University of Wisconsin - Extension

People do not suddenly become active, involved citizens when they reach age 18 and are qualified to vote. Furthermore, people under the legal voting age can take active meaningful roles as citizens of their communities, but they need to learn how to do it and they need adults of the community to give them space to participate.

This is the philosophy behind a 4-H Youth Development project, written and tested at University of Wisconsin-Extension, called "Public Adventures." The project is a step-by-step guide for middle school and high school students that is designed to help them find out about issues that matter to them and develop the skills -- planning, organizing, and communicating -- to make something happen.

In Dane County, members of several different 4-H clubs came together and decided they wanted to do something to help orphaned pets at the county Humane Society. On a fact-finding tour of the animal shelter, they learned that people sometimes adopt a kitten or puppy without realizing how much time, energy and money a pet requires. Then, when the initial fun of having a pet wears off and the work of care and training begins, the owners realize they have made a mistake. As pet owners themselves, the three young women and two adults on the team decided they could teach other young people what it means to be a responsible pet owner.

They developed a teaching packet presentation with exercises to help people think through their reasons for wanting a pet, to determine what kind of pet would be best for them, and how to take care of their new pet. They have made their presentation for another 4-H club and placed it on a website for use by other groups of youth or adults. The website is at http://www.uwex.edu/ces/4h/citizenship/index.html .

The Dane County group also worked on literacy issues by maintaining backpacks filled with reading and game activities for parents with young children and by reading to Head Start pre-school children. For 2003, they are considering projects ranging from international child labor concerns to youth in government to literacy.

"This has been a really good experience for me," said Memorial High School junior Melissa Miller, one of the founding members of the team. "I know I will continue to be involved in working on community projects because it has been rewarding to me personally as well as to the community." Miller said the adults in their group, UW-Extension 4-H youth development faculty members Linda Kustka and Kathi Vos, served as facilitators and helped with problem solving, but "they let us go with what we wanted to do. They said it was our group, and we should make the decisions."

Kustka said the group has become stronger during three years of working together. "They have learned that making a significant impact takes time," she explained. "They have learned that if you're going to do something meaningful, you need to plan it and pay attention to the details - what you need, who to get involved, how to make it work. And they learned that they could accomplish some very significant things when they work together as a group.

Other Public Adventures groups are beginning to form around the state. In Tomahawk, a group got together to build a bridge in a local park. Justin Lemke, 16 and a student at Tomahawk High School, said he got involved in the project because he wanted to show his own community that youth can and do make a difference in the world. And he said he personally learned a lot from the project.

"I learned how to write grants, work with other people, and how much the community appreciates what youth can do," he said.

The Public Adventures project helps a group develop and carry out projects to create positive community change by

• Finding out about issues that are important to them and others.

• Gaining new skills so they can make positive things happen.

• Discovering new ideas to help them make sense of what they're doing.

• Taking what they are learning and put it into action.

In their comments on the Dane County team's website, Kustka and Vos, wrote:

"The heart of Public Adventures is the project that the youth plan that creates, changes, or improves something that is valuable to many people. Then they do it! This is what being an active citizen in a democracy is all about."