Jefferson County Family & Community Development

Home is where the heart is and family and health issues are at the heart of WVU Extension Family and Community Development. We offer a variety of nutritional classes and guidance, learning tools, outreach opportunities, and community connections. Programs are offered for all ages and groups and are generally free.

Browse the Jefferson County calendar for announcements of upcoming classes and workshops. Get added to our local contact list and receive information about upcoming workshops, classes and other program events, by calling or emailing the Jefferson County Office.

Health & Wellness News

Contact the Jefferson County Office

Learn about upcoming opportunities by calling 304-728-7413.

Programs

Maintain Don't Gain

Now in it's 14th year, Maintain Don't Gain is a holiday challenge that helps participants maintain their weight during the stressful holiday season. Jefferson County Extension partners with community locations to host weigh-in sites for the program. Participants receive coupons for free access to local gyms and weekly newsletters that share fitness and nutrition tips. Get started by visiting one of our sites between November 11-21 to check in and check out at the same site between January 1-11.

Community Educational Outreach Service (CEOS)

CEOS is a statewide club supporting West Virginia since 1914. Over the past decade, West Virginia CEOS members performed more than 5.6 million hours of service for communities in need. Supported by the WVU Extension Service, CEOS program areas of emphasis include preserving the environment, building family strengths, and increasing awareness of our global interdependence.

Community Educational Outreach Service

Family Nutrition Program

The Family Nutrition Program is comprised of numerous nutrition, food, and physical activity projects designed to help limited resource families, youth, and adults improve their health. FNP targets risk factors associated with obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic diseases.

Food Preservation

Food preservation workshops are offered each spring and summer and your county Extension agent is always available to answer your questions. We want you to preserve the bounty of the season and we want you to do it safely! For complete information on food preservation processes, learn about local food preservation workshops and/or visit the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Food Preservation

Dinning with Diabetes

Diabetes is a common, serious, and costly disease. Many complications of diabetes can be controlled and even prevented by making lifestyles changes – scheduling regular doctor visits, improving eating habits, increasing physical activity, and maintaining a healthy weight. The Dining with Diabetes program helps adults make lifestyle changes. It is a free program for those with diabetes and their family members. The series of four classes and a three-month follow-up includes clinical testing, nutrition information, recipe demonstrations, exercise, and group support.

Stress Less with Mindfulness

Are you skeptical about the benefits of being mindful, of being “in the moment”, of meditation? Here is what we know about practicing mindfulness:

• It can lower cortisol levels and blood pressure;
• It can increase immune response;
• It can have impact on brain structure;
• Mindfulness programs are widely used in universities, hospitals; Silicon Valley and Fortune 500 companies, and Pentagon chiefs. There are certified mindfulness instructors in every state.

This ancient practice helps people extend the benefits of relaxation into more areas of their daily lives. Mindfulness involves a combination of slowing down, doing one activity at a time and bringing full awareness to both outer activity and inner experience. It provides a potentially powerful antidote to the common causes of stress: time pressure, fragmentation, overload, distraction, agitation and worry. Participants will learn and practice the basic tools of mindfulness and learn how and why mindfulness works. Call for more information or if you have a group interested in attending mindfulness classes.

WVU is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer -- Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran.
In accordance with Federal law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, and reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs).
The WVU Board of Governors is the governing body of WVU. The Higher Education Policy Commission in West Virginia is responsible for developing, establishing, and overseeing the implementation of a public policy agenda for the state’s four-year colleges and universities.
Reasonable accommodations will be made to provide this content in alternate formats upon request. Contact the WVU Extension Service Office of Communications at 304-293-4222.