Our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site continues to thrive, helping more than 1,000 low to moderate income people complete and electronically file Federal and State income tax returns. Because the tax preparation assistance is free of charge, each taxpayer saves an average of $250 in tax preparation fees.
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The 4-H Youth Development program has benefited greatly from the help of the Johnson County Extension Education Foundation (JCEEF) grant program. Three grants were funded that will help expand youth development programming.
Reaching out to Johnson County's growing Hispanic community has been a focus of the Extension community development program. The idea for a community outreach garden was brainstormed and brought forth at one of the monthly Hispanic taskforce meetings. The Center of Grace, through a staff member with their ESL program showed interest. Five years later the community garden is thriving.
Where do you turn when you need an answer? Can you trust that the information is accurate? School districts turn to Extension to provide scientific research-based programming to supplement their teachers' curriculum.
What's the value of helping consumers know where their food comes from? The answer is to have an awareness of how our life sustaining food is grown, processed and delivered to our tables. We don't want to take the safest and least expensive food supply in the world for granted.
Johnson County Extension and the Extension Master Gardener (EMG) program have longed used demonstration gardens as a teaching tool. What better way to help educate the residents about plant selection, cultural practices and environmental practices than by seeing real plantings cared for by avid gardeners'?
