Regional Stewardship

Connecting to the Community

EKU's Office of Regional Stewardship seeks to connect the resource of EKU to the needs of communities. CEDET works in partnership to offer Entrepreneur Academies in the service region, and has created theFinancial Literacy Training Program to serve low to moderate income families in Eastern Kentucky. The Center for Finance will be a clearing house for trainers to connect with the community-based partners and to facilitate financial literacy training.

Strategic Plan

The Strategic Plan, developed in collaboration with EKU’s Regional Stewardship Advisory Board following the conduct of community needs assessments throughout EKU’s 22-county service region, establishes the following goals for EKU’s Regional Stewardship Program:

  • Goal 1: improve student performance within K-12 schools through the delivery, or coordination of the delivery, of educational services, based upon each individual school’s distinct needs.
  • Goal 2: increase the value placed by community members on education, and community members’ involvement with each community’s K-12 schools.
  • Goal 3: deliver, or coordinate the delivery of, non-educational services (wherever possible) to school sites, based upon each individual community’s needs.
  • Goal 4: engage the youth of our service region’s communities in stewardship initiatives and their communities.
  • Goal 5: increase EKU faculty, staff and student engagement in regional stewardship initiatives.

CEDET Projects

Recently Accounced the EKU Finacnial Literacy Certificate program in partnership with the U.S. Department of Treasury. This program is the first university accredited train-the-trainer program in the country for financial literacy that targets low to moderate income communities. To recieve a certificate, EKU students will have to partner with a comunity organization and deliver, three, one-hour training sessions in an area of financial literacy.

CEDET is currently offering an 8-week entreprenueur trainig academy in Powell, Estill, and Garrard Counties. This program will continue untill late March. We are establishing two more programs in Boyle and Lincoln Counties that will last mid-April to June.

Established the Leadership Estill County Program that is currently taking 12 participants. This is a leadership development program.

March 4, 2010 research was completed at Marcum and Wallace Hospital by an EKU graduate class to determine training needs for 14 managers. Also a customized leadership and technology training course was developed for the managers at the hospital.

Conducted a feasibility study to renovate the Mack Theatre in downtown Irvine, Kentucky. This project will wrap up at the end of July 2010 with a comprehensive report being presented to leaders in Estill County.

CEDET serves on the Clay County Chamber of Commerce Board as a consultant to re-activate the chamber. Also, CEDET is establishing a newsletter, chamber programming, and updating the website. A grant was recently brought to attention that will enable the Chamber to establish a business mentoring program for high school seniors. CEDET will be writing this grant on behalf of the Clay County Chamber of Commerce.