University of Wisconsin - Extension

Green Bay - Kathy Kauth, who runs the twice-a-week after-school 4-H youth development program at Howe School in Green Bay, refers to this urban youth program as "4-H with a twist."

The approach has worked so well for the Howe Goal Reachers 4-H Club that a second club in another school has formed, and more city schools have asked for help to form similar clubs next year.

The program started in the summer of 1998 as a summer day camp housed in a community Family Resource Center at the school. Howe serves a neighborhood with a racially and ethnically mixed population, and many of the families in the area have small incomes and limited resources.

The activities and projects these city kids take on reflect their background and their life experiences, Kauth said. The kids see it as fun and their parents see it as a positive influence.

"Our goal here has three parts," Kauth explained. "First, we are here to provide appropriate after-school activities in a safe, nurturing environment. Second, we are providing positive mentors to children and families. And third, we are introducing children to life-skills they need to enrich their lives and sustain them in increasingly volatile neighborhoods."

The kids get to do the kinds of things all 4-H members do. With the help of scholarships from a local church, they went to camp last summer. They completed 4-H projects and showed them at the county fair. They also got a big dose of what Kauth calls "survival skills" during after-school meetings.

"We made first aid kits. Kids learned what they need to know to do some simple cooking for themselves. We studied nutrition and fitness," she explained. But the kids also learned about the importance of doing some things for others - making cookies for the dogs at the humane society shelter and putting together personal care kits for people living in the shelter for the homeless.

The program is run with the help of 4-H alumni who serve as volunteers. The project has built valuable new community partnerships for University or Wisconsin-Extension and 4-H youth development, said Rene Mehlberg, 4-H urban initiative coordinator in northeast Wisconsin.

"In Green Bay, we've been able to come together with the schools and the Family Resource Centers, located in neighborhood schools. From that base, we have formed partnerships with community churches, the Y and other organizations," Mehlberg said.

Kathy, an employee of the Family Resource Center, has been hired by the Brown County UW-Extension office as part-time 4-H youth assistant. She will continue to work for the resource center part time as well.

About 50 children are enrolled in the Howe School 4-H program currently, and more than 200 have participated in the past two years. Mehlberg believes the program fills an important gap.

"4-H brings youth into a safe structured place after school and allows them to identify with a very positive group," she said. "Parents are very supportive of their children's involvement - I heard about one parent who told a child who had broken a rule and gotten into trouble that he was grounded from everything -- except 4-H."

For youth in an economically limited and culturally diverse part of the city, 4-H gives them a way to participate in their community, to learn about their neighborhood and the people they live with, she explained.