Author: Rita Stewart
Planning Unit: Lincoln County CES
Major Program: Empowering Community Leaders (general)
Plan of Work: Leadership Development & Volunteerism
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
Leading Healthy Community Connections is an engaging leadership program designed to explore the policies, systems and environment that shape community activities and interactions. The five session program starts with a shared read of the book “That’s Not How We Do It Here”, and then walks a group through exploring community systems, connecting with community leaders, and discovering personal power. Dr. Dan Kahl with UK CEDIK and this Family and Consumer Sciences Agent adapted the program using an on-line Zoom meeting platform. Group members met for one hour per week for 5 weeks. Our group consisted of eleven participants, including an ASL interpreter to facilitate communication among both hearing and deaf participants. Participants are proving that this is both an effective program and format to work through changes created by the COVID-19 pandemic and to create proactive and meaningful change in their community. At the beginning of the program, only 18% of the participants had used Zoom. Lots of learning occurred as we learned to navigate Zoom to include the ASL interpreter most effectively, use whiteboard, and polls to make the program successful. Chad Jennings, UK IT, also assisted us as needed. Group members were charged to develop a wellness program that would benefit the community. Members conducted phone interviews with key community leaders to determine the issues affecting the people. They then “imagined impacts” through a pilot whiteboard activity led by the CEDIK team. After choosing Mental Health during COVID-19 as their focus, members prioritized their topics of discussion and determined a schedule of the classes to be offered to the community via Facebook Live and Zoom. This agent and the Program Assistant facilitates the program as well as coordinates Facebook Live and Zoom meeting platforms. These classes now titled as the #StrongerTogetherLincoln program have been very successful in reaching many more people than in the regular classroom setting. On Facebook, numbers have exceeded 300 views per class; Zoom meetings average about 12 people. Members are continuing to meet every other week via Zoom and planning more educational programs for the community. Members have now been meeting since early April and have plans only to continue. They now feel very comfortable using this new learning platform and feel very confident planning and conducting community programs to best serve the needs of the community. Participants summed it up best when they said “We are much better together than we are separate.”
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