4-H Community Clubs serve as the access point by which over 85% of our youth members access Green County 4-H membership. These clubs are designed to be youth led and adult supported. While clubs have long used a youth officer and adult leader structure, it can be difficult to build and maintain an environment where youth are prepared to take on meaningful responsibility, and adults are ready to empower youth voice. Providing both youth officers and adult club volunteers with ongoing leadership development opportunities is critical to fostering an effective youth-adult partnership.
The 2024 Green County 4-H Club Leadership Team Training brought together youth officers and adult club organizational leaders, as a means of encouraging the shared youth-adult leadership model in clubs. The evening started with a free meal, followed by an interactive training that got participants moving and discussing issues of belonging and ideas for creating more engaging 4-H Club meetings. Youth and adults then worked in their club leadership teams to create an action plan for improving their monthly 4-H Club meeting experiences for members. The training concluded with breakout sessions focused on their individual leadership positions.
Green County’s second year of transitioning from a Club Officer Training to a Club Leadership Team Training was well received by the 52 participants, which was a 20% increase over last year. Evaluations of this training indicate that of responding participants (n=45):
- 76% increased their understanding of how 4-H can help youth thrive.
- 87% increased their understanding of how 4-H can help youth feel a sense of belonging.
- 76% increased their understanding of how we can make a well balanced 4-H club meeting.
There was a visible excitement from the youth and adults at this training to continue to improve the 4-H club experience for themselves and their club members. Participants noted a great deal of useful ideas, perspectives, and skills gained at this training, including more active ways to include youth in decision making, the importance of recreation in club meetings, and many leadership role specific skills.
