During a May meeting, county commissioners convened with Judy Villard Overocker of The Ohio State University Extension in celebration of the Cooperative Extension Service’s 100th anniversary.
The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 first established the Cooperative Extension as the “third prong” to the educational system, Villard Overocker said. She explained that Cooperative Extension “means that you’re taking the teaching and research to the people in the communities.”
For the past 100 years, Cooperative Extension has collaborated with research and academic programs in 106 colleges and universities throughout the nation, including The Ohio State University. The Ohio State University Extension programs make 1.5 million educational contacts each year, reaching Ohioans in all 88 counties.
Villard Overocker explained, “Extension’s purpose is to learn and understand the needs of the community, then to address those needs with educational programs and activities that help reinforce the learning and give people an opportunity to grow.”
Commissioner Ed Olson stated, “[Cooperative Extension] is not just an agricultural program. I think almost from the very beginning it also addressed urban needs, too.”
OSU-Extension programs seen within Richland County include the Master Gardner program, educational programming, home food preservation, pesticide applicator re-certification, nutrition, family management, consumer sciences, and 4-H.
There are approximately 200 projects within the 4-H program, Villard Overocker said. In the early 1900s, 4-H projects pertained mostly to agriculture; today, the program includes robotics, photography, among other projects, she noted.
Richland County’s 4-H program involves more than 2,500 participants annually with 850 club members.
Originally, Cooperative Extension home demonstration agents would work one on one with people at their farms or in their homes, Villard Overocker said. And now, people have the opportunity to receive information and assistance from Cooperative Extension via the internet by visiting www.ohioline.osu.edu.
