Mission of 4-H: 4-H Empowers youth
How does this policy / rule help
to reach their full potential, working
youth participate in opportunities
Unlimited
opportunities
to learn and
grow
and learning in partnership with
caring adults.
to learn and grow?
State Fair
Lego League
Breed Associations
100s
Community
Offerings
100
Are we helping or hindering youth from
participating in opportunities?
50
Numbers represent the
growth that could occur:




Members
Volunteers
Opportunities
Program Impact
Created by Kim Reaman, 4-H Volunteer Development Specialist, University of Wyoming, County 4-H Council President’s Retreat, May 1-2,2010, Casper, WY
Activities to help communicate the mission of 4-H

Focus on life skills – need flip chart and markers
o Introduction:
 When we think about 4-H we often think of the very visible things we see members doing – community
service projects, giving a demonstration, fitting an animal, riding a horse, sewing a dress
o Activity: With a partner,
 Take a step back and think about what members gain from participating in 4-H – think about a member
who has been in 4-H for 10 years. What are the skills, characteristics, qualities that you would want a 10
year member to have gained? These are things that you might not necessarily see but you know are
there.
 Record the responses on the flip chart
 Categorize the responses: communication, work ethic, responsibility, skills for hobby or work, goal
setting, decision making, citizenship, etc
 These are the types of benefits we want youth to get through the activities we offer and we can make sure
that happens when we pay attention to the essential elements in our programs
NOTE: could go on to talk about current activities and evaluate how they do or do not support the mission of
4-H – could use the vibrant club assessment; “My Checklist” from Essential Elements curriculum.

Focus on the program and opportunities that can be offered to help youth learn and grow
o Balloon activity: need round balloons
 Form a circle. Ask one person to step into the middle of the circle. Explain that each balloon represents
an educational program or activity that we are able to offer. Ask the person in the middle of the circle to
keep as many balloons in the air as he can. Beginning with one, slowly toss more balloons in to person in
the middle. As you add balloons check with the person in the middle about how it’s going. When one or
two balloons hit the ground, stop adding balloons and ask him to keep the balloons he’s got in the air.
 Processing – With one person, these are the number of educational programs/activities we can do
–there just isn’t enough time, energy or resources to do more. Ask the person in the middle, what
he needs to be able to add more programs / activities?
 After additional people step in to help, keep adding more balloons. Let the balloons fall or ask people to
catch and hold them.
 Processing - As more people stepped in to help, how did you feel? What are the benefits to our
county when we are able to offer more opportunities? How would youth feel about participating
in a program with all these opportunities?

Focus on how the 4-H county council/board/committee functions to support educational opportunities
o Spider web activity: need ball of yarn or string, one foam ball, index card necklaces with these terms written on
them (communication, follow through, initiative, organization, flexibility, willingness to help, policies/rules that
support mission, etc)
 Pass out the index card necklaces and ask people to form a circle.
 Explain the ball of yarn/string is going to be tossed to someone across the circle from them. Before the
ball of yarn/string is tossed the person needs to share a time when they saw the term on their necklace
used really well and how it helped the group function.
 Once the spider web is formed (the ball of string has been tossed to each person in the circle) ask the
group to tighten the hold on the string (they may also need to move closer together)
 Explain the foam ball represents an activity that the group is going to conduct – toss the ball in the middle
of the web and ask the group to move it around on the web.
 Processing – notice how our activity is moving, growing, how successful it is when all of these
traits are present. Where are our strengths as a group? What traits do we do a really good job
with?
 Ask one of the people to loosen their hold on the string
 Processing – what happens when one of the traits begins to weaken? What traits do we need to
focus on and figure out how to do better? How can we do it differently so that the ball isn’t
dropped?