Kentucky 4-H Issues conference was started in 1989 and has been going strong for 29 years.  The goal of the Issues Conference is to select delegates from the county level and educate them on the Fiscal Court process at the county level.  It is the hopes of the Issues committee members that each participant goes away enriching their citizenship roles, enhancing their leadership skills, developing their public presentation skills, gain an understanding of local issues, and learning the process of addressing local issues.  All of this happens as a youth adult partnership at the Kentucky 4-H leadership Center in Jabez with over 20 hours of hands-on experiences.

The post conference survey results show why the conference has been such a success for all of these years.  According to participants, 95% involved in the conference rated it a success and said that they achieved their goals during the conference.  Of the youth at the conference 91% said that they were able to communicate with peers that were different from themselves, used the decision making process, and were able to speak in front of a group.  Looking at the youth adult partnership of the conference, 90% of the participants stated they connected with at least one caring adult in a positive way during the conference. An encouraging fact about the conference is that 99% of the youth commented that they have used skills learned at 4-H Issues Conference at home, school, or in their community.  Of the 75 participants at Issues Conference 2017 all 100% of participants remarked they would recommend their peers to attend the KY 4-H Issues Conference.

It exciting to see that nearly 30 years later youth still are learning at KY 4-H Issues Conference.  The one thing that the planning committee has come to realize is that as long as the fiscal court process is used in Kentucky youth will find value in the program presented at Issues Conference.  When the youth participate on a higher level of community engagement they come with a passion and fire to learn new techniques that they can take home and make their communities better.