Author: Daniel Allen
Planning Unit: Kenton County CES
Major Program: Build Engaged and Empowered Communities – General
Plan of Work: Adult Leadership Development
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
According to Stanford’s center of longevity one of the primary reasons that people do not volunteer is that they have not been asked. In this same study it states that a way of retaining volunteers is to make sure that organizations are matching the skills and expertise of their volunteers so they have ownership and pride in their volunteer work. One of the most challenging issues that surrounds the County Extension Council system, within the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, is recruiting county council members. In response to this challenge, Kenton County agents Dan Allen and Denise Donohue, went in search of a group of young adult volunteers. Agents, Allen and Donohue adapted their engagement approach, incorporated new technologies, modified their organizational structure to include young adult, (primarily millennial age), leaders from Kenton County’s largest urban area, Covington. This group of adults have historically not been part of our County Extension Council. For Kenton County specifically agents needed to get a better understanding the needs of our urban residents in Covington. As part of the Kentucky Urban Extension Initiative, Dan and Denise recruited and engaged a talented group of early career millennials to help us with a community needs assessment program for Covington. This recruited group of 12 held a series of meetings to discuss how they would like to design a community voices project about their neighborhoods in Covington. Since late fall, they went through facilitated discussions and pooled their talents in social media, branding identification, and community connections in Covington. The result is an online photo voices project called Cov+Tell. This project is a social media constructed program where residents are encouraged to share what they like about their community and what they see as challenges in their neighborhood. They may submit their feedback by photo, video, or text to facebook, twitter, Instagram, and website. The project is ongoing with the goal of the project is to gather enough program ideas that Kenton County Extension may utilize as they implement programs aimed at our urban residents.
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