Motivation and retention of volunteers is becoming increasingly important to our county program. We are a growing county with a large volume of youth and need growing numbers of volunteers to accomodate reaching those youth. Effective training to aid volunteers in developing new skills, recieving rewards and gaining social affilliations are vital to leader participation and retention.

The purpose of the Kentucky Volunteer Forum is to increase the capacity of volunteer and salaried staff to aid in the mission of 4-H Youth Devlopment Education and the Cooperative Extension System as a whole as well as give the volunteers the tools they need to deliver effective 4-H Youth Development programming.

In 2024, the Hardin County 4-H Council recognized the importance of affording the opportuniyt of the KVF to our leaders and made the decision to cover the cost of registration as well as lodging for any volunteer wishing to go.   Extension staff asked that those volunteers receiving this benefit bring back six hours of volunteer committments to the county program within one year. 

Fourteen Hardin County volunteers attended KVF in February 2024 and participated in workshops in which they learned skills that can be used in county programming.  Two of those volunteers also took the steps to receive accredidation. We also had two 4-Hers to be recognized as 10 year members.

Roughtly half of the volunteers have already achieved their 6 hour committment within 6 months of the program.

The Kentucky Volunteer Forum provides a healthy variety of ongoing education and networking opportunities.  For Harcin County, KVF is a critical component in preparaing, energizing and retaining our volunteers that play such a vital role in sucess of our 4-H program.