Author: Shannon Farrell
Planning Unit: Harrison County CES
Major Program: 4-H Family and Consumer Science Core Curriculum
Plan of Work: Targeting Life Skills and Family Lives
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
Following the 2019 Clark County 4-H Summer Camp, a discussion that had been had by 2 of the adult female counselors was presented to 4-H Agent Shannon Farrell. One counselor, an employee of Goodwill Industries of KY, and the other, the Clark County 4-H Sewing Leader had brainstormed a partnership between Goodwill and 4-H. The partnership would allow Goodwill to have a larger outreach in the community sharing their mission of helping those with disabilities find and maintain employment and show the Winchester community that they are more than just a second – hand store. In turn the partnership would provide a unique 4-H opportunity for 4-H sewers to develop an upcycling project at no expense to the 4-Her. Participants were given $20 store vouchers to purchase items for their upcycle project. With these items, the youth did a “before” photo shoot. Given two months, nine Clark County 4-Hers completed the project. Following their “after” photo shoot, the before and after photos were put on the Goodwill Facebook page; where – quoted from their marketing manager – the posts were “viral”. The posts were up for week of voting. For a typical contest on Facebook, Goodwill normally averages 144 likes; the 4-H post rallied 2,184 likes. 24 average comments are made on other Goodwill challenges; the 4-H contest landed 287 comments. Average shares for Goodwill is 18; 4-H totaled 136 shares. Average total reach for Goodwill posts are 2,400. The 4-H post brought in 11,983 in total reached. The 3 posts with the highest likes, comments, and shares were awarded 1st,
2nd, and 3rd place gifts (series of gift cards) at a mini awards presentation that took place at the student’s high school. Due to the excitement of this project, it became the feature presentation at the following Extension County Extension Council; led to an hour radio program on live radio in downtown Winchester, and was presented as a lightning talk at the 2019 4-H Inservice training. Representatives from Goodwill, State 4-H Specialist, and Agent Shannon Farrell are working to open this contest up state wide for 2020 and have begun planning a presentation for the Regional Extension Specialists meeting to share how this can be implemented in other states. This idea was expanded and conducted statewide in March - May. Covid-19 restrictions changed the end result of presenting winners with discounts to 4-H Teen Conference (which was canceled); the judging did still take place online and winners sent gift cards.
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