OKLAHOMA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE

The “impact program” for the Food, Nutrition and Health base program area!

What is an “Impact Program?”

Within OCES Family and Consumer Sciences, one base program area is Food, Nutrition and Health. (Our other base program areas are Family Resiliency, Family Financial Well-being and Leadership Development & Family Policy.)

In Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H Youth Development are structured to have a team of professional educators with a time/effort commitment in each base program area contributing to an “impact program.”

Considerable effort has gone into determining the current impact program for each base program area.  To be defined as an impact program for OCES, there are specific criteria as follows. An IMPACT PROGRAM:  

1) Targets a critical issue and related problem(s).
2) Has a research base.
3) Has a defined curriculum, certain parts of which will be taught by all county team members in order to measure outcomes.
4) Targets a specific audience (has both a Youth and Adult component).
5) Has clear outcome indicators identified that are measurable.
6) Social, economic, or environmental impact can be determined.

We frequently refer to our “impact teams” and mean a combination of the information above—the team of professionals, contributing to a specific program, within a base program area—thus the “Healthy Oklahoma team.”

The focus of the Healthy Oklahoma impact program is the prevention of obesity.