The Michigan State University Extension Genesee County Office certainly isn’t new to the Flint area – the organization has been providing services here for decades. However, a recent move gives them a more prominent location downtown Flint, something their staff members are excited about.
MSU Extension moved into the former Crim Fitness Foundation offices, located at 452 S. Saginaw Street, near First Street and next door to the Genesee County Land Bank, in July. They’ve been getting settled in the new space for a few months, but permanent signage just went up on the building in early 2026. Even before their sign was installed, they’ve still been finding ways to show off their new space to the community.
“We’ve been participating in Art Walk,” said Amy Childers, 4-H program coordinator with MSU Extension. “That’s been a great way to let folks know where we are at. We’ve been one of the only locations (during Art Walk) doing a hands-on activity, so we have things both for kids and adults to do when they come by, so they get to interact and make stuff.”
MSU Extension had previously been housed in the former GCCARD building on North Saginaw Street near University Avenue. That location is just north of the main downtown stretch and not as visible or as easily accessible as the new location. Barslund Judd, a consumer horticulture educator at MSU Extension, said the new location has already led to increased foot traffic.
“When we were at the GCCARD building before, we had some accessibility issues there and the signage, since we’re off the immediate downtown strip, people never really noticed we were there,” Judd said. “As soon as we moved here and the sign went up, people started noticing. We also had people who came into the Land Bank and would see our office and stop by and come in. So I think we have more people that drop by just out of curiosity or notice us now that we’re in this location, so that’s pretty cool.”
For people unfamiliar with the services provided through MSU Extension and the many community partnerships the organization is a part of, they are immense and rooted in the history of land grant universities like Michigan State. Land grant universities were created to make higher education more practical and accessible, expanding learning beyond traditional fields like law or medicine and connecting academic knowledge to everyday community needs. Extension offices grew from that mission, serving as a bridge that shares university expertise deeper into the community while also bringing questions and challenges from those communities back to the university.
“One of the things with us being right downtown now, there’s so many other organizations and nonprofits that have their hubs in this area, and so we get to partner with a lot of different groups,” Judd said. “They welcome us into their space, and I get to learn more about the people they serve and what they do.”
That vast network of partnerships and the connection to Michigan State is also beneficial when the MSU Extension staff encounters a question they can’t answer – they can always find the right person or group to connect people with.
“When people come to me with a question, if I don’t have the answer, I can find the expert or resource at MSU that can help them get toward that answer,” said Kelly McClelland Horton, a community food systems educator with MSU Extension. “I feel like because we as a team in this office are so involved in so many different organizations in the county, that’s also true for resources that exist outside of MSU. If someone comes in with a question (about food systems), I can say ‘Well, I know Edible Flint is doing this,’ or ‘the Crim is doing this,’ or just other organizations meeting different needs.”
Much of the work at the MSU Extension Genesee County office focuses on education and skill-building, including everything from gardening and food systems to health, youth development, and civic engagement. Staff described programs like mindfulness workshops, homeschool meetups, and library-based classes, along with nutrition, wellness, and sleep education offerings that help residents build healthier lifestyles. These types of evidence-based programs are a core part of Extension’s mission to bring practical knowledge directly to families and communities.
“I’m working on a mindfulness series, I’ve also got a partnership with Factory Two to do some homeschool meetups so homeschool families can come in and meet each other, get out of the cold, and have a hands-on activity to do,” Childers said. “Barslund and I are working on a school and community garden startup class that’ll be later in the spring, going over the basics of starting a school or community garden. We have an online course we created on that topic but want to offer it in person here, which is always a little bit more engaging for people.”
A major part of their outreach focuses on agriculture, gardening, and environmental stewardship. The office trains Master Gardener volunteers, runs plant and soil education sessions, helps start school and community gardens, and connects residents with resources like the Ask Extension hotline for lawn, garden, food safety, or agriculture questions. Staff also highlighted youth gardening clubs, beekeeping education, and partnerships that promote pollinator habitats and urban agriculture. These efforts mirror broader Extension goals of strengthening food systems, promoting sustainable practices, and supporting local growers.
“This is the time of year when I do what we call volunteer onboarding for extension Master Gardener volunteers,” Judd said. “So we’re doing a training in March that will onboard a bunch of volunteers and then send them out into the community to help with community garden projects.”
Youth leadership and community development are another major pillar of their work. Through 4-H and civic engagement initiatives, the team provides hands-on learning experiences that teach life skills, government processes, and environmental awareness.
“We have a program called the Genesee County Youth Commission, where we take a young person from each county commissioner’s district and we teach them about county government,” said Darren Bagley, who manages youth leadership and civic and cultural engagement programs. “On our day at the county, they meet with as many county department heads as they can, we get to tour the jail, we meet with some judges. After that, they’ll go through an issues identification process and then they’ll come up with some recommendations for the Board of Commissioners to make Genesee County a better place to live. In most K-12 education, they learn about the federal government, but there’s a lot of places where you can make an impact at the state and local government.”
The Genesee County office mainly functions as a hub for education, collaboration, and problem-solving all aimed at improving quality of life in Genesee County. The MSU Extension website offers several local resources for people in the community, including a home lawn and garden hotline (1-888-MSUE-4MI prompt 1) to ask questions of experts, soil testing information, event listings, and other resources. They also have a display at the Flint Farmers’ Market with information about various programs. Mainly, no matter what the program is, the goal of MSU Extension is simply to form strong community connections.
“I view horticulture as not being so much about plants, but as being about connecting communities through plants,” Judd said. “Even if people say, ‘Oh, I’m not a gardener. I have a brown thumb.’ But they just start some seeds or start a plant and kind of connect with one another through that activity. When they sign up for foundations of gardening or something like that, they think it’s about, ‘I’m gonna make my own garden look pretty.’ But really it’s about community development and it’s about making things better. Or with 4-H, kids are involved because they want to do beekeeping or other projects, but it’s really about teaching life skills. It’s about teaching money management and social interaction and all these other things. And that’s just the hook that gets people involved. It’s about civic responsibility.”
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