By Andrew Edwards

Staff Writer

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Autauga County office held their annual Grassroots/Advisory Council meeting in Autaugaville on Thursday afternoon.

The meeting allowed individuals from the Autauga County community to come and express ideas for potential programs that ACES could implement.

“It’s basically a needs assessment. We’re trying to get everyone from the community that we invite’s opinion, feedback and input for what they think Autauga County needs,” said Darrue Sharpe, Autauga County Extension Coordinator. “It’s also an opportunity for people to let us know if they like or don’t like programs that we currently have. We just want to know what we can do to help them.”

Sharpe said that members of ACES would plan their work for the next year based off the information that they received from the meeting.

“It’s how we base our programming,” Sharpe said.

ACES stays extremely active in the Autauga County community, helping to start programs such as the Autauga County Master Gardeners Program and Food Safety Canning Program.

Sharpe says the meeting has paid dividends in the past, helping them to create their Community Development Resource Piece, a new program that addresses job success, money management and agribusiness.

“Agribusiness basically is just us showing our support for agritourism in the area. We’ve started promoting the sunflower field in the summer and a variety of other places as well,” Sharpe said.

Their job success program helps businesses to retain qualified, individual workers.

“A lot of the time people can get a job, but it’s keeping the job that can be a problem. So, we can come in and teach soft skills to keep those jobs, like calling in if you’re not coming into work or things like that that people sometimes forget to do,” Sharpe said.

At Thursday’s meeting, individuals broke into groups and learned about the programs that ACES had to offer. They were also offered their own individual feedback.

Homeschooling techniques, safe cooking, food prep, proper sanitation and home daycare were all topics that were brought to the table.

Many people believed that budgeting and money management such as balancing a checkbook and credit/debit card accountability were some of the most important skills that a person of any age could learn.

“We have so many programs – it’s vast. We can cover anything,” Sharpe said.

Over the past year, many of ACES in-person programs had to go virtual due to the Covid pandemic. Now, they operate on a hybrid system where individuals can either choose to go to the program in person, or attend it online.

“It was so successful and we had so many people who participated online during Covid. That’s why we offer it two ways now,” Sharpe said.

The ultimate goal for ACES’s programs is to provide an avenue for people to succeed in life.

“We want to use these research-based programs and provide them back to the community, and by doing that, we hope to improve the quality of life and people’s economic well-being,” Sharpe said.

For those wanting to know more about the program opportunities that the Autauga County Extension Office offers, call them at (334) 361-7273 or check out their website: https://www.aces.edu/