National 4-H and the U.S. military- A partnership in making the best better

By Jennifer M. Latzke

4-H Members and military families have a lot of similarities, starting with the 4-H motto: To make the best, better.

For more than 100 years 4-H groups have improved their communities through service, almost like the military's mission to serve and protect Americans. 4-H Members grow personally through their project work, while military personnel strive to better themselves every day through combat readiness.

So, it wasn't a big stretch in 1995 for National 4-H Headquarters to reach out to the U.S. Army Child and Youth Services and Air Force Family Member Programs to bring 4-H to the children of military personnel.

It was a case of truly making the best this country has to offer even better.

A mission of readiness

Military families make many sacrifices when one member is enlisted in the service. Besides being uprooted on a routine basis, children must also deal with the deployment of one or both parents for long periods. This takes a toll on the family members being deployed, as well as those left behind. As a part of the military's combat readiness initiative, 4-H serves as an outlet for children to both learn life skills, and as a support system for youth whose parents are deployed. And, military parents can face mobilization knowing that their children have safe activities before and after school to keep them occupied. Besides, this uses tax dollars and resources to their most effective potential by combining the expertise of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service in youth development with the Army's goal of becoming a model for national youth programs.

The 4-H/Army Youth Development Project brings quality youth programs to Army installations around the world. The partnership between the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center and the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service allows the Land Grant University Extension system to help Army youth programs put on youth development programs for children regardless of where their families are stationed. All military bases are required to have programs to aid families in child development. Also, any youth living on a military installation are required to be supervised by an adult after school, so these programs help military families coordinate child care while one parent or both is training or on maneuvers.

4-H and State and County Cooperative Extension staff, as well as community agencies and schools help out getting children involved in productive activities that meet the requirements of the military. There are five Land Grant universities that have cooperative agreements to implement Youth Development Programs, and through these agreements 29 faculty from the universities are contracted to lead the administration, development and technical assistance for Army youth programs as State 4-H Military Liaisons. Currently, 18 4-H youth development and technology specialists are on loan from their universities for assignments at seven Army Regional offices to work directly with regional Child and Youth Services staff to aid all installations served by their region.

There are currently 450 4-H clubs at 95 military installations around the world, with almost 12,000 new 4-H members enrolled, according to the 4-H/Army Youth Development Project Report for 2005. About 900 Army staff members are involved in implementing 4-H clubs. Military 4-H Grants have been awarded to 27 states, a total of about $1.6 million. This effort has also increased the number of accredited Army School Age programs to 84 percent.

The report stated that 4-H 101 training is provided to Army staff at its installations and there are efforts in place to involve Army youth in 4-H Technology teams and on state and national 4-H committees. Also, Youth Development Program specialists from Army installations work directly with county and state 4-H professionals for training and help in developing their programs.

A county reaches out

Ginger Kopfer, Geary County Extension agent, 4-H Youth Development, for K-State Research and Extension, explained that her office in Junction City, Kan., is next door to the U.S. Army base of Fort Riley.

"Geary County 4-H has had some kind of involvement with Fort Riley youth since the 1970s," she said. "The military mandated that all U.S. Army installations must have a 4-H program in April 2002. The first grant Kansas received was in 2003 for programming efforts.

"Our role is to help the installation conduct a 4-H program," she said. "Mainly we give advice and help with staff training. Sometimes we help conduct a program for the kids." Kopfer explained a large part of her office's role is training Army personnel about 4-H and how it can play a role in their youth development programs, such as community service efforts, project work and education, and leadership training. Most of the programs at Fort Riley are set up as after school programs and so parental involvement is really not as large as it is in regular 4-H programs, she said.

"I think the kids benefit just like any other 4-H member, though," Kopfer said. "They are learning skills in project areas of their choosing and are gaining leadership, citizenship, and many other skills. For parents, I think the after school program helps them to know that their kids are taken care of and the 4-H program is happy to be a part of that.

"This program helps us to have a connection with those that live on Ft. Riley and don't join in with the Junction City and Milford communities as much," she added. "The military benefits by getting to use 4-H resources and receiving training for staff. The program helps them to fill some of their afterschool time."

Kopfer explained that the staff for the afterschool programs lead the clubs and projects on the base. Projects differ from year to year based on what the students want to do and what the staff are able to help with at the time. She said in the past some project areas that some of the military 4-Hers have completed work in include foods, computers, crafts, photography, performing arts and pets.

Military 4-H is more of an afterschool activity than a traditional 4-H club that most will remember. Project meetings are held once a week, Kopfer said, and at this time most members don't complete record books and some have had limited fair participation.

"This all kind of depends on the staff and how committed they are to the 4-H program," she said. "These youth are considered 4-H members and are invited to participate in all county 4-H activities." This includes summer 4-H camps, leadership trainings, Ambassador programs and the like. It's important to the Army Child Youth Services to integrate the educational programs of 4-H with their own areas of service programming. For example, the Army Service area of citizenship teaches life skills, and leadership opportunities. This coordinates with 4-H's Public Adventures curriculum and its youth councils. The Army Service area of Fine Arts covers arts, recreation and leisure activities, which matches up with 4-H's Palette of Fun curriculum, its county and state fairs and national contests.

Army youth can also take advantage of all opportunities available within 4-H, from academic scholarships to local contests to participation in national conferences.

Fort Riley has traditionally seen anywhere from 150 to 200 youth involved with the program on post, and that number will rise as the Big Red One returns to the installation, she added.

Geary County has a grant from the military that allows for a program assistant who works with the post through the Extension office. It also covers supplies for the students enrolled. Fort Riley also has a fund it can use for projects and materials, Kopfer said.

In the future, Kopfer would like to see even more children involved in the program and have more consistent staff training to coordinate activities between the base and the county.

"I would also like to see the military youth get involved in 4-H activities and events that happen off-post to help them have more of a connection with the community," Kopfer added.

New families in need

But, it's not only the career military families that are needing the outreach efforts of 4-H programs. With continued military deployments of Army National Guard and Army Reserve Soldiers because of the Global War on Terrorism, the military is finding that "new" military youth are needing more support to handle their changing family environments. Operation: Military Kids (OMK) was created in a short few months as a response to this issue. It was rolled out by 4-H and Army youth at the National 4-H Conference in 2005. As of now, $2.2 million in grants have been awarded by the USDA/Army Youth Development Project to 20 states that have high rates of Guard and Reserve deployments, including the High Plains and Midwest states of Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Texas. Another 15 states have applied for more grants in 2006, including Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The State 4-H Military Liaison serves as OMK project director and creates a state OMK team. This team is charged with creating state and community support networks to educate about the effects of war and deployments on children and families and deliver educational programs for the youth and families of deployed soldiers. 4-H and Extension are valuable resources for these efforts.

Master Sergeant Natalie Mosley-Carter is enlisted in the Army Active Guard Reserve, and her husband, Sergeant First Class Lewis Carter, Leavenworth, Kan., have served in the military for many years. Their daughter, Timesha, is eight and she recently benefitted from the OMK program through the Army Reserve Training Center in Kansas City, Kan.

Mosley-Carter explained that she and her daughter learned of OMK through their work with the Walk Across Kansas project through their local Extension Office. Linda Coppola, the program coordinator for the School Age Services Program at Fort Leavenworth, told them of the OMK's youth community service project to help clean up the yards of elderly neighbors in their community one weekend and Mosley-Carter and her daughter joined in the efforts. Since then, Timesha's gotten involved in before school and after school programs through OMK and the family finds it has been very rewarding.

"It's very helpful to us to know that she's involved in activities even when we're training on base," Mosley-Carter said. "Being active duty, our schedules are very varied." This way, Timesha gets to go on field trips with adult supervision and Mosley-Carter and her husband can go on their deployments knowing she's safe and educated even outside of school.

"Doing community service was great," Mosley-Carter said. "It exposed her to something other than military life and she enjoyed it."

For more information on ongoing 4-H/Army Youth Development Projects going on in your local area, contact the local county Extension office. Or, visit www.usda-army-ydp.org, for a complete listing of state 4-H Military Liaisons who can direct you to available resources and volunteer opportunities.

By working together and combining resources, 4-H and the U.S. military are continuing the tradition of making the best communities and families even better.

Jennifer M. Latzke can be reached by phone at 620-227-1807, or by e-mail at jlatzke@hpj.com.

Date: 5/18/06

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