The partners for Healthy Living Education include:

Healthy Living Education was identified as an action, that combined with other actions in our community, has a reasonable chance of making a difference in Healthy Living Across the Lifespan in Yancey County. This is an ongoing program in our community.

The customers for this strategy are adults, children, and families and the programs aim to make a difference at the individual and interpersonal levels. Implementation will take place in various locations in Yancey County.

NC Cooperative Extension, Yancey County Center, hired a Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent in June 2022. They hosted a variety of healthy lifestyles education classes in Yancey County Schools, Genesis Academy, and other community settings. The new Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent only serves Yancey County. In years past, the Extension Agent has split their time between multiple counties. The new one-county focus has enhanced program offerings and allowed more dedicated time to serving Yancey County residents. 

Participation in healthy living education rose from 696 in 2022 to 1,209 in 2023. The family and consumer sciences agent was able to focus on growing these educational offerings in 2023. Class and workshop offerings including topics like heart health, garden growing, healthy cooking, food preservation, and serveral other topics at low-cost or no cost. 

Healthy living education had some additional big wins in 2023. 25 employees from 9 different food establishments obtained ServeSafe Food Safety Manager certificates in 2023 after the classes offered by the Cooperative extension. Additionally, 25% of participants in the MED Instead of Meds program decreased their blood pressure, and an additional 37.5% reported weight loss over the 6 week class. 

The surveys that were used to obtain the percentages in 2022 (Youth that enhanced their knowledge of health and adults that increased their knowledge of how to prepare foods including home food preservation) were not used in 2023, so no updated data is available.