long as programs are conducted

Intermediate Outcome: More persons will choose to prepare healthy meals at home.

Indicator: people attending programs report more cooking at home

Method: surveys,  personal interviews

Timeline: year long


Long-term Outcome: Decrease in chronic diseases related to lack of physical activity and poor food choices.

Indicator: decrease in number of reported cases of diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity as these relate to increased chronic disease. Mortality rates as related to chronic diseases.

Method: Health rankings surveys, health screening results, Extension program evaluations and personal interviews

Timeline: year long

Learning Opportunities:

Audience: adults

Project or Activity: financial education integrated into other Extension programs

Content or Curriculum: Money Habitudes and Recovering your Finances

Inputs: FCS agent

Date: year round


Audience: adults

Project or Activity: 20 sessions Bingocize with emphasis on nutrition, 12 session Bingocize with emphasis on Covid19 education

Content or Curriculum: Bingocize

Inputs: FCS Agent

Date: Spring 2022, Summer 2023 


Audience: adults

Project or Activity: Cooking/Nutrition/Food Safety Education

Content or Curriculum: SNAP-Ed Calendar/Plate It Up recipes used in Lunch and Learn

Inputs: FCS Agent

Date: Year round (monthly)


Audience: adults & youth

Project or Activity: Nutrition Education Program (NEP), Resource Management

Content or Curriculum: NEP curriculum, Cook Wild

Inputs: FCS Agent & NEP Program assistant & ANR Agent

Date: year round, February 2023 (Cook Wild)


Audience: adults/youth

Project or Activity: life skills programming

Content or Curriculum: FCS curriculums

Inputs: FCS Agent

Date: year round


Audience: Youth

Project or Activity: hiking, canoeing, kayaking to establish baseline appreciation for the outdoors and healthy alternatives to a more commonplace sedentary lifestyle

Content or Curriculum: Hiking Trails, Exploring Your Environment, Natural Resources Core Curriculum (Project WET, Project Learning Tree, Project WILD)

Inputs: Local Resource Funding, Grant Funding, 4-H Agent, volunteers

Date: spring, summer, fall


Audience: adult

Project or Activity: hiking at local parks and nature preserves to start a healthy initiative in our adult population

Content or Curriculum: Hiking Trails, First Aid in Action, Choosing Health

Inputs: 4-H Agent, Volunteers, Preserves and Parks, grant funding, transportation

Date: spring, summer, and fall


Audience: Youth

Project or Activity: Teaching youth to prepare food properly and look at the ingredients of each food item to determine health and taste. Also, prepare items for entry in county and state fair

Content or Curriculum: 4-H Cooking 101, What's on Your Plate?

Inputs: 4-H Agent, NEP Assistant, FCS Agent, kitchen supplies, local funding

Date: fall, winter, spring


Audience: Youth

Project or Activity: Teaching youth the different parts of the plants we use to eat raw or in prepared dishes

Content or Curriculum: Project Learning Tree, Learn, Grow, Eat, Go Curriculum

Inputs: 4-H Agent, FCS Agent, NEP Assistant, fruits and vegetables, local funding

Date: fall, winter, spring


Audience: Youth

Project or Activity: Teaching youth the value of movement and exercise in variable situations

Content or Curriculum: First Aid in Action

Inputs: 4-H Agent, Local Funding, 

Date: fall, spring, summer












Success Stories

Bingocize and Increasing Physical Activity

Author: Kayla Lunsford

Major Program: Active Living and Health Promotions General

Physical inactivity is a significant challenge among adults over the age of 65. Kentucky’s population is no exception to this problem. In fact, Kentucky ranks 43 out of 50 for physical activity, according to americashealthrankings.org.  This is troubling because we know that lack of exercise puts individuals at higher risk for chronic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease and certain types of cancer. It is also known that lack of exercise can increase the risk of falls in older

Full Story

Lunch and Learn Success for 2023

Author: Kayla Lunsford

Major Program: Nutrition and Food Systems General

According to the CDC and data collected from the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, only 9% of adults consumed the recommended amount of vegetables, and only 12% consumed the recommended amount of fruit. Because of barriers such as high cost, lack of availability and access, and perceived lack of ability to prepare and cook, many are going without the essential nutrients they need. In order to promote healthy habits and increase knowledge of affordable, nutritious recipes, Lun

Full Story

Group Effort on the Wild Side

Author: Jay Hettmansperger

Major Program: Cook Wild Kentucky

The problemGarrard County Extension planned a Cook Wild program at the Extension Office. The program is a very labor intensive program and takes many hands to make it successful. Cook Wild entails cooking several different recipes with several different meats, all at the same time. Several people are needed to prepare and cook the different meals at the same time. In the same Kitchen. The educational program responseAll the Agents, SNAP assistant and several volunteers worked together to make th

Full Story

What Better Way to COOK Than WILD

Author: Eric Comley

Major Program: Cook Wild Kentucky

What Better Way to COOK Than WILD

In response to the growing trend of youth and adults unsure or unaware of where their food comes from, which includes a 2018 Michigan State University study that stated more than 48% don't seek out information about their food sources, and the growing trend of living a self sustaining life through foraging and hunting, the Garrard County Extension Office staff offered a COOK WILD Program to a registered 50 participants. During the event, registered participants were introduced to a vari

Full Story

Education on Cast Iron Cooking

Author: Kayla Lunsford

Major Program: Nutrition and Food Systems General

Education on Cast Iron CookingCast iron cooking is a tried-and-true method of preparing food, but the care and maintenance of the cookware can be quite intimidating to those who have never done it. There was no complete UK lesson on how to cook with cast iron, so the Garrard County FCS Agent created a presentation that was used as a Homemaker Leader Lesson in the Fort Harrod Area. For Garrard County, this was the highest attendance of any leader lesson in the past 2 years.  Great results ca

Full Story

Fort Harrod First Aid and Emergency Preparedness

Author: Kayla Lunsford

Major Program: Emergency Disaster Preparedness

    First Aid and Emergency Preparedness is a topic that many homemakers in the Fort Harrod Area wanted to become more knowledgeable on.  In moments of panic, it can be intimidating to spring into action due to fear of causing further harm, bystander effect, or just lack of preparedness.    In order to build confidence in the Fort Harrod Homemakers, the FCS Agents wanted to equip the group with knowledge and tools to be able to act quickly and effectively. An area wide p

Full Story
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