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Jackson County Demonstration Site

Key Program Outcomes

A summary of key program outcomes for the Jackson County 4-H Outreach Project appears below. The outcomes relate to the central goal of the Oregon Outreach project and the specific goals and objectives developed to address local needs and capitalize on local assets. Reported outcomes reflect program and evaluation activities from October 2003 to September 2005.

Primary Outcomes

The outcomes listed below relate to the overall program objective of increasing local access to community-based youth development programs for Latino youth. In support of this objective:

• More than 350 youth have participated in 4-H clubs as first-time members.
• Two 4-H after school programs were started in HUD farm worker housing units; twenty-five youth participated and three adult family members were recruited to serve as assistants.
• Four Latina teens were introduced to career options related to the health field, an area of employment they had not previously considered, through the 4-H Club Med program.
• Twenty-one Latino youth were successfully integrated into 4-H programs (summer camp, natural science camp, county fair, and the state 4-H summer conference at Oregon State University) that have largely attracted traditional 4-H members in the past.
• Five Latino high school youth provided community service as student interns. Skills learned and practices included organizational, mentoring, computer, communication, and office clerical skills.

About 135 Latino youth in grades K-12 participated in an 8-week 4-H Summer Day Camp in 2004. Those in grades 5-12 asked to self-report how much they had learned in six learning areas. (Response choices were 1 = Nothing, 2 = A little, 3 = Some, and 4 = A lot.) Findings included the following:

• Mean ratings for the camp learning activities ranged from 3.4 (Mexican culture) to 3.8 (arts and crafts). The mean rating for all learning activities combined was 3.6.
• About 85% of the participants reported learning a lot in arts and crafts, while about (75%) reported learning a lot in sports and games where participants were exposed to new recreational activities.
• 50% or more of the participants reported learning a lot in the other four learning areas of food and nutrition (70%), forestry and nature (65%), exercise and health (59%), and Mexican culture (50%).
• 7 out of 10 participants reported learning a lot when data for all activities were combined as a general indicator of overall learning.
• The overall rating for the camp was a mean of 4.5 on a scale of 1-5 (1 = poor, 2 = fair, 3 = pretty good, 4 = really good, and 5 = excellent). Forty-six youth completed the survey, a response rate of about 85% of the attending youth in Grade 5 and above.

Secondary Outcomes

Thirty-eight Latino and four Anglo adults received adult 4-H volunteer training and contributed to the club and camp programs as volunteers.

Community-wide celebrations sponsored by Latino 4-H families to celebrate Dia De los Muertos and Christmas (a Posada) involved over 100 children and adults and drew both Latino and non-Latino participants. Through these events, families expressed pride in their culture by sharing cultural traditions with the larger community.

The introduction of programming specific to Latino youth influenced other community groups to think about culturally responsive programming. Migrant education adopted a club format for some of its services. Another youth organization added elements reflective of Latino culture to its program

Updated March 2006