The Jefferson Co. Agent for Horticulture Education collaborated with the Urban Conservationist with Jefferson County Soil & Water Conservation District and local non-profit, Louisville Grows to host the Urban Homesteading Workshop Series. The goal of the program was to introduce the art of self-sufficiency via homegrown food production for people living in an urban environment. Classes met twice a month, March.-Oct. of 2019 with a celebration in November. 

2019 was the second year this workshop series was taught and we had 25 participants enroll for the program. 12 of the 25 met the requirements to become “Certified Urban Homesteaders” by attending ten of the seventeen classes. Each Participant had to complete a pre and post test as a part of the program. Some notable results from the participants were that 91% were first time Extension Participants; 91% were first time participants with the Soil & Water Conservation District and 69% were first time participants with Louisville Grows. The majority of the participants also visually or verbally self-identified as Millennial's. 

At the beginning of the program, we asked for participants’ familiarity with many topics to help gauge participants’ existing knowledge and build the classes from there. 13% of participants had “no previous gardening experience after elementary school”; 90% were interested in learning about backyard beekeeping. 86% were interested in learning how to compost; and 82% could not read or interpret a soil sample.

When we did the post-test at the end of the program, we asked participants first about their knowledge gain, 91% could now read and interpret a soil sample and 100% of participants could now start a plant for seed. We also asked participants when they planned to implement the skills taught in the workshop series into their lives (if at all) and here are the results: 99% of participants started a vegetable garden during the workshop; 70% started a compost system during the workshop and 45% plan to preserve their own food next year. 45% of participants also plan to install a rain barrel within the next 6 months. Within the next year, participants plan to implement the following: plant perennial fruit or nut trees (55%); start a flock of chickens (18%).