Waukesha County 4-H has offered a countywide 4-H Teen Council in its current format for the last six years. This chartered group is open to 4-H youth aged 13 and up from any club in our county. We found that as enrollment numbers often declined in older youth as they got more involved in school extracurricular activities, that the sense of belonging could dwindle with fewer kids their own age in their home clubs. The Teen Council gives our older youth an opportunity to engage and build friendships with other teens. Our Teen Council helps youth take their leadership skills to the next level. Some of them have been officers and leaders at the club level already, and this group allows them to step it up to leadership at the county level. Our Teen Council has many responsibilities. The teen council members take turns attending the Leaders Association Board meetings and give a monthly report on teen council activities, and in turn they report back to the teens what they learned in the board meeting. This helps them to get a wider view of leadership and operations of our 4-H program beyond their own club experience. By including our teen council members in this rotation, it is less intimidating and overwhelming, while still engaging in the important youth-adult partnership of county 4-H leadership.

The Waukesha Teen Council has benefitted from participating in the Wisconsin 4-H Fall Forum over the years. This state activity has really built our teen council skills and 4-H engagement. Typically, members of our teen council members attend Fall Forum and have developed their leadership skills because of attending. More recently, our Teen Council has also presented a seminar at Fall Forum each year. This has been an excellent activity for the youth to select a topic of interest, research it, brainstorm ideas, create a presentation and build public speaking skills. Our groups have been flexible to present in person or over zoom as needed. Either format has been a valuable experience for the youth. Each year, we also repeat their presentation at the county level as part of our county 4-H club officer training. Having the older teens presenting to our club officers has allowed them to be role models and demonstrate youth engagement and leadership to our upcoming young 4-H leaders.

Another function of our teen council is event planning and marketing. This group is responsible for planning and implementing several countywide field trips and activities in our county. They have planned fun events for 4-H families such as bowling, trampoline parks, roller skating, hiking, waterparks, going to plays, virtual game nights and much more. These activities not only help expand our 4-H program to more families and help bring fun and comradery to our 4-Hers, but it teaches important leadership skills to the teens. They learn to use brainstorming skills, build consensus in decision making, use Who/What/ When tables in planning, and communication skills and designing flyers in promoting the events. They learn about the finances of planning an event and coordinating with the facilities. These activities not only help bring our clubs from around the county to have fun, but it is also a great educational opportunity as well. Amara Bugenhagen says: “Nothing is better than getting to widen your horizon by planning events to socialize the whole county in fun activities and community service projects.”

The Teen Council members also serve as 4-H Ambassadors, giving speeches at countywide 4-H events, attending Open House and other events throughout the year. Towards the beginning of each year, the teen council members learn to write a 4-H elevator speech, so they are prepared to promote 4-H on the spot when needed. Some members are selected for the opportunity to give more formal speeches at other events like our county awards banquet and fundraising gala. In addition, our Teen Council produces a you tube video each year on various topics. For example, one year they made a video promoting Fall Forum to leaders in our county, one year they made a video encouraging members to complete their record books, project opportunities in 4-H, working in the food stand at fair, and more. These videos are a wonderful way for kids to take part in various aspects of the production. Some kids are writing the script, other kids are doing the speaking, while others work on the technical side of the video. Each youth can be creative in their own way and the teamwork skills they learn to complete this project are invaluable. The initial teen council members who did the first Waukesha teen Council video learned the skills at a seminar at the Wisconsin State Conference in Madison and have passed on the knowledge from year to year to new members who keep the experience going.

One of the most essential elements in our Teen Council is fun. Sometimes, we put a lot of pressure on our older youth to be leaders, but it can feel to them like 4-H becomes all work as they get older and there are fewer of them. While it is important in 4-H for the older kids to be role models and include younger members in activities, it is also important for teens to have time dedicated just for age-appropriate fun by themselves. Teens need to learn to balance accomplishing tasks in their meetings as well as building in time to have fun doing it and get to know each other. While some activities they plan in our group are for the whole county, other activities are just for the teen group. “One of my favorite things about Teen Council is the fact that us teens help plan fun county events. This gives youth the opportunity to meet others in 4H from around the county” says Sophie Winiecke.