Extension
It Starts With Us
Health, Nutrition, and Wellness
Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Shannon Farrell, Jessica Barnes, Jessica Wells, Shelley Meyer
Active Living and Health Promotions General
Food Preparation and Preservation
Nutrition and Food Systems General
Recipes for Life
Some Harrison County residents, like many Kentuckians, have issues of overweight, obesity, poor diet, and/or lack of physical activity. Obese and overweight individuals are at increased risk for chronic health conditions including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers. Harrison County’s death rate from cardiovascular disease is higher than that of Kentucky. Although fast food is higher in fat and calories than home prepared meals, more than one third of meals are eaten away from home whereby fewer fruits and vegetables are included in meals. Families are not preparing or eating meals at home often due to overscheduling for parents and children. Families are experiencing less interactions as a family unit and youth are not benefiting from learning to cook at home.
Reduce chronic diseases, risk, debilitation and premature death by practicing healthy lifestyle choices. Community to be healthier, live longer, and have better quality of life. Health care dollars spent on preventative activities, less expenditures on hospital and office visits. More home prepared nutritious meals eaten together as a family. More locally grown produce grown and consumed.
Individuals will manage a healthy weight throughout the life cycle through healthy lifestyle choices. Families and individuals will make wise food choices, have healthier diet. Families and individuals have preventative health screenings, require less hospitalizations and medical visits. Families participate in physical activity walking and exercise programs.
Individuals will change in awareness, knowledge, opinions, skill and attitudes needed to make healthy lifestyle choices. Individuals will attend meetings, workshops and trainings. Individuals will have preventative health care screenings. Individuals will change diet and lifestyle to reflect knowledge gained.
Initial Outcome: Individuals will become aware of and educated on healthy lifestyle choices and take positive actions based on new knowledge.
Indicator: Individual will attend meetings and workshops, participate in health care screening, and make healthier food choices.
Method: Meeting/Workshop sign in sheets, personal acknowledgement of experience and impact of changes made.
Timeline: 1-3 months
Intermediate Outcome:Individual will maintain and management knowledge gained as part of initial outcome. Notable changes may begin to occur such as, a personal sense of improved well-being emotionally, physically and mentally. Family members may notice change and become influenced to make changes.
Indicator: Individual may not require certain medications any longer. Individual may require less medical care/doctor or hospital visits. Individual will become consistently physically active or exercise more frequently.
Method: Personal acknowledgement of impact of experience; possible decline in need to seek medical attention and declaration of family participation in healthy choice selections.
Timeline: Three months and throughout lifespan
Long-term Outcome: Individual will continue to commit to healthy lifestyle choices, recognize the benefits of those choices and educate and encourage others on the benefits of making healthy choices.
Indicator: Individual will acknowledge emotional, physical and mental change due to practicing healthy lifestyle choices. Individual will acknowledge stronger sense of empowerment in decision making and in encouraging and supporting a positive environment for living.
Method: Personal acknowledgement of progressive and positive personal change.
Timeline: Throughout lifespan.
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Community Adult and Children's Health Fairs
Content or Curriculum: Preventative Education and screenings
Inputs: Harrison Memorial Hospital, Harrison County Health Department
Date: June
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Preventative Health Screening, Awareness, Education and Participation in Ovarian Cancer, Mammogram, PAP, PSA, and other cancer and heart screening.
Content or Curriculum: Wise decision making, Resource Management, Preventative Health Care
Inputs: UK Extension Specialists, Harrison County Health Department
Date: All Year
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Strengthen Community Coalitions or Partnerships to address obesity, physical inability and chronic diseases. Cancer Coalition, Diabetes Coalition, Go Red Committee
Content or Curriculum: Preventative Health Education, workshops, demonstrations, classes, Blue Hydrangea Ovarian Cancer Awareness. Teas, Community Education Programs, Women’s Health Issues, HIM (Healthy Informed Men)
Inputs: UK Extension Specialists, Harrison Memorial Hospital, Harrison County Health Department
Date: All Year
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Maintain appropriate calorie balance to manage healthy weight throughout the life cycle through healthy lifestyle choices, weight control, obesity, mobility
Content or Curriculum: Increase Daily Physical Activity, Weight Management Reduction, Bingocize, Chair Exercises
Inputs: Harrison County Health Department, Harrison Memorial Hospital, UK Extension Specialists
Date: All Year
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Develop nutrition messages and programs to allow individuals make informed decisions regarding healthy lifestyle choices through Food, Nutrition and Health Classes
Content or Curriculum: Dietary Guidelines, Healthy Diet, Increased fruit and vegetable consumption, lower sodium, fat and sugar, portion control
Inputs: UK Extension Specialists
Date: All Year
Audience: Homemakers
Project or Activity: Extension Homemaker Lessons regarding healthy lifestyle choices throughout the life cycle.
Content or Curriculum: Wellness and Healthy Lifestyle, Physical Activity, and Nutrition & Diet.
Inputs: Homemakers, UK Extension Specialists
Date: All Year
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Food Stamp Eligible Audience Nutrition and Health Education
Content or Curriculum: Content or Curriculum: Limited resource audience material from SNAP-Ed, LEAP, HEEL Youth and adult Newsletters, Farmer's Market, WIC and Seniors Food Program.
Inputs: SNAP-Ed Assistant; Farmer's Market members, Senior Citizens Center, Harrison County Health Department
Date: All Year
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Increase Promotion and Practice of daily physical activity. Improve better environment to promote physical activity.
Content or Curriculum: 5K, Longest Day of Play, Walking Challenges, Hikes
Inputs: SNAP-Ed Assistant; Harrison Memorial Hospital, volunteers
Date: All Year
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Healthy Aging
Content or Curriculum: Food Nutrition and Health Classes
Inputs: Cooperative Extension;UK Extension Specialists
Date: All Year
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Increase Diabetes Awareness. Risk and reduce chronic diseases, classes
Content or Curriculum: Diabetes Alert Day Awareness, Dinner and Speaker, Eye Screenings, Taking Ownership of Diabetes
Inputs: UK Extension Specialists, Harrison County Health Department, Harrison Memorial Hospital
Date: All Year
Audience: Public
Project or Activity: Home Food Preservation, Food Safety
Content or Curriculum: Preventative education, Safe and proper food handling training, news articles, Food preservation workshops
Inputs: UK Extension Specialists
Date: All Year
Audience: Community Members
Project or Activity: Farmer's Market
Content or Curriculum: Marketing, WIC and Senior Certificates
Inputs: Senior Citizens Center; Harrison County Health Department, KDA
Date: May-Oct
Audience: 4-H Members
Project or Activity: 4-H Cooking Clubs
Content or Curriculum: Skill acquired
Inputs: NEP Assistant, 4-H teen volunteers, 4-H Agent
Date: All Year
Audience: 4-H Members
Project or activity: 4-H School Clubs & Project Meetings & Enrichment Groups
Content or Curriculum: Skills acquired
Inputs: 4-H volunteers, UK Extension Specialists
Date: March-June
Audience: 4-H members
Project or Activity: 4-H Camp
Content or Curriculum: Classes taken
Inputs: 4-H Counselors, Volunteers, Paid Staff
Date: Summer
Audience: 4-H members
Project or Activity: 4-H Cloverbud Camp
Content or Curriculum: Classes taken
Inputs: 4-H Counselors, Volunteers, Paid Staff
Date: Summer
Author: Shannon Farrell
Major Program: Family and Consumer Science
4-H LifeSmarts is the ultimate consumer challenge for 4-Her’s in 6th-12th grades. Like academic style competition, team members are quizzed in topics of technology, consumer rights, health and safety, environment, and finance. Harrison County’s 4-H Varsity team competed in the 2024 state competition (online contest) in January. As the highest placing varsity team in the state, Harrison County was honored to represent Kentucky at the National LifeSmarts competition held in San Diego,
