Healthy Homes Inside and Outside Series

According to the Commonwealth of Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services 25.9% of Lawrence County residences are below the poverty line. With this information in mind, the Lawrence County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences Education and the Lawrence County Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources Education collaborated to create and deliver a series of classes with the goal of helping under-served and diverse participants to evaluate their understanding and apply ways of reducing living expenses, as well as, incorporating healthier and safer lifestyle choices into their everyday routine.

The Healthy Homes: Inside and Outside series was held at the Lawrence County Cooperative Extension Service Office. The series took place over 6 weeks, meeting every other Tuesday from September 26, 2017 to December 5, 2017. Each week consisted of a different topic that focused on reducing cost in a healthier home; these topics included Green Cleaning, Pest Control, Basic Home Repair and Upcycling, Compost and Recycling, Food Safety for Emergencies, and Winter Preparation. During each class a variety of educational methods were used to cater to differentiated learning preferences including demonstrations, hands-on participation, and discussions.

12 individuals participated in the series with a total of 8 completing the entire series. Post evaluations revealed that 75% of participants agreed that they would use information gained from the Healthy Homes: Inside and Outside series in their day-to-day life. One participant even stated that, “I had no idea that there was such a risk of foods going bad in power outages, I learned about how long things keep in the freezer after the power goes out.”  Evaluations further revealed that 62.5% of participants strongly agreed that using homemade cleaning products in their home could save them money. All participants (100%) indicated that they would be interested in and could benefit from attending another series of class on how to reduce living cost in a healthier home.