Author: David Embrey
Planning Unit: Edmonson County CES
Major Program: Community Leadership Development
Plan of Work: Unrelated to a specified County Plan of Work
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
When the University of Kentucky Extension Service re-opened its Edmonson County office in 1992, the Fiscal Court provided a budget of $22,000 and a
secretary, with two Agent positions. When the current Agent for Agriculture & Natural Resources/4-H Youth Development started in 2005, the County Extension Service had a budget of just under $50,000, still provided by Edmonson County Fiscal Court and housed in the basement of the County Health Department. This Agent was given the position of Fiscal Coordinator within a year of being hired. Since that time, by keeping up a good relationship with County Government, closely managing the budget, and having great local leadership in the community, even having to endure several hardships, much growth has occurred. Fiscal Court bought a building and moved Extension into it in 2010, an Extension District Tax was added in 2016, in 2023 a Kentucky State 4-H Agent position was added, and recently, due to anticipated revenue going forward, the Program Assistant position has been changed from 30 hours a week to a complete full-time position at 37.5 hours per week. This will allow even more outreach and increase programming efforts.
The efforts over the years have resulted in an 8-fold increase in income, increased visibility in the community, more outreach into the county and community, ability to attract more volunteers, build more community partnerships, and expand the core services offered. At the recent County Fair there were more 4-H/Youth entries than ever before, outpacing regular entries.
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4-H Camp gives youth the opportunity to spend time meeting new people and learning life skills by pa... Read More
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The Kentucky Volunteer Forum is a developmental and educational conference geared towards 4-H and Ex... Read More