The problem

Metcalfe County is a small, rural agricultural community in south central Kentucky.  Due to the geography of the Appalachian foothills in our community, there are many families living in isolated areas.  The poverty rate in Metcalfe County is 19.8%.   According to the most recently available annual report on child fatality and near fatality by the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s External Review Panel, a contributing factor is a lack of community collaborative services supporting DCBYS.  Significant co-contributing factors include lack of family support and overwhelmed parent/s.  

The educational program response/participants/target audience

In 2017 it was decided to take a pause in offering the annual Baby Safety Fair due to low participation, which with COVID became a four-year pause.  The Metcalfe County FCS Advisory council resumed meeting June 2022, to begin planning for the hire of a new NEP program assistant. The council decided to set up a committee to plan for a Spring 2023 revival of the Baby Open House Baby Safety Fair, conducted at the Extension office as an annual event.  Metcalfe County Elementary School FRYSC staff worked with the Extension office staff during a planning meeting January 25, 2023 then recruited agencies, donations for the resource baskets, and promoted the event widely.  Twenty-eight families with either pregnant mothers or with children infant – age 2 attended, taking their participation cards to each partner agency table where the cards were marked, then turned in at the end in exchange for their baby resource baskets.  Baskets contained many books for infants - age two, bottles, baby wipes, baby laundry detergent, disinfectant wipes, sanitizing spray, diapers, baby blanket, onesies, socks, bleach, baby soap and lotion, hand wash and hand sanitizer.   Families interacted and made connections with each other, with agency representatives, and became aware of the array of supports available for families with young children in our community.

Other partners/Program impact or participant response

Representatives from sixteen agencies providing various services in our community participated and made connections among each other.  Agencies included: UK FCS/NEP Extension, KSU West Region FCS Extension, Public Library, Health Department, Bowling Park, Public School Family Resource Youth Service, Community Education, Migrant Education, 911 Emergency Response, Helping Hands, TJ Samson, Anthem Medicaid, Community Action, Head Start, Family Childcare Network, and the Metcalfe Co. Farmers Market. Agencies  provided child safety/development information with resource items, and interacted with families individually, educating on the following topics: Library programs and services, car seat safety, poison control, Shaken Baby Syndrome, substance use prevention, smoking cessation, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, birthing/breast feeding supports, WIC, Back to Sleep, Immunization, parent/child dental health, choking/CPR, child/mother well visits, physical activity, developmental services, community supports, food pantry availability, Healthy Choices nutrition for parent/child, feeding children at different ages, kid friendly recipes, how to bathe a baby, entertaining children, reading with children, school readiness, budgeting, WIC/SNAP farmers market vouchers, in-home child care options, and Head Start.  Agency representatives were given a written needs assessment/program evaluation to complete.  All agency participants agreed the event should continue annually, only a few offered suggestions for improving the event next year, and ideas for other community programs that the community agencies could collaborate on, were also collected.