If Life is a Highway, 4-H is Where You Learn to Drive

The University of Georgia 4-H provides educational youth development programs for over 156,000 young people ages 9 to 19 across the state of Georgia. Georgia 4-H, a partner in public and private education, is youth and adults learning, growing and working together to experience and accomplish the extraordinary. Georgia 4-H helps young people develop life skills in leadership, citizenship, communication and decision making skills.  University of Georgia 4-H county and state faculty expand the reach of 4-H by training and utilizing volunteers to reach youth in 158 of Georgia 159 counties.

Georgia 4-H assists youth in acquiring knowledge, developing life skills and forming attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive and contributing citizens. This occurs through the experiential learning programs offered in school systems, after school, at 4-H camp, in environmental education, statewide 4-H agricultural and family and consumer science opportunities and conferences. At the State 4-H level only 20% of the funding to support Georgia 4-H Programs and Facilities is provided by State and Federal Sources. County 4-H Programs are supported by county governments, boards of education and private donors. State funds used to support 4-H are less than $8,200,000 which equates to less than $53 per member which is a small price to pay if a child finishes high school as a result of participating in 4-H and is able to become a productive tax paying citizen of Georgia.

County 4-H Faculty enhance public and private school curricula through delivery of experiential learning activities that meet Georgia performance standards. An ongoing longitudinal study by Tufts University has validated that “4-H participants have better grades, are more behaviorally engaged with school, and more likely to see themselves going to college.” Georgia 4-H youth have a high school graduation rate of 92-plus percent over the past ten years.

 The Georgia 4-H Environmental Education Program provides a network of learning experiences across Georgia that allows youth to learn science and other content in the context of the real world environment. Since its inception in 1979, the program has served over 800,000 participants. Sample comments from visiting teachers include: “I see a correlation between some of the questions on the CRCT and some of the information that we’ve learned in the [Georgia 4-H EE] classes. The students showed a 45% increase in knowledge from the pre-test to the post-test.

In 2009 through the 4-H Health Rocks! Program, Georgia 4-H provided educational programs delivered by teams of trained youth and adults in the area of healthy decision making skills preventing risky behavior. Additionally, 175,000 face to face contacts with youth regarding healthy lifestyles were made last year. These contacts are meeting the needs in reducing childhood obesity, teaching good nutrition and offering education in health habits.

Georgia 4-H offers Project Achievement opportunities in public and private schools, through home school associations and the Georgia Cyber Academy. The experience of preparing for and competing in 4-H Project Achievement has been recognized by educators across the state as a valuable tool for teaching students Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, and Viewing skills. Students organize their thoughts in verbal and written form and communicate their ideas to others successfully. The students gained confidence and self-esteem. The students learned skills necessary for the Writing Assessment portion of CRCT and for older youth practice those skills necessary for the 8th grade writing test and ultimately the high school graduation test.

4-H builds self-confidence - in projects and activities designed to help youth get to know themselves better and excel in their own area of interest. 4-H offers positive group interaction where a young person can share what they have learned and receive information from other members. They are rewarded and challenged to stay involved with a positive group of young people. 4-H develops inquiring minds - as students gather, analyze, and process information, 4-H develops citizenship - by encouraging, rewarding, and recognizing youth for school, community, and other civic involvement activities. 4-H develops leadership by encouraging a student to work with others to accomplish goals and hold both appointed and elected leadership positions. 4-H develops effective resource management - through individual project work, planning experiences and facilitating events.                                              2/26/2010