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Marion County Demonstration Site

Key Program Outcomes

A summary of key program outcomes for the Marion 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 below are key outcomes reflecting activities from October 2004 to September 2005.

Primary Outcomes

Latino 4-H Soccer Program, 2005
Evaluation Summary Highlights

The 4-H Soccer Program in Marion County was very popular with the Latino community and readily brought community members, especially Latino dads, forward as adult volunteers. In addition to providing youth with an opportunity to develop multiple skills, the program provided an opportunity to introduce a large Latino audience to the many programs and activities offered by 4-H. The program also served as a forum where staff interacted with youth and their parents about the importance of education and planning for post-secondary education and future careers.

In 2005 there were two soccer seasons of 10 weeks each. About 1,100 Latino youth participated along with a much smaller number of non-Latino youth. Two practices and one game day were held each week. Four regional soccer tournaments were also scheduled, each involving between 600 and 800 Latino youth drawn from communities in western Oregon.

This report focuses on the benefits that youth had the opportunity to experience through their participation in the soccer program, as well as the overall quality of the program as perceived by participants and their parents. Information was collected in surveys involving players in grade 7 and above and parents of participating youth in K-12. Survey forms were available in both English and Spanish. They were distributed at end-of-season games by project staff and volunteers, who were available to respond to questions as well as record responses for non-readers if requested. Forms were collected from 77 youth and 85 parents.

Benefits of Youth Participation

Players were asked to rate their soccer experience in terms of five beneficial outcomes: (a) improving their soccer skills, (b) improving their physical ability, (c) gaining more self confidence, (d) having fun and enjoyment, and (e) learning more about playing with others on a team. A 4-point scale offered choices where 1 = benefited not at all, 2 = benefited some, 3 = benefited quite a bit, and 4 = benefited a lot. The two highest rated outcomes (each with a mean score of 3.8) were "improved soccer skills" and "having fun and enjoyment". Other outcomes also had strong ratings: "learned more about playing with others as a team" (3.7), "gained more self confidence" (3.6); and "improved physical abilities" (3.5). Grade and gender did not appear to influence the responses. (See the table on the following page.)

Parents of players in grades K-12 rated the same benefits in a separate survey (n = 85). Although the overall feedback was highly positive, parents (possibly reflecting the K-5 group of players included in the sample) gave "improved soccer skills" their lowest rating (3.5), in contrast to the players, who rated it highest. Otherwise, the parental ratings presented a pattern similar to that of the players: "fun and enjoyment" and "teamwork" (both with a mean rating of 3.9), were followed by "self confidence" and "improved physical abilities (both rated 3.7).

This report was prepared by Barbara Sawer, EdD, project evaluator for the Oregon Outreach project at Oregon State University, who also designed the surveys and analyzed the data. The survey forms were available in both English and Spanish. All parent and youth responses to open-ended questions were shared with project staff for program accountability and improvement purposes. Mario Magaña, regional 4-H agent at Oregon State University, was the coordinator of the soccer program. Data are from August 2005.

Quality of Coaching and Overall Program

Using a similar 4-point scale, players rated their coaches highly in terms of helping them improve their soccer skills (3.8), treating players fairly (3.7), and having a good attitude (3.6). (The response categories were never, sometimes, most times, and always-see table below.) Parents were asked to rate the coaches in terms of being good role models for the players-91% answered "yes", while 7.2% said they "could improve". Parents also gave a 3.5 rating to the overall quality of the 4-H Soccer Program, using a 4-point scale where 1 = poor and 4 = excellent. (Other response choices were fair and good.)

Parent Feedback

Parent comments were solicited in the survey through open-ended questions and included the following selection of responses:

• My child has learned how to interact with and respect other people
• I like this because they support Hispanics and they have good ideas for our children's future.
• This program has been good for my child.
• This is a good start for our kids' future.
• Thank you for being so supportive of our children.
• Activities like these are very good for our kids-they learn how to work together and learn more about their community.
• Please keep supporting us and our kids so they will have something good to get involved in and have a better future.
• They should promote all the physical and cultural activities more so that we would be more encouraged to participate.
• This is an excellent organization, please continue to support the children; we are willing to take part in this.
• Thanks to the program we all made new friends and the kids had a lot of fun.
• This program helps to encourage the kids to think about going to the university, it would be good to have more meetings about this topic.
• I am very happy with the program, my kids are very involved.
• The coaches and parents work together as a team and as Latinos.
• The coach is a good example for the kids as a leader and a person.
• The coach is very calm when instructing our kids.
• I think the parents should help the coaches a little more.
• The staff and coaches were good at promoting team work and friendships.
• Thank you for making these programs for our children.

All responses to open-ended questions were shared with project staff for program accountability and program planning purposes.