In the summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, issues of racial justice came to the fore.  In order to help in understanding the extent of diversity in our counties and ensure that agents had easy access to up-to-date data on race and ethnicity across the state, I initiated the “Diversity and Inclusion Data Series” for Kentucky: By The Numbers and delivered a companion webinar.  

As part of the data series, I developed 4 issues that provided the most recent population estimates by race and ethnicity for each county in the state.  Two of the issues provided overall data and data on race and ethnicity by age group.  Since youth is the most diverse age group, the other two issues in the series provided additional detailed data on youth by age group.

In addition to producing the 4 issues of the Kentucky: By The Numbers data series, I developed and presented a companion webinar.  The webinar “Race and Ethnicity Across Kentucky: Trends, Patterns, and Changes Over Time” contained three main sections.  The first section of the webinar examined the different ways race and ethnicity are counted in different data sources and how counting race and ethnicity has changed over time with a specific focus on the history of counting African American and Hispanic or Latino populations.  The second section presented an analysis of the spatial distribution of African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, and American Indian populations across Kentucky and how they have changed over time.  The third section examined the diversity within diversity, median household income and poverty rates by race/ethnicity, and provided additional resources for agents.

82 agents and Extension faculty/staff attended the 1-hour webinar.  Afterwards, a recording of the webinar was posted on the Extension Program and Staff Development website where 25 individuals also viewed the webinar.