Clinton County continues constantly to be rated among the most unhealthy counties in one of the nation’s unhealthy states, according to a host of rankings, studies and findings, but the effort to combat those issues received yet another “shot in the arm” last week.

The Clinton County branch of the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment and the UK College of Public Health learned last week that it is one of six Kentucky Extension Service offices that will share part of a $1.8 million cooperative agreement.

That announcement came last week in the form of a press release from the University of Kentucky noting that Clinton County would share in the nearly $2 million program with Logan, Lewis, Martin, Letcher and Elliott counties.

One of the factors considered in making Clinton County a part of the program, is the rate of obesity among the local residents, which is currently more than 40 percent.

The program will primarily focus on lowering obesity rates in the communities involved, which are noted to be among the counties most affected by obesity.

At this stage in the program, it hasn’t been determined yet how much Clinton County’s share in the program will be.

Christy Nuetzman, Clinton County’s Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences, was excited last week about the news of the local extension office being named as one of the programs to benefit from the agreement.

“This is huge,” Nuetzman told the Clinton County News Thursday via an email response. “We (the FCS Extension Agents) in each county will be participating in training on campus next month to determine initial plans and find out more about how funding will be dispersed.”

As the focus on the poor health conditions of Kentucky residents has increased over the past few years, efforts to find ways to improve the health of residents in our area has also increased.

Another group that is relatively new to the health condition scene locally, the Healthy Hometown Coalition, is also working to find ways to improve the health of local residents.

Nuetzman said that while this newest program has no direct connection to the Healthy Hometown Coalition, she has worked closely as a part of that group also, since it’s inception, and she further believes that the funds in the newest announced program should help to make the bond between the Extension Office and programs like the Healthy Hometown Coalition even stronger.

“We’ve had a Health Coalition facilitated through the Extension Office since 2007,” Nuetzman explained last week. “The grant will allow us to expand our efforts to reduce obesity and chronic disease and will strengthen collaborations Extension has with the Health Department, Healthy Hometown, and lots of other community groups.”

She noted that when she first learned about the agreement program, she quickly went into action to submit information about Clinton County in hopes of being included in the program funding.

“I provided background information on local health and wellness programs, farmers market, community collaborations, built environment, and food security challenges to our UK FCS Extension grant writing team earlier this summer,” Nuetzman said. “I will be directly involved and facilitate efforts in our county. ”

She added that she will be working and training with the FCS Extension Agents from each of the six involved counties next month on the campus of the University of Kentucky, and she should learn at that time more about how the funding will be dispersed.

According to the press release announcing the funding and program that was issued to the Clinton County News last week, written by U.K. Extension staff writer, Katie Pratt, the University of Kentucky received a $1.8 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to focus on lowering obesity rates in the Kentucky communities most affected by this issue.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will administer the three-year cooperative agreement that will concentrate on the agency’s goal of reducing chronic disease incidence rates, promoting healthier lifestyles, reducing health disparities and controlling health care spending.

“This is the first time the CDC has directly funded a Cooperative Extension program,” said Ann Vail, director of the UK School of Human Environmental Sciences and principal investigator on the project. “The grant will support building and strengthening collaborations between extension and public health personnel at the university, community and state levels.”

Margaret McGladrey, assistant dean for research in the UK College of Public Health, is the community coalition leader for the project.

“This cooperative agreement is a unique opportunity for local health department personnel, extension agents and community health coalitions to partner and implement community-based solutions to this important issue,” she said.

In the project, titled Collaborative Environmental Approaches to Reduce Obesity Disparities in Kentucky, extension agents, state extension professionals, local public health departments, UK public health specialists and community health coalition members will implement programs to decrease obesity rates and improve their residents’ overall health using strategies based on the most pressing needs of each county. Other partners include UK’s Department of Dietetics and Human Nutrition and the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky.

UK’s cooperative agreement is part of the $4.6 million in new funding the Department of Health and Human Services has dedicated to this program, which has resulted in awards to six land-grant universities.