Author: Alivia Faris
Planning Unit: Scott County CES
Major Program: Family Development General
Plan of Work: Health and Well-being of Individuals and Families
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
Challenge statement: Operation COVID Easter Kentucky was developed by Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agents in the Easter Kentucky Region. The operation consisted of a series of innovative programs across 12 counties in the region in order to help families and communities become more resilient, informed, better decision making skills, and encourage positivity throughout the COVID-19 disaster that will hopefully come to a close soon.
Program goals/objectives: To provide new and innovative ways of programing to reach audience in crisis, to promote physical and mental health during a pandemic, to provide education to clients in area to improve their resilience in crisis, and to provide opportunities for better decision making.
Target audience: The target audience for Operation COVID Eastern Kentucky was families and individuals in the Eastern Kentucky.
Program Description
Content: Program topics included nutrition/food safety, child development/parenting, personal/family finance, aging, sewing/heritage skills, mental health, general wellness, leadership development (including Extension Volunteers and Master Clothing Volunteers), art enrichment agriculture/cooking exploration, family time, gardening, and food preservation. All programs were taught to not only educate individuals on a set of skills, but were taught from the perspective of how these skills could be implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emphasis was put on financial, mental health, wellness, nutrition, and family programing to address concerns of the COVID pandemic.
Delivery methods, creativity, quality materials developed, innovative: Multiple delivery methods were used in order to complete Operation COVID Eastern Kentucky possible. Delivery methods included the following:
Accommodations were also made in program delivery in order to provide better inclusivity for all. These efforts included captions on videos, extra pictures on directions, taking programs to underserved areas, mailing out to those who could not leave home or had limited access to transportation, videos with instructions on using new forms of technology (such as zoom, Google classroom, etc.), and more utilization of social media for program to reach a new audience.
In total 84 programs were delivered in a way that was new and innovative for the agents across the 12 counties of the region.
Extension program leadership: Volunteers and community partners were instrumental in conducting programming. Volunteers helped to make cloth face coverings/mask, hospital/isolation gowns for local health care facilities. Furthermore, extension volunteers provided support and participated in programs throughout the region.
Program impact
Accomplishments/evaluation methods/tool, results/impacts, marketing, and publicity/visibility:
Follow up surveys collected through online surveys and paper surveys across the 12 counties indicated a major positive impact. Families and individuals indicated that they had gain skills in one or more areas that were topics of education. More food preservation and gardening was done this past year after these programs then in many years past. A majority of individuals felt like skills that they gained through extension programming could help them cope with the current COVID crisis. Goals and objectives were clearly met for this program. Marketing was completed though social media, paper, TV, podcast, flyers, and newsletters.
Below is a breakdown of some of the major impacts:
Number of New/Virtual Programs: 84
Number of Counties: 12
Number of Indirect Individuals reached:
Indirect Contacts for Nutrition/Food Safety: 45,340
Indirect Contacts for Child Development/Parenting: 14, 345
Indirect Contacts for Aging: 950
Indirect Contacts for Sewing/Heritage Skills: 4,744
Indirect Contacts for Personal/Family Finance: 7,643
Indirect Contacts for Mental Health and General Wellness: 8,702
Other: 250
Total number of those indirectly reached: 81,974 People
Number of Direct Individuals reached:
Direct Contacts for Nutrition/Food Safety: 3,597
Direct Contacts for Child Development/Parenting: 133
Direct Contacts for Aging: 1065
Direct Contacts for Sewing/Heritage Skills: 1610
Direct Contacts for Personal/Family Finance: 240
Direct Contacts for Mental Health and General Wellness: 825
Direct Contacts for Leadership Development: 172
Direct Contacts for Addiction Recovery: 155
Total number of those directly reached: 7,797
Walking/Running Challenges: 6 total
Number of those who walked: 48 individuals/teams
Number of miles walked: about 2,000 miles
Number of Hospital/Isolation Gowns Made: 493
Number of Volunteers who made gowns: 48
Hours spent making gowns: 918 hours
Number of Cloth Face Coverings/Masks: 16,753
Number of Volunteer who made Cloth Face Coverings/Masks: 137
Number of Hours making Cloth Face Coverings/Masks: about 2,440 hours
Role of community partners: Program partners were a go to source for what was needed in the county and for help in implementing programs. Partners included, 12 Health Departments, Primary Plus, 5 4-H Agents, 5 Agriculture and Natural Resource Agents, 12 School Districts, Libraries, FRYSC, Master Clothing Volunteers, Kentucky Cancer Program, Community Kitchens, and Extension Homemakers.
Future program implications: Programing to address the needs of families and how to deal with the COVID crisis will continue in the near further. As COVID counties on the downward trend programing will continue with a shifted focus on “what now” focusing on dealing with the changes that will come after we phase back into life before COVID. This includes financial, mental health, wellness, nutrition, leadership, and family programming.
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