Our Impact
Making A Difference in Our County
University of Georgia Cooperative Extension is working hard for its constituents. The following are examples of Extension’s impact in the county over the past year.
AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
The Greene County Extension Office provides soil, forage and water testing for Greene County residents through the help of the Agriculture and Environmental Service Laboratories at the University of Georgia. The Extension office works with local beef and poultry associations to provide continuing education opportunities for area producers. In 2020, the ANR Agent also coordinated hands on training exercises for: landowners dealing with feral hog issues, area small ruminant producers, and emergency responders dealing with agriculture related accidents. The ANR program works to serve the needs of a growing and diverse Greene County community. MGEV- 2020 saw a continued commitment from the Greene County Master Gardener Extension Volunteers (MGEV) to aid in providing consumer horticulture learning opportunities and expertise to Greene County citizens. The volunteers assisted the Extension office with urban agriculture site consultations and, with coordination of free seminars to provide research based information on consumer horticulture topics relevant to local homeowners. The MGEVs provide information about gardening and related subjects to their communities. With the MGEV program, Greene County Cooperative Extension is able to serve a wider range of the Greene County community. The Greene County MGEV group is an invaluable asset to our Extension office as we work to best serve our community.
4-H YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Greene County 4-H strives to uphold the mission of developing members into self-directing, productive, contributing members of society. Greene County 4-H staff conducted monthly educational instruction in 9 fourth grade, 6 fifth grade, 6 sixth grade, and 6 seventh grade classrooms for 470 students. Monthly in-school club meetings for fourth and fifth grade youth cover topics that focus on building public speaking skills, learning STEM topics through hands-on experiences, and agricultural awareness. The 4-H program complements and enhances basic, grade-level curriculum by bringing University of Georgia resources to each classroom where 4-H programs are taught. During these club meetings, youth are actively engaged in District Project Achievement (DPA). DPA gives 4-H’ers the opportunity to present a project from an area of their choosing. These projects can highlight any hobby or interest the 4-H’er may have. This is a great tool to build public-speaking skills and to showcase the 4-H member’s work and success. In 2020, more than 200 students presented DPA projects on the county level, more than 70 presented on the district level and two senior 4-H’er presented on the state level. Outside of the classroom, youth are actively engaged in learning essential life skills through hands-on involvement in 4-H programming. In 2020, youth competed on 4-H judging teams, Project S.A.F.E shotgun teams, and participated in livestock show programs with two species. As the 4-H program continues to grow, Greene County youth will have even more opportunities to develop life skills through valuable experiential learning opportunities to develop life skills through valuable experimental learning opportunities.