Washington

We applied for this grant to help in the purchase of an Actiontrack Track Chair to be used in our aiding our disabled participants.  Hope Outdoors strives to provide meaningful outdoor experiences to special needs individuals of all ages.  Being active in the outdoors is something we sometimes take for granted, but for these individuals having this opportunity is sometimes only possible through these events.  Adaptive equipment is necessary to provide these experiences for them, and is very expensive to purchase.  Grants such as this give us the ability to have the necessary equipment available for them if needed.

On June 9, 2021 Washington County 4-H purchased their 4-H Utility trailer.  Due to Covid and hurricanes in our area, Utility trailers have been very hard to find and the price had increased tremendously since our 2020 quote. Fortunately for WC 4-H, we were able to find and purchase a utility trailer from G & D Farms in Grove Hill, Alabama.  This trailer was found just in time for our office to transport 51 campers luggage and supplies to Columbiana on June 28-30, 2021.

FAWN is an educational program directed at young minds to increase their understanding of forestry and the use of forests and woodlands.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions we were unable to have the FAWN field trip days in 2021. We did though hand out FAWN drawstring bags with information that would have originally been given at the FAWN field days to all 6th and 7th graders at the 5 schools in our county. The reason the 7th graders were included in this years program was they didn’t receive anything last year.

Within the bags were Web Soil Surveys, Snake identification & fact sheet, Tree cookie information and activity as well as an actual tree cookie, seeded paper in an envelope with instructions to be planted at home, FAWN plastic cup, Alabama Farm facts pamphlet, Food and farm facts pamphlet, Farming feeds Alabama plastic bracelets, Pollinator pamphlet, Today’s wildlife identification guide, Eastern Indigo Snake pamphlet, Smokey’s Friends plastic bracelet, Smokey’s friends pencils and erasers. Please see attached picture of bag and contents.

The educational projects taken into the Washington County schools are to educate students of all ages on conservation. Over the years many projects have been created to reach students of all ages. As with the FAWN program there is a hope that these projects will ignite a spark in our younger generation to pursue a career in conservation and forestry.

• In light of the current COVID-19 health crisis, the lack of career resources, training, and small business support was an even more prominent challenge in our community. This project was designed to assist job-seekers and small businesses in and around Washington County that currently lack access to development resources and training. WCPL used this grant to provide adult/teen education, including classes and certification for the general public such as GED prep, employable skills certification like Ready to Work, ServSafe, WorkKeys skills, as well as computer skills and digital literacy. WCPL is now partnering with the AL Career Center to provide career readiness assistance to job-seekers needing help with resume writing, job search/application submission, and other challenges associated with online employment opportunities. Workshops on business development, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship will now be offered. Through this grant, the local workforce can be more employable and better prepared to gain and maintain employment, which will help employers who currently experience high rates of turnover due to a lack of skills and education.