4-H Military Project - Operation Military Kids (OMK)

Project Leader: Gretchen May

Project Year: 2008

Massachusetts 4-H supports military youth and families by coordinating Operation Military Kids (OMK) in the Commonwealth. Thousands of children in Massachusetts are experiencing the deployment of a family member who is serving in overseas contigencies operations.  These children need support and connection to informed people who care. Through OMK, youth (ages 5-18) with deployed parents are connected with 4-H resources and opportunities.  In addition to providing youth with educational, recreational and social activities, the project also seeks to educate the community on the effects of deployment on children.

This project is a part of the 4-H Program

4-H New Communities Project

Project Leader: Karen Barshefsky

Project Year: 2008

The New Communities Project addresses Youth Development and Engagement by helping youth to cultivate the skills and behaviors that will help them to succeed academically and in the workplace. The project is conducted in separate sites in North Adams, MA an in the South End/Lower Roxbury community in the greater Boston area.  In North Adams, the target audience is youth who are on probation with the goal of reducing the likelihood that youth will re-enter the juvenile justice system while building job skills. In South End/Lower Roxbury project reaches youth from different neighborhoods through cooperating youth-serving agencies, to have them learn useful skills, work together, and accumulate relevant experience that will then prepare them to be successful in working with children or their peers in their community as well as in seeking future employment. 

The New Communities Project incorporates workforce readiness as a unifying theme, bringing together youth to develop skills, accumulate appropriate job experiences, and understand the college admissions process. The project also encourages positive interaction and collaboration across traditional boundaries within in the community in an effort to reduce at-risk behavior while seeking to integrate urban youth programming into the base of the 4-H program in Massachusetts.

This project is a part of the 4-H Program

4-H Program Delivery and Administration

Project Leader: Sherrie Guyott

Project Year: 2008

Youth development principles suggest that in order to realize their potential and to become productive members of society, all youth need to have a safe environment, a positive relationship with a caring adult, opportunities for mastery and service to others, and to be engaged in their learning.   The 4-H program offers an opportunity for youth to become involved in a 4-H club in their own community.  Our clubs allow youth to develop close and supportive relationships with adults who care.  The club experience offers a safe environment as well as those important opportunities for engaged learning and community service.   

Through their 4-H club, youth learn the life skills that are critical to their future success including: public speaking, recordkeeping, decision-making and teamwork.  They have rich experiential education opportunities in the areas of science, technology, engineering and healthy living.  In addition, 4-H clubs engage youth in citizenship and community service activities.

This project is a part of the 4-H Program

UMass Envirothon Collaborative

Project Leader: Will Snyder

Project Year: 2008

UMass - Envirothon contributes to the work of promoting informed public participation in land conservation and management in Massachusetts communities.  To be effective over the long term, such efforts must include educational efforts, such as Envirothon, aimed at preparing the youth who will be the citizens and volunteer board members in their communities in the decades to come.  Another important target audience for Envirothon is the school teachers who work with these youth.  With our help, these teachers can offer a multiplier effect in reaching youth, and they may also choose to serve as volunteers on local boards. 

Envirothon helps young people to grow into competent, caring, capable, engaged, and well-informed citizens who are prepared to contribute to their communities in the 21st century.  The project offers well-designed challenges for youth teams and provides adult coaches with background information and community connections that will help them be effective in their work with youth on community issues. 

This project is part of the 4-H Program