Civic Engagement

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• Civic Engagement
• Through Youth Adult Partnerships
• Oklahoma 4-H
• Leadership Community Development Impact Team

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Decline of Rural Leadership

• Current trend in rural America is for youth to
  leave their home communities after high school,
  creating a decline of educated and vested leaders
  that are capable and willing to assume leadership
  roles
• Leader and volunteer base is aging and not being
  replenished

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Decline of Rural Leadership

• To reverse trend and sustain vitality and growth
  of rural communities
• Create a sense of ownership and pride in our
  youth at an early age
• Provide opportunities for youth to interact with
  community leaders, local government and
  organizations
• Provide meaningful opportunities to serve with
  caring adults

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Value of Civic Engagement

• Creates a stronger sense of community pride and
  ownership
• Asset monetarily, emotionally and inspirationally
• Educates and empowers citizens to be involved

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Value of Civic Engagement

• Concentrated effort to recruit, train and utilize
  volunteers
• Increase long-term involvement and commitment of
  volunteer

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Rural Volunteerism

• Two main groups of volunteers
• High school-aged youth that volunteer as a part
  of class work or school organization
• Adult business and/or organization leaders in
  local communities

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Teen Volunteers

• 74 of youth who volunteer do so through a
  religious, school-based or youth leadership
  organization
• Youth who have a parent that volunteers are
  almost twice as likely to volunteer themselves
• 63 of youth in a nationwide YMCA survey said
  they wanted programs that built leadership skills
  and allowed them to work with diverse audiences

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Adult Volunteers

• 29 of the civilian, non-institutional population
  age 16 and over volunteered through or for
  organizations at least once from September 2003
  to September 2004
• Persons age 35 to 44 were the most likely to
  volunteer, closely followed by 45 to 54 year olds
  and then 55 to 64 year olds
• Most adult volunteers volunteer for only one or
  two organizations at a time

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Youth Adult Partnerships
What makes Y.A.P. the answer?

• Youth become invested while feeling safe and
  involved in their community
• Youth stay or return to a community
• There is growth, capital gain and positive
  interaction in a community

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Youth Adult Partnerships
What makes Y.A.P. the answer?

• Adults view youth as partners not recipients
• Organizations gain insight, creativity and
  volunteers
• Development of future community leaders

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Building Leaders for Tomorrow

• B.L.T. is a process for addressing community
  needs and assembling a rural leadership pool
  through the encouragement and establishment of
  youth and adult partnership. Each group
  recognizes the other as an asset rather than a
  obstacle.

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BLT-The Big Picture

• Form a team of youth and adults who see each
  other as equal partners and share
  responsibilities
• Empower a team of youth adults to identify and
  address a local need through a service learning
  project

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Step 1

• Identify, recruit and train teams of youth and
  adult partners committed to the concept of
  developing strong youth-adult partnerships for
  the purpose of serving their community

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Step 2

• Develop partnerships and collaborations at each
  local site
• Hold initial planning meetings
• Serve as mediator or facilitator in the planning
  process
• Apply skills attained through curricula to break
  down stereotypes and develop a plan
• Implement action plan

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Step 3

• Involve Building Leaders for Tomorrow graduates
  in recruiting and training of future teams
• Keep graduates involved in on-going projects
  within their community

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Outcomes

• Step 1
• Youth and adults gain understanding and respect
  of trans-generation partnerships
• Youth and adults gain an understanding of the
  concepts and skills for effective leadership
• Communication, conflict management, planning,
• decision making, goal setting and
• problem solving

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Outcomes

• Step 2
• Youth and adults gain an understanding of the
  value of Youth Governance in their communities
• Youth have local opportunities for positive
  youth development
• Youth and adults understand the importance for
  service learning experiences
• Youth and adults develop an appreciation and
  understanding for one another

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Outcomes

• Step 3
• 1/3 of each years graduating class continues
  work with their trained BLT team and provides
  training for new BLT teams
• Youth are invited by the community to influence
  issues which impact their lives by share their
  voice and being involved in the decision making
  process.
• Community benefits from the
• partnerships

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How It Is Done

• Annually, sites in 14 counties will involve 15-30
  participants
• Utilize BLT curricula to train teams
• Teams meet 5 to 8 hours per month for 4 to 6
  months to plan and carry out action plans
• Pre and post evaluations

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Curriculum

• Building Leaders for Tomorrow
• Developed by Oklahoma 4-H
• Hands-on activities that build progressive
  leadership skills
• Focus on Relationship Building, Planning and
  Organizing, Group Process and Communications
• Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced levels

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Curriculum

• Step Up to Leadership
• Developed by National 4-H Curriculum System
• Activity-based program with levels three age
  levels grades 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12
• Encourages self improvement and assessment
• Workbooks for mentors and youth. Includes a
  journal component for youth.

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Curriculum

• Building Community
• Created by Innovation Center and National 4-H
  Council
• Activities and facilitation ideas that will help
  community identify assets and work as a team
• Promotes youth-adult partnerships includes
  information on how to overcome stereotypes
• Vision planning and implementation
• activities

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PR Marketing Ideas

• Recruitment brochure with questionnaire
• PowerPoint presentations
• Newsletter support materials
• Press releases
• Novelty items used at training sessions
• Graduation certificates

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Evaluation

• Success Indicators
• Approximately 25 key behaviors identify success
  indicators
• Potential outcomes compiled from each curriculum
• Success indicators are taken from the list of
  outcomes and are representative of each curriculum

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Evaluation

• Tools used
• Commitment to Community Service survey
• Pre and Post survey - National 4-H Councils
  Rural Youth Development Project Engaging Youth,
  Serving Community
• Participant evaluates their leadership skills and
  ability to work on a youth-adult team
• Separate surveys for youth and adults

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Evaluation

• Tools used
• BLT Programming Sheet
• Record keeping part of evaluation
• Action Plan tracks team activities, hours of
  service and number of participants
• Educator tracks participation in subsequent years

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Evaluation

• Other Tools used
• Art/Concept Mapping
• Daily/weekly journals
• Activity Observation