Family and consumer sciences agents to host frugal bridal program

Contributed by Katie Pratt

In the current economy, it is hard for many people to afford necessities, much less save money for additional expenses, such as weddings. To help brides-to-be discover more affordable wedding choices, family and consumer sciences agents with the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service will host The Frugal Bride.

The cost-saving bridal program will take place from 2 to 6 p.m. Aug. 2 at Providence Christian Church at Brannon Crossing in Nicholasville. It is open to future brides and their fiancés, family members and wedding planners across the state.

“The main thing we want the participants to take away from this is you don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful wedding. There are options,” said Tamera Thomas, Franklin County family and consumer sciences agent.

Topics on the agenda include He Said, She Said- A guide to couple’s communication, online shopping safety, money management for married couples, Legal info 101- What you need to know, and bridal beauty under $400. Three breakout sessions will include photography, bridal beauty and calligraphy. A bridal fashion show, trends for the upcoming seasons and exhibits also are planned.

“This will be different from other bridal shows in that there will be an educational component to it,” said Mary Hixson, Garrard County family and consumer sciences agent. “We hope that the information they receive helps them not only plan their wedding, but with their marriage,” said Marisa Aull, Jessamine County family and consumer sciences agent.

Agents and presenters will display store-bought and handmade wedding essentials and will compare the two, talk about the costs of each and the time required to make the handmade item. “There are many things that can be handmade including headpieces, veils, garters, ring bearer pillows, wedding favors and decorations,” Hixson said.

Attendees will be able to sample potential low-costs choices for wedding foods and drinks at the workshop, and the agents will discuss the cost, ingredients and number of servings each recipe makes. Sample place settings also will be displayed. The cost to attend is $12 per person and $20 for two people. Those who attend the calligraphy breakout session will need to add $7 per person to the registration fee. As part of the registration fee, each bride-to-be will receive a one-year membership to their county’s Extension Homemakers club and a one-year subscription to the Beautiful Bride Newsletter the agents are developing. They will also receive a goody bag and can register for door prizes at the event.

Preregistration is required and due by July 30. Interested individuals can get information from any county extension office in central Kentucky by contacting Hixson at 859-792-3026, Aull at 859-885-4811 or Thomas at 502-695-9035.

For Our Kids: The Importance of Effective and Sufficient Child Support

For Our Kids: The Importance of Effective and Sufficient Child Support

This post is related to prefiled bill BR 65 in the Kentucky Legislature

Contributed by Erik L. Carlton, M.S., Project Director—Bluegrass Healthy Marriage Initiative, University of Kentucky Department of Family Studies

1. On average, only 56% of the child support payments due to families are actually being made.
2. Child support is critical to economic stability for moderate and low income families.
3. Child support is linked to several positive outcomes for children such as cognitive development, academic achievement, and fewer behavior problems.
4. Effective child support enforcement increases child support payments and nonresidential parent involvement.

The Kentucky Division of Child Support Enforcement (CSE; Cabinet for Health and Family Services) holds that, “Every child has a legal right to financial support from both parents.” (CHFS, 2008). Yet according to data from CSE, for the past five years only an average of 56% payments due are actually made, accounting for $388 million of the $693 million in child support obligations owed each year. This varies by county, but is below the national average (60%). While the reasons for this payment shortfall are multi-faceted, it is clear that children in Kentucky are not receiving the financial child support they need. This has important implications for child well-being because:

· The number of single parent families is increasing across the nation. Single parent families experience financial hardships because welfare does not provide adequate income (Cook et al., 2008; Huang, 2005).
· Stirling and Aldrich (2008) have shown that, compared to well-being when intact, well-being for mothers and children dropped 37%, but only 16% for fathers. Additionally, 73% of low income single mothers and children live in poverty, compared to 28% of low income fathers.
· Child support is a critical source of income and economic stability for moderate- and low-income families (Center for Law & Social Policy, 2004).
· Single parent families, especially single mothers and their children experience social exclusion and societal marginalization (Cook & Marjoribanks, 2005).
· Child support is linked to several positives child outcomes such cognitive development (Argys et al., 1998), as well as academic achievement in older children and fewer behavioral problems (Knox, 1996; Graham, et al., 1994; Knox & Bane, 1994; and McLanahan et al. 1994).
· Father involvement is strongly correlated and child support payment is potentially correlated with lower food insecurity in homes of single mothers (Garasky, 2007).
· Effective child support enforcement policies and programs have been shown to significantly increase child support payments and nonresidential parent involvement (Huang, 2006)
· Regular support reduces poverty and welfare use, and increases child well-being (Turetsky, 2005).
· Because domestic violence has such serious effects on victims’ economic security and ability to provide for themselves, providing child support for victims of domestic violence is especially important in enabling victims to achieve and maintain independence from their abusive spouses/partners (Yearwood et al., 2008; McGee, 2004; Rusbult & Martz, 1995; Strube & Barbour, 1983).

With these statistics and study findings in mind, it seems important that we address ways to increase both the financial (monetary) and positive emotional (nonmonetary) involvement of parents in the lives of their children. The University of Kentucky Bluegrass Healthy Marriage Initiative (BHMI; http://www.bluegrassmarriage.org/) is currently working with CSE to encourage responsible parental involvement in the lives of children through the formation and maintenance of healthy marriages and the support of healthy co-parenting relationships.

Please contact Derek Feldman for a full list of references if interested.

Recommendations to prevent childhood obesity

Practical recommendations for policy-makers to help prevent childhood obesity

1. Increasing access to parks and recreation centers
2. Improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians
3. Offering healthier foods in schools
4. Attracting grocery stores that provide healthy, affordable foods to lower-income communities

Childhood obesity is a serious problem facing our Kentucky counties and the entire U.S. Leadership for Healthy Communities, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has created the Action Strategies Toolkit to provide guidance to policy-makers. The toolkit offers practical examples, including increasing access to parks and recreation centers, improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians, offering healthier foods in schools, and attracting grocery stores that provide healthy, affordable foods to lower-income communities.

Download full toolkit and executive summary at http://www.rwjf.org/childhoodobesity/product.jsp?id=42514

East Kentucky Homemakers go the distance for children's home

East Kentucky Homemakers go the distance for children’s home

Contributed by Aimee Nielson

LIBERTY, Ky., (May 27, 2009) – It takes more than 10 dozen eggs each morning to make breakfast at the Galilean Children’s Home, but that statistic fits right in with the home’s theme: “Where normal is the exception.” More than 95 percent of support for the Casey County home comes from private donations of time, food, supplies and money. Some University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Homemakers in eastern Kentucky have embraced the home and gather supplies throughout the year in hopes of making life a little easier for children and special-needs adults residing there.

Leslie County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences Nanette Banks recalled a visit to the Galilean home several years ago. A few homemakers toured the facilities including the Angel House, a haven for babies whose mothers are in prison, and the Blessing House, a place for older children and adults with physical and mental challenges. “It’s a blessing to see some of the things you don’t normally see,” Banks said. “It makes you realize that there are good people, people who will give others a chance at life. None of our homemakers came out of that tour with a dry eye; even the men had tears in their eyes. Since then, we decided to make the home one of our community service projects and bring donated items each year.”

Homemakers collect baby care items and personal hygiene items as well as homemade baby quilts and blankets to add a personal touch. They travel more than two hours at least twice a year to personally deliver the items and catch up with beloved residents. “We wanted to do something for them, so we got busy making quilts,” said Homemaker Virginia Melton. “We just wanted to put things together to bring to them, and it has touched my life. It changes you when you come down here.”

Melton has a special affection toward children at the home since she and other Homemakers have raised children of their own with special needs and physical challenges. “It really makes you appreciate what you have and makes me love my own child even more,” she said. “These kids need our help; they are doing a wonderful thing here.”
Lucille Smith, also a Leslie County Homemaker, said she’s learned a lot by visiting the home and bringing items to make life there easier. “This is a blessing to come and see this,” she said. “It makes me see how blessed I am and that my family is well; we are just so fortunate.”

Jerry Tucker and his late wife Sandy founded the home in 1986. They fought their own battles with infertility and focused their energies on helping children whose parents did not have the ability to care for them. “We were married for 45 years before she died two years ago,” Jerry Tucker said. “We were childless for seven years and then we adopted a baby from a private agency from an unwed mother. We just felt after we adopted him and then our two daughters were born, which were miracle babies, we wanted to spend the rest of our lives working with kids and so forth.” All in all, the Tuckers have adopted more than 30 children, and cared for more than 800 children through the years, rescuing many of them from situations of abuse, neglect and other circumstances.

Banks said the Leslie County Homemakers use the home’s published needs list to focus their collections of supplies toward items the home really needs. The list and more information at the home are available online at http://www.galileanhome.org/

Taste of the Month brings hard-to-find foods to east Kentucky school

Taste of the Month brings hard-to-find foods to east Kentucky school

By Aimee Nielson
BOONEVILLE, Ky., (May 13, 2009) – Boiled shrimp, provolone cheese, fresh mandarin oranges – these items may sound pretty common to folks living in metropolitan areas. But, for those in rural communities, these items are hard to come by.

“Several years ago, I was doing a 4-H lesson on quesadillas, and the kids didn’t have a clue what they were; we didn’t have any Mexican restaurants here,” recalled Natasha Lucas, family consumer sciences University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension agent in Owsley County. “I thought it was really sad that our kids didn’t know about many foods, because they are just not exposed to much beyond the basics. I wanted to do some kind of food exposure program then but didn’t have the funds.”

That all changed about three years ago when funding became available through the Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program, so Lucas worked with Owsley County Middle and High School officials to start Taste of the Month. Each month Lucas and Sherry Becknell, Expanded Food Nutrition Education Program assistant in Owsley County, pick a hard-to-find food item and hand out samples during lunch time to seventh through 12th graders.

“Most of the kids will give it a try, and they’ve told me they look forward to seeing what we’re going to try next,” Lucas said. “We try to only offer healthy, fresh foods that aren’t available in our grocery stores. For example, this month we handed out samples of fresh mandarin oranges. In our grocery store, you can’t find that. You can only get the canned variety.”
Owsley County Health Educator Oneida McIntosh said the program has really expanded the students’ palettes.

“Here at Owsley County High School we really strive to educate our children about healthy food choices – in the cafeteria and at home,” McIntosh said. “We want them to see that just because something looks different, they don’t have to snarl their noses; they just need to give new things a chance. This small taste gives them a chance to change their perspective.”

Whitley McIntosh, an OCHS junior, has been active in 4-H since fourth grade. She looks forward to the items Lucas and Becknell bring each month and also looks forward to hearing what’s going on in 4-H. “It’s interesting to get to try new things you haven’t tried before,” she said. “I really liked the different fruits and cheeses.”Another junior at the school, Michael Hensley agreed. “They give us a new variety of food to try,” he said. “Our grocery store doesn’t have choices like that. It’s just a really neat experience being able to try new things every month.”

Oneida McIntosh said she encourages students to seek out the items they try when they go shopping with their parents in larger areas, such as Hazard. “Just like many times I may not have access to a lot of the foods I need for a particular recipe (in Owsley County),” she said. “I have to go somewhere else to get it. They shouldn’t be too discouraged; just add an item to the shopping list to pick up while you’re out.”

Beyond the Taste of the Month event, Lucas also works with Oneida McIntosh in classrooms, where they teach lessons on how to prepare dishes with the foods they sample.

4-H and Youth Leadership Development

Contributed by Nicole Stork-Hestad, UK Graduate Student

Talking with Mr. Mark Mains about his work with extension offices over the past 11 years is like asking a 5 year old to talk about their favorite superhero. His eyes light up and you are hit head-on with the passion he has for the work he is doing. Mark works closely with the 4-H Development program which he described as “informal education” in a formal setting. As an Extension Specialist for 4-H Youth Development, Mark proceeded to enlighten me on the ends in and outs of 4-H as it relates to Legislation, education, and its impact on Kentucky youths.

Just as a refresher, the 4-H program is self-defined as “a community of young people across America who are learning leadership, citizenship, and life skills” for youths between the ages of 9 and 18 (although the Cloverbuds’ program is becoming more popular for ages 5-8). Programs of involvement range from camping to international exchange and the meetings are usually held in more public areas, at schools in particular. Funding for the program comes from a variety of sources including individual donors to the USDA. 4-H relies on paid employees, as well as parents, volunteers, and alumni to keep the program going.

When asked to relate his work to current legislatives acts, Marks eyes widened. “My greatest concern, right now, is our standards,” he said. Apparently the Kentucky Education Reform Act, commonly referred to as KERA, is under heavy revision this session. The 4-H program’s guidelines and standards for their school involvement had previously been measured against the yardstick that KERA had provided. With the phasing out of the old rule book, Mark is concerned with keeping the 4-H programs above reproach. He stressed that 4-H’s goal is to meet the needs of the students involved; the whole point of the program is to positively impact Kentucky’s youth.

The kids involved present their own matters to state government and (with a little help from 4-H workers, like Mark) win their cases. Mark recounted that $2 million was given to the 4-H camping fund just recently because the youth spoke up for their programs. “We need to ‘Wow’ Legislation with impact and involvement,” Mains concluded. Which I don’t believe is going to be a problem since the 2008 data revealed there to be approximately 230,000 youth members alone. 4-H is providing youth who have something to say the opportunities to be proactive with their state government.

Direct Links:
Statistics related to Kentucky 4-H http://www.ca.uky.edu/agcollege/4h/about4h/statistics/pdf/Market%20Share%20Report%20-%202008.pdf
Home web site: http://www.ca.uky.edu/agcollege/4h/about4h/index.htm
News Article on KERA reform: http://www.kentucky.com/181/story/684937.html

College Financial Awareness

Contributed by Nicole Stork-Hestad, UK Graduate Student

Ah, college- noted around the nation as the best years of your life. University students from California to Maine are spring break-ing, pulling all-nighters, and cramming every ounce of “knowledge” possible into their four years of freedom to get the most out of college experience. However, something that most students fail to add to their educational outfitting is financial preparedness; knowledge of topics concerning credit card use and debt management could be especially constructive as they areas apply to the majority of persons in postsecondary education.

House Bill 83 (BR388), which is currently in committee, poses to “require public postsecondary institutions to provide new undergraduates with information regarding credit cards and debt management and encourage them [the educational institutions] to conduct informational sessions” pertaining to credit cards and debt management for students to voluntarily attend. Basically, as apart of orientation week, incoming freshman and transfer students would receive some kind of reading material (pamphlet, booklet, brochure, etc…) concerning credit card use and debt management in their welcome packets and maybe have a session or two on financial awareness (particularly concerning credit card use and debt management).

To get some perspective on the effectiveness of the bill, I asked Dr. Hyungsoo Kim what his thoughts about the new bill were and how he speculated it would be of aid to incoming students. Dr. Kim teaches personal and family finance courses at the University of Kentucky through the Family Studies Department. “Obviously young folks need more knowledge and skills to manage their personal resources,” Kim says. There is a definite sense of prevention or catch-‘em-early mentality that this bill offers.

However, he also commented to me that he finds more than half of his undergraduate students do not work to support their lifestyle; most are still financially supported by parents or guardians. “The number one issue” he says is “actually they don’t manage because they don’t have any income… They don’t think they need this kind of thing…[They] don’t feel that it is real.” He believes that money management reading materials will lost on these incoming students because they will have a lack of interest in being budgeters sense the need to be financially responsible is not an urgent one.

A possible solution to this lack of interest would be to offer the same materials and voluntary sessions to outbound students who are looking to graduate. Kim acknowledges that, “as they get older, more exposed, they will need more information.” Nothing wakes up a graduating senior like smell of being financially independent, or in some cases financially cut-off, from his/her parents. A genuine concern for being financially stable after graduation could spark the desire to attend a lecture series by guest financial speakers, similar to how a job fair has more attending second semester juniors and graduating seniors.

Never-the-less, should it pass, HB 83 will have our freshman (and probably soon after our recycling bins) armed with provided reading material on subjects such as “How to Use Your Credit Card Responsibly” and “Pay Those Student Loans In a Timely Fashion.”