• Senior health insurance counseling (SHICK) and the economic impact that has had for our senior citizens in cost savings for prescription drug health insurance. Coordinating the volunteer income tax assistance is another program reaching senior citizens, especially those who have no one else in which to turn for such help!
• Response to drought issues in crop, livestock, forage quality, and other production agriculture decisions.
• Using Cloverbuds and other innovative marketing and targeting of families who are not traditionally in 4-H to enroll children in 4-H! Growth in numbers is happening in several of those local units!
• Partnering with youth organizations like Boys and Girls Clubs on programming and mentoring reaches new and often low-resource, under-served youth and families!
• Partnering through PRIDE in communities to address key community-wide issues and opportunities.
• Volunteers were often cited as critical in targeting community, youth, and senior audiences for educational programming. Master 4-H, master gardener, and master food volunteers were common groups to strengthen mentoring, programming, and great learning experiences in local communities.
• Increasing opportunities for physical activity among all ages as a strategy to curb obesity and the onset of chronic illnesses. Strategies include targeting senior women, community "melt-down" challenges, after-school youth activities, Walk Kansas for all ages, Optimizing Health, natural resource hiking trails, community gardening, and the list continued!
• Increasing skills to improve food selection and diet for health, well-being, and curbing obesity. Strategies include developing community gardens, preparing fresh garden fruits and vegetables, food preservation for quality and safety, make-ahead meal planning, focus on youth in-school and after-school learning about healthy foods and healthy choices, Boards taking the challenge to demonstrate better eating choices and habits.
• Composting and recycling in communities. Recycling of electronic waste was highlighted in Parsons and in Coldwater!
• Landlord / Tenant relations and navigating land leases and contracts were a great need for agriculture and for oil and gas leases.
• Annie's Project and targeting an ever-increasing number of women in farm and ranch decision-making roles.
  

• Roles and Responsibilities of Board Members/ Conducting Effective Meetings
  

• Understanding Fellow Board Members/ Conflict Resolution

• Fundraising and Fund Management/Legalities/Ethics

• Strategic Planning

The training will be conducted through the use of Adobe Connect technology fed to host sites throughout the state. Host sites include: Chanute, Concordia, Garden City, Oakley, Lakin, Olathe, Osborne, Salina, Topeka, Wamego. PFT members will be at the host sites to facilitate group discussions and activities after participants hear from each evening's presenter.

This is a great opportunity for all agents across the state to provide community development programming for your county. Here's how you can help:

• Promote the series to local boards in your county. This might include your Extension Board, fair boards, boards appointed by your county or city commissions, water district boards, churches, United Way agencies, township officials, and other community boards.

• Offer to drive a group to one of the host sites.

• Offer the host agent your support in facilitating discussions, etc.

More information about the board series is available at www.ksre.ksu.edu/boardseries, or you may contact Jennifer Wilson at jrwilson@ksu.edu or Trudy Rice at trice@ksu.edu. --Jennifer Wilson

* Twenty-five KOHP participants shared knowledge gained when they completed their evaluation and wrote letters to their doctor.

* KOHP participants explained how specific assistive devices worked.

* Clients gained knowledge in several self-managing coping strategies such as guided imagery for pain management, effective communication skills to use with loved ones and physicians, and physical health benefits of proper nutrition and exercise.

Medium-term outcomes (what they DID with what they learned—behavior change) -

* KOHP participants remarked how little pain they had after using the self-management techniques they learned in class.

* Using assistive technology devices reduced the pain on joints of the participants.

* Twelve participants are setting weekly health goals. The following week they are reporting back on their success and setting goals for the coming week. The goals vary from regular physical activity to increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables.

* Through the KOHP class, one participant reported she has learned to manage her diabetes and blood sugar levels through regular exercise. If she has high blood sugar, she is able to reduce the level by going out for a 15-20 minute walk and bring it back down to a normal level.

Long-term outcomes (change in condition) -

* KOHP participants have become more confident and aggressive in taking steps to improve their health, reduce their medical expenses, and improve their quality of life.

Success Stories

** The attitude and health of the KOHP participants sure changed from the first session to the sixth session. It was evident that they learned how to manage and pace themselves in order to deal with their chronic disease. Some participants became more outgoing and realized the importance of interacting to improve relationships and that their thoughts and ideas were important. They also overcame fears of being with new people. During the most recent series of classes, participants at the first session listed experiencing 15 problems associated with chronic diseases and at the final/sixth class, participants listed only four problems. That is progress!

** Another benefit of the program is the group support it provides to individuals. Living with a chronic condition is not only physically taxing, it is also emotionally isolating. Participants were extremely willing to help other classmates search for solutions and offer new ideas, which is exactly how the class is designed to work. Class instructors help guide participants, but as a self-management course, it is ultimately up to the individuals and their classmates to find solutions to their problems. Class participants experienced great success in this area, which was very pleasing to observe from the instructor standpoint. --Marie Blythe mblythe@ksu.edu