Author: Kristy Porter
Major Program: Community Leadership Development
Even at nine years old, Zach Chaney knew he had talent and wanted to learn to use it. Growing up in a rural area of Pike County, access to the arts was not always readily available. He remembers walking through the doors of Artists Collaborative Theatre (ACT) that first day and falling in love with theatre. His first play was The Wizard of Oz. During the next nine years, he would take part in acting, tech work, co-directing, and stage-managing productions at ACT. Zach said he has lost coun
Author: Nicole Breazeale
Dr. Nicole Breazeale is heading up the equitable food systems Cooperative Extension programming in the Department of Community & Leadership Development. One important angle involves preparing future food systems leaders. Given the challenging economic and environmental inheritance that youth face today, there will be added pressure for them to address unsustainable food systems. This requires equipping them with systems thinking, skills, resources, relationships, and confidence to face this
Author: DJ Scully
In 2019, the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service completed Community Needs Assessments for each county in the Commonwealth. One of the goals of these assessments was to identify priority issues and concerns of citizens. Residents statewide identified “illegal dumping and littering” as the top agriculture and environment priority issue.Reducing waste through recycling provides communities opportunities to develop leaders to address a global concern – the plastic waste c
Author: Christy Stearns
Partnerships create new capacity and outcomes that are often not attainable by organizations individually. Clinton County FCS Extension has been integral in partnership development, grant writing, facilitation of monthly Council meetings, program development, and fiscal management of the Anchors & Paws Community Early Childhood Council since the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood restructured councils and merged three counties (Clinton, Cumberland, and Russell) into one collaborative
Author: Cabrina Buckman
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted many aspects of life, including the physical and mental well-being of the students in the Teen Leadership program. Students expressed negative stress due to online school and lack of in-person social interaction. In order to address these issues and promote positive well-being, Teen Leadership Wellness Day was held on April 28, 2021. The Teen Leadership program, led by the Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Agent, 4-H Youth Development Agent and S
Author: Jessica Marquez
Success Story: Addressing the needs of our community. Title: Serving the Hispanic/Latinx Community – A virtual conversation & LEP effortsMajor Program: Community Leadership Development Plan of work: Assist in developing high quality educational programs and resources specific to your content area to address the needs of underserved and underrepresented audiences.Outcome Type: Long-Term Outcome Success Story: Addressing the needs of underserved and underrepresented audien
Author: Daniel Kahl
When the director of the Leadership Winchester/Clark County program contacted me to discuss ways to improve the programs leadership content, initial conversations indicated the community did not have a tool for listening to the community priorities for leadership development. Built on the belief that successful programs reflect and address the priorities of the community, I developed a survey tool that can be used to document the priority leadership needs of individual participants, organization
Author: LaToya Drake
We may loosely define the concept of “cultural competency,” as the ability to understand, appreciate and interact with people from cultures or belief systems different from one's own. As our communities become more diverse it is important that we all develop our understanding and practice of cultural competency. Being sensitive to cross-cultural differences and able to adapt to other cultural environments is key to bridging relationship gaps and maintaining healthy work environme
Author: Kelly Burgess
In the recent community assessment conducted in 2019, the top Community Vitality-related concerns were for “More qualified leaders to prepare community for the future,” and “More pride in the community and its assets.” The ACS PRIDE Master Program was created in 2017 and addresses both concerns by developing high school students into community ambassadors who exhibit the best of Patriot P.R.I.D.E. (Prepared, Respectful, Involved, De
Author: Kelly Woods
The Oldham County Needs Assessment identified Community Vitality as an area requiring a priority response specifically in regards to future leadership, involving citizens to address local issues and effective cooperation between community organizations. The Extension and 4-H Councils took this opportunity to strengthen community outreach and put these priorities into action addressing the community hardships resulting from the pandemic. Extension reached out to Highpoint Ministries,
Issues: What is the situation? Who cares and why?In the year 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created many hardships for individuals, especially minority community members. Many people lost their jobs and depended on community centers for resources. The Family Resource & Youth Service Coordinator (FRYSC) from Atherton High School reached out to me wanting to start a program that could teach students about becoming leaders in their community and helping those in need. Atherton High School is part
Author: Amanda Sublett
Volunteers play integral roles in 4-H programs, performing a variety of duties, functions, and tasks and possessing varied and rich knowledge, skills, and backgrounds (Radhakrishna & Ewing, 2011). The success of Extension programming is due, in part, to the dedication of a large cadre of volunteers (Smith, Dasher, & Klingborg, 2005). Although highly valued, volunteer involvement does not guarantee achievement of Extension's goals and fulfillment of learners' needs (Bolton, 1992).
Author: David Hull
Hartig Park and Wildlife Reserve, Gallatin County's newest park, is comprised of over 530 acres of unspoiled beauty. When the previous Gallatin County Judge Executive first approached Extension to seek help in converting this old piece of property into a functioning county park, one of the first things he said was, "Of course, we don't have much money". And that's when we knew how important the roles of volunteers were going to be in accomplishing this challenge.As a result
Author: Amanda Hardy
According to data from the AmeriCorps, 978,627 Kentuckians volunteered their time, talent and effort to improve people’s lives. 96.6 million hours of service and $2.3 billion of service were contributed. Henderson County’s population is around 45,609 and the need for volunteers is more critical as programs expand. The Henderson County Extension office ended the year with a leadership appreciation program that was called “Henderson County Leadership Hall of Fame&rdquo
Author: Owen Prim
A successful team effort in marketing extension in Campbell County has been our Open House-Community Celebration. Celebrating our fifth year for this event during the COVID-19 National Pandemic brought new challenges this year. Campbell County Extension volunteers and staff wanted to continue this event and decided to offer it on Campbell Media. Campbell Media is a Broadcasting & Media Production Company and is a service of the Campbell County Cable Board. Programs fe
Author: Kathryn Wimberley
Being the featured speaker at Paducah Rotarians meeting 30 Sep 2020 was a fine opportunity to tell about McCracken County Cooperative Extension and the services/programs/outreach we offer. There were about 40 people in attendance on the Zoom link, due to the Covid -19 Pandemic. Participants were able to view the slideshow presentation approved by the County Manager Robert Tashjian. By attending on Zoom, Rotarians were able see and hear the McCracken County Horticulture
Background: The Southern Region Extension Program Leaders Network (SRPLN) identified the lack of community and economic professional development opportunities as an important need in the Southern Region at an annual gathering in 2017. The Southern Region Community Resource Development (CRD) Program leaders with the supportive leadership of Dan Kahl and Alison Davis from the University of Kentucky, documented that need by creating and distributing a follow-up survey to define specific CED ed
