Issues: What is the situation? Who cares and why?

In the year 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created many hardships for individuals, especially minority community members. Many people lost their jobs and depended on community centers for resources. The Family Resource & Youth Service Coordinator (FRYSC) from Atherton High School reached out to me wanting to start a program that could teach students about becoming leaders in their community and helping those in need. Atherton High School is part of the Jefferson County Public School system. The minority enrollment for Atherton High School is 34%, which is higher than the Kentucky average of 23%. Working for Extension, we focus on serving and strengthening underserved communities to improve their quality of life. Through this program, students will acquire the leadership skills needed to help improve the quality of life in their community and learn the value of service. 

Response: What has been done? Summarize your program, project, or response to the issue. 

Through the 2020/2021 school year, I was able to collaborate with Atherton High School for the Community Leadership Development (Community Cares) Program. This program consisted of 12 lesson that focused on developing leadership and building competency skills through civic engagement and community service. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this program was conducted virtually throughout the course of 6 months. We met two times a month for an hour via google classroom. The beginning lessons focused on providing an overview and understanding of the program, students were able to understand what they were going to be learning, the importance of it, and how the program would help them grow as leaders in their community. Participants also learned the value of service, their communication style, verbal and nonverbal communication skills, leadership style, and the meaning of leadership in service. I also had members from La Casita Center, who focus on helping Hispanic/Latinx community members, speak to the students about the variety of ways they could volunteer and help the individuals that they work with. Ms. Taylor Ryan who is the founder of Change Today, Change Tomorrow, an organization that focus on helping African American community members, spoke to the students about ways they could help and how they could become leaders in their community by working with them. Afterwards the students decided that they would organize their individual item donation collection for the centers following COVID-19 guidelines. Afterwards we hosted a donation drive-thru where the items could be dropped off. Some students also volunteered their time outside of the program to the centers. 

Results/Impact: How has your response affected the user/stakeholders involved with the issue?

The students were able to learn the value of service, acquire leadership and communication skills, and become leaders by working and building relationships with organizations in their community. Before the program, many of the students were unaware that there were different types of communication and leadership styles. Through various activities, students were able to learn their unique leadership and communication style, which then taught them how to become leaders within their community. Using the skills they acquired the students were able to coordinate, collect, and donate over 100 items to two different organizations that work with underserved and underrepresented community members in Jefferson County. Many of them also built direct relationships with the volunteer coordinators at La Casita Center and Change Today, Change Tomorrow to continue to volunteer in the future. As a result of the program, the participants were able to acquire the skills they needed to become leaders in their community, received a certificate of completion, and were able to connect with organizations that align with their interests to further their value in service leadership skills. 

(Picture shows some of the items collected via the donations drive-thru)