Click on a link below to view program description:
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Click here or on the links below to view the Plan of Work for each of our programs.
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YOUTH & FAMILIES PROGRAM
4-H Youth Development creates opportunities for youth to develop skills, practical knowledge and wisdom through observing, doing, and reflecting on experiences. We call this "learning by doing" - a learning model that has been active and successful for over 80 years in Otsego County.
4-H is the youth development program of Cornell Cooperative Extension, linking the resources of Cornell University to young people. We create supportive learning environments in which diverse youth and adults reach their fullest potential as capable, competent and caring citizens.
The four Hs (head, heart, hands and health) represent four basic human needs: independence, belonging, generosity and mastery. Research indicates that youth whose basic needs are met in positive ways are likely to grow into active citizens and contributing members of their families and communities. 4-H can help your child meet these needs.
How do you join 4-H?
Contact our office and a staff person will guide you to 4-H opportunities in your area.
How old do girls and boys need to be to join 4-H?
The traditional 4-H Club program is open to all youth ages 8-19 and 4-H Cloverbud programs are aimed at 5-8 year olds.
What will my child do in 4-H?
4-H members choose projects that interest them. We offer over 200 4-H subject matter projects and another 85 for 4-H Cloverbuds. These projects are educational and practical. Youth attend regular meetings, are involved in public speaking, a variety of community services and serve as officers of their 4-H Club. There are also opportunities to participate in 4-H camp, County Fair and educational and fun trips.
4-H programs are open to all youth no matter where they live.
Family Ties, a new initiative to CCE, serves kinship care families, an emerging family type in the United States. Family members raising other family member's children characterize these families, and this is most often seen as the grandparent raising the grandchild. When you raise another's child a number of issues and concerns become apparent. In addition to the added responsibility of raising a child when you thought you were into the next stage of your life, the laws sometimes make it difficult to provide for your child. Special concerns of this group include: education, health care, social and emotional obstacles, and finances. This program provides information, peer support, opportunity to share, referral for special services such as counseling, case management, community connections and educational forums.
A series of workshops addressing these concerns have been developed by our local program and will be presented over the next several months.
Reality Check is an anti-tobacco youth movement administered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Otsego County in partnership with the NYS Department of Health. At the heart of the Reality Check initiative is the commitment to empower teens to be the force and the voice of the Reality Check movement. Reality Check uses activities with teen appeal; i.e. concerts, sports events and teen to teen workshops as venues to educate young people ages 13-18 about tobacco related issues. Reality Check teens in turn educate and empower their peers to effectively challenge the tobacco industry's manipulative marketing tactics and affect change of community social norms related to teen tobacco use.
Leatherstocking's Promise-The Alliance For Youth is a partnership of agencies, businesses, organizations and community groups coming together to promote positive youth development programs in a planned, organized way. Data collection, needs assessment, activity coordination, and promoting youth involvement are some of the functions of the alliance.
Otsego County was designated as a "Community of Promise" by the national youth development program- America's Promise originally chaired by the now Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell (Ret). The vision of Leatherstocking's Promise-The Alliance For Youth is to ensure that every youth in Otsego County will have:
- An ongoing relationship with a caring adult-parent, mentor, tutor or coach
- A safe place to be with structured activities during non-school hours
- A healthy start and future
- Marketable skills through effective education
- An opportunity to give back through community service
For each of these five promises there is an Action Team made up of volunteers representing the Partners that plan, support and provide programming to fulfill that promise.
NUTRITION & HEALTH PROGRAMS
The Nutrition and Health Program promotes positive nutrition practices, encouraging wise use of personal and environmental resources, securing access to nutritious and safe food, and fostering food secure communities through research- and issue -based programming with a focus on low income individuals and families.
Consumer Inquiries
There is a nutrition educator on staff available to answer nutrition and food safety related questions from residents in Otsego County. If you have any questions you may give us a call at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Office or e mail your question for an electronic response. Other available services are recipe and diet analysis using the industry's most accurate, comprehensive software.
This program is funded jointly by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance through the Federal Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program. All residents in Otsego County who are Food Stamp eligible are welcome to this program. Participants will learn how to budget their food dollars, plan nutritious meals for the whole family, and much more. Participants will be taught either one-on-one in the privacy of their own home with a Nutrition Teaching Assistant or in a group setting with other participants in the community.
This program is a series of six- nutrition education and food preparation classes sponsored by the Food $ense Program in collaboration with the Community Connections Food Bank. It is supported through a grant from the Patrick Ministries of the First United Methodist Church in Oneonta. Participation is in a group setting covering educational objectives that include dietary quality, food safety, resource management and shopping behavior. The food preparation component of the class covers making soups, sauces and baked goods from scratch, as well as meat, rice and bean preparation. All participants leave each class with useful food preparation incentive gifts!
This annual spring conference is sponsored by CCE Otsego County, CCE Delaware County, A..O. Fox Memorial Hospital, LEAF Council on Alcoholism/Addictions, and SUNY Oneonta, Human Ecology Department. It provides a forum to bring the most current research information on timely nutrition and health topics to consumers and health professionals in the region.
AGRICULTURE PROGRAMS
Educational programming in and about agriculture utilizes an extensive network of partnerships among farm service providers, farm producers, and interested individuals located in and outside of Otsego County. To assist farms to remain viable and profitable businesses, programs in agriculture serve as a comprehensive resource for up-to-date research-based information in animal and natural resource husbandry, business and marketing planning, farm diversity, farm transfer, as well as information to federal, state, and local technical and financial support opportunities.
Overall, extension education in agriculture addresses the goals and objectives of the Otsego County Agriculture & Farmland Protection Plan, which was adopted by the Otsego County Board of Representatives in January 1999. Program implementation support the ultimate goal to help preserve farms and farmland and to ensure that Otsego County remains home to productive agriculture in the future.
The Master Gardener Program is a comprehensive horticulture educational program administered by the Department of Plant Science at Cornell University and implemented by Cornell Cooperative Extension associations statewide. The key to the programıs extensive outreach capabilities is the corps of Certified Master Gardener Volunteers who are trained by Cornell Cooperative Extension in the science and art of gardening. A Certified Master Gardener in New York State means that he or she has the approval of a sponsoring association to interact with the public as a volunteer representing Cornell Cooperative Extension and Cornell University.
Each year new classes of volunteer trainees attend a 60-hour certified course of professional instruction on a diversity of topics such as basic botany, soils, plant nutrition, insects, diseases, woody and herbaceous plants, home fruit planting, wildlife and pest management, organic gardening, houseplants, ecological lawn care, and more.
Master Gardener Volunteers then become an integral component of the countyıs outreach program in educating home gardeners, nursing home residents, youth in after-school programs, physically and mentally challenged, community gardeners, as well as consumers of horticultural products.
Cornell Cooperative Extension Associations of Chenango, Fulton, Herkimer, Montgomery and Otsego counties sponsor this regional program. The Team's objectives are listed below and are achieved through classes, seminars and workshops. In addition, they publish fact sheets, newsletters and press releases as well as providing one-on-one assistance to producers.
Objectives:
- Increase the competitiveness and profitability of the dairy, livestock and field crops industries in participating counties
- Encourage producers to adopt progressive, productive, and profitable management practices
- Instruct and encourage adoption of conserving crop practices consistent with profitability
- Increase producers' awareness and understanding of marketing and management opportunities
- Encourage producers to adopt environmentally sound practices
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