MSU Extension 4-H Volunteering & Mentoring

All right, so I'd like
to welcome everyone for being here in
our Michigan 4-H volunteer webinar
series and our first one in January on
Beyond Ready Basics, bringing the vital
elements to life in your 4-H club. We're
gonna explore some of the key pieces that
allow our 4-H clubs to be successful
and put youth onto a successful Beyond
Ready pathway in their future and how you
can incorporate those. We ask, since this
is being recorded, to try and put your
questions in the chat. We will stop
the recording at the end if you have
questions or idea sharing that you want to
do at that point. So MSU Extension believes
fully in creating welcoming environments
in our programs where everyone feels
like they belong, feel safe, and have
a voice. We know that human differences
enrich our lives, work, and community.
We embrace our responsibility, be a
resource for all, and are committed to providing
programs for all segments of our communities.
It's also important to understand the
longstanding history and legacy of colonialism
that has brought us all to reside in the land
and seek to understand our place within that
history in the land acknowledgement on
the screen is one step in that process. Kathy's
going to drop into the chat one quick link.
If you are attending and you are a non-MSU
Extension employee, please complete this
so we can get a better feel of our demographics.
And while you're completing that,
we'll do some quick introductions since I missed
that. So I'm Christine Heverly. I'm on our
volunteer support team, and I work on how
we train and support our volunteers across
the state. and I'm based in Clinton County,
and I'll let my co -presenter, Kathy, give
a quick introduction. Hi everyone, I'm Kathy
Fisher. I am also part of the
Volunteer Excellence Support Team. I am
also the 4-H Supervisor for what we call
District 13, the seven counties in Southwest
Lower Michigan. So this is part of
our webinars that we have been doing for
the past few years. There are the next four
options that we have coming up. We will be
recording them all. We have moved to
only offering them at noon now. So if you
know you can't ever attend the noon, but
you want to make sure you get the email of
when the recording is posted, please just
register because then I have you on the
automatic list that I send the recordings
to. Otherwise, all the past recordings and
future recordings will be placed on the
website that Kathy has just dropped into
the chat for you all. So we would like to
welcome you today and we're going to do a
quick icebreaker to get us started um so what
do you what skills do you have that you
can help others be stronger within your 4
-H club so what are your talents that you
bring to your 4-H club oh feel free to
think on that for a moment and I will
pause and then drop those answers into the
chat so what skills do you bring to
your 4-H club as a leader organization
excitement for new ideas Public speaking,
team building, building a welcoming, fun environment for learning. Those are all really
key skills that are important for volunteers,
some volunteers to have. It's important to
know you don't have to bring every skill that's
needed for success in a four-year club.
That's what hopefully you have a team of other
leaders and potentially some parents that
you get encouraged to become volunteers that
can support with some of those things also.
and then also ways that you can have your
youth involved in your club can bring some of
these skills um so i have team building
learning together i love coordinating events i
used to being called a consultant so i set up
events i love to meet new people share ideas
and get others to open up yes positive
reinforcement and leadership awesome yeah these
are all great skills as i said and so they
help build our 4-h experiences and in our
roles as leader we have some of the skills, but
we also need to rely on other parents in our
club, other volunteers in our club, and the
youth in our clubs and events because they
bring skills that can help with successful
4-H experiences also. So in 4-H, we know that
thriving youth don't happen by chance, but
their level of 4-H engagement and high
quality positive youth development experiences
can play a predictable role in the youth's
overall development. Michigan 4-H is using
five components that lays the foundation
for youth to thrive. You want to find
their sparks, build a sense
of belonging, focus on development
of relationships, have a level of
engagement with them, and promote
a way of this. When youth are
supported in discovering and nurturing
their spark, they feel a deep
sense of belonging. When they're surrounded
by caring adults who build development
relationships and are actively engaged in
meaningful learning, they thrive. They
build the confidence, competence, and character
they need to succeed. A positive youth
development approach to readiness begins
with participation in high-quality
PYD programs. 4-H has historically
helped young people prepare for
work and life through the developmental
competencies, skills, and tangible
assets resulting in youth who are healthy,
productive, and engaged. The complex landscape
youth face today calls for us to go a
step further in preparing them to navigate their
readiness pathway. during and after
their 4-H experiences. These elements
aren't just important for 4-H success.
They are what prepare youth to be beyond
ready for their future. Whether it's
college, a career path, leadership
in their community, youth who experience
these core elements are more likely
to be resilient, motivated, equipped to take on
life's next challenges, and equipped to
take on life's next challenges. By embedding
these essential components into the
experience you lead, You're helping to
develop thriving youth who are
truly beyond ready. So in 4-H, we talk
a lot about helping youth be successful
now, but we also need to think
about growing them into confident,
capable adults. That's where the
vital elements come in. These
five key areas, fostering sparks,
promoting belonging, supporting developmental
relationships, encouraging
engagement, and promoting
awareness are what truly elevate a
4-H experience. When we help young
people develop their spark, that
thing that lights them up inside or
gets them excited, we're giving them
a reason to grow. When we create a
sense of belonging, they feel safe
and valued, like they have a
place, they belong in 4-H, they belong
in that group. Supporting developmental
relationships provide the trusted
guidance they need to take healthy risks
and build life skills. And when youth are
engaged, when they have a voice, a choice,
and ownership in their experience, they're
not just showing up, they're developing
skills for a lifetime. When using elements
like the 4-H pledge, it communicates
the core values of 4-H clearly
and consistently. These elements
are what young people need to
become beyond ready. Ready not just for
college or jobs, but ready for life. So
let's take a moment and think about how we're
making these elements a real experience in
the clubs that we lead. So youth spark. So
spark is that inner light, an interest,
a passion or a skill that gives young people
energy and purpose. Sparks give youth a
reason to grow, to keep learning and to
overcome obstacles. Helping young
people identify and explore their spark
is one of the most powerful ways
we can help them become beyond ready
for their future. Great facilitation
isn't just keeping a group on track.
It's about creating opportunities for every
voice to be heard. When we engage every
voice, we spark curiosity, build that connection,
and open the door for youth to discover
what lights them up. As a volunteer, your
role is key. Whether you're asking
thoughtful questions, celebrating effort,
or just paying attention to what
excites a young person, you're helping shape
that path forward. You can be a SPARK
champion for youth simply by using some questions
within your 4-H club, such as, Is
there a 4-H project or activity you would like
to learn more about? What excites you
about your community? Or what is
something that makes you happy or
brings you joy? I want you to
think about a time you saw a young
person light up. Maybe it was during
a club activity, a fair project at
the fair, or just talking about
something they love. What did you notice? Think about a
time you saw a young person light up. They shouted
out to everyone. Absolutely. That's one
of my favorite things to hear is when
somebody's super excited and they want to share
it with everyone. and yeah that feeling
is contagious so their excitement helps get
others excited I know I've seen young people
take a challenging situation whether it
be the animal they're showing isn't doing
what what it's supposed to be doing or what
they thought it would do what they practiced
it would do or it's completing a woodworking
project or something else like that but
taking that challenge and turning it into a
learning experience helps engage that spark,
helps them learn more. Anytime you
get my daughter talking about Katie,
she lights up. She talks fast, gets
really animated, and gets everyone
else excited too. That's awesome.
So she gets very animated and excited.
Everybody else is going to get excited
around her too. When they start
giggling because they are so excited
that the plant was growing that they
planted. Absolutely. I think I giggled
a little bit this weekend
because I had some seeds I planted
that my daughter gave me at
Christmas time and they're sprouting
already. I've had young people
absolutely love hands-on activities
and allowing kids to make their own ideas.
Absolutely. That's part of youth voice,
giving them the opportunity to make a
choice. So maybe providing direction or
guidelines or supplies and then letting them
create their own, use their own creativity
to create that. Last week, two of
our teen leaders taught fine arts
class to younger members. They were
fantastic. They were excited to share
their expertise. Absolutely. Using
teen leaders is a great way to
help get especially those younger
youth engaged. They tend to get
people in their lives involved
and they bring in people that they
would never have considered to involve
super excited. Absolutely. So sharing their
excitement with others, such as elderly
or grandparents, is a way to share
their spark. And seeing others
interested in it is a way to help
them learn more. We do have some articles
that were written and are posted on our
website. I'm going to paste those links into
the chat here. if you're interested in learning
more about barks. And please know
the follow-up email will include all the
resources we share. So promoting belonging is more than just
being included. It's about being seen,
heard, and valued. In 4-H, creating
a sense of belonging is
foundational. When young people feel
they truly belong, they're more confident,
more engaged, and more likely to grow
into strong leaders. But belonging doesn't
happen by accidents. It's something we as
volunteers help create. It shows up in
a way in the way we welcome
new families, how we respond to ideas, how we celebrate
each other, and how we make space
for all voices. Promoting belonging means being intentional. It means asking
ourself, does every youth here feel
like they matter? When we get this
right, we create a space where young people
don't just attend, they connect. And
that connection is what turns into a 4
-H experience, into creating youth who
are beyond ready. How does your 4-H
club build connection? Give us some
suggestions on how your club or your
project area helps create belonging
or helps you feel like they are part
of that group. While you're thinking,
I'll tell you one thing that I always
do is I try to greet every member by their
first name every time we have a meeting.
And I do that because it helps them feel like
I know them, I care about them enough
to know their names. But I also do that for
myself because I am horrible. I know this
about myself. I am horrible about remembering
names. And that's one way for me to
help remember them, especially at the
beginning of the year, as we get new members
in, it helps me remember their names and make
that connection. Introduce themselves at the beginning
of a meeting. Yeah, so have them
share something, a little something
about themselves. Ask them how
they did at the show over the
weekend or whatever they did. Yeah,
absolutely. Letting them vote on
things. Yes, giving them that voice to
make those decisions, submitting ideas, judging,
that kind of stuff. Provide a time for them
just to interact with one another before
and after the meeting. That interaction
time can really help build new bonds, but
it also helps give them time to get some
of their chattiness out, so then when
you're ready to focus, they're ready
to focus as well. Everyone has a
role in the club. Absolutely. Implement suggestions
and ideas. Sometimes they
might have ideas or suggestions that we
think are completely off the wall, but as
long as they're safe, there's nothing bad
going to happen, why not try it? We
never know. It might work, even though
we didn't think so. Let them know that
we are all learning and it's okay to
not know everything. Absolutely. We as
volunteers have to be willing to say, I
don't know, but let's investigate that
together or let's see what we can find out
and bring it back to the next meeting if
you learn anything. Making sure
they're heard if discussions are
happening, making sure everyone
has a voice. Yeah, so encouraging
everyone to participate in the
discussions, but also during the discussions,
making sure that everyone in the
room can hear what's being discussed.
So if there are a lot of side
conversations going on, trying to keep
those down so that everybody
can hear everybody else when
they're speaking. Go and watch club
members at their shows. Great idea. Letting them give
different ideas or different ways
to do things. Absolutely. Sometimes
we've done it the same way for a long
time and it probably worked really well,
but there doesn't mean there's not new
ways to do it, especially as our world and
our society changes, we want to give kids
that opportunity. I'm going to plug
in another link about another
resource you can use. I love to give kids
supplies and guidelines to do their own
thing, giving them the opportunity to take
control, provide leadership. They are way more
creative than we are as adults. Sometimes
that's very, very true. Asking them what they
think. Some don't voice their opinions.
Yeah. So sometimes you might have to
make that personal ask to them about what
they think because they aren't just speaking
up and sharing their ideas. But if you
ask them directly, or maybe on the side,
maybe it's somebody who doesn't like to talk
in the group. So you want to pull them
off during an activity or something and just
say, hey, what do you think about this?
I want to hear what you think? One of
the things we've done is separate adults
during the meetings. Absolutely. We need
to sometimes get the adults out of
the room so that we can let the
kids take control. So strong relationships
are the foundation of positive development.
In Michigan 4-H, we emphasize development
relationships, which are intentional growth
-focused connections between youth and
caring adults. These relationships are built
on mutual respect and trust, so creating
secure attachments that help youth feel safe
enough to take healthy risks and push their
own potential. When youth know they have
an adult who truly sees and supports them, it
changes everything. It opens the door for
belonging, growth, and confidence. And
that's where you come in. As a volunteer,
you have the power to build these secure
attachments by listening, challenging youth
to grow, giving them voice, and connecting
them to people and opportunities that help
them thrive. You can help build developmental
relationships by asking questions with
youth such as, which adult in your life
helped you see new possibilities for you,
and how did they do that? Just asking them
questions. So, strong relationships are
built day by day through small,
consistent movements of trust and care.
What's one intentional step you can take
this month to build or strengthen
a relationship with a young person in
your 4-H experience. So take a moment to
reflect and what's one intentional step
you can take this month to build
or strengthen a relationship with a
young person in your 4-H club or experience
that you work with. So I'm going to
pause for like 10 to 30 seconds so you
can think and then if you're comfortable
please share those in the chat
so we can all learn some new ideas we
might want to try. Check in with those
members who created goals at our goal
writing workshop earlier this month. See if they
need support. Yeah. There's a way you can
check in with members on something you did
in the past month. It could be through
sending an email. It could be from text
messaging. It could be when you see them
in public. Awesome. So here's one. Saturday
was a state 4-H rabbit and Katie show.
I walked around with a young member who was
looking for a rabbit and helped her
choose one that would be right for her
breeding program and show aspirations. I asked
her what her thoughts were and what she
saw in the animal and then gave her my
opinion and let her make the choice. Awesome
yeah those are exactly things to do. One
thing I am doing is that in the club that
I'm a volunteer in is we have a very young
officer team and each month I'm meeting
with them ahead of time to go over one
new skill that I want them to try as they're
leading the meeting so that they have
that opportunity to start taking
on more of the leadership of the
club meetings. So what are some other ideas people have too? So Kathy will drop in
a few resources that might help you think
about how you can do this at your meetings
or within your 4-H experiences or outside
of your 4-H experiences to build those
developmental relationships and really support the
youth in your clubs to have a mutual warmth
and respect, to help them be on a pathway
to be beyond ready. So in 4-H, we're
not just trying to keep youth
busy. We're trying to help them
grow on purpose. Engagement is more
than just showing up. It's about
young people being actively involved in
their own learning, decision-making,
and development. Engaged youth take
ownership of their experiences. They ask
questions. They try new things. They solve
problems, and they reflect on what they've
learned. In a positive youth development
setting, your role as a volunteer is to guide,
support, and create space for this kind of
learning involvement. Encouraging engagement
means giving youth roles,
responsibilities, and voice in the
process, not just doing the fun parts, but
all along the way. When youth are
truly engaged, they become more confident,
more capable, and more prepared for
whatever comes next. So some ideas for
encouraging engagement are youth-led projects.
We talked about teen leaders already,
so let members design and vote on the
projects based on their interest. Have them
actually lead them. Choice-based learning.
Offer options for how to complete a task.
If you're giving them an assignment, maybe
they create a poster or a skit or a video
or a written word. Reflection time.
Include time at the end of meetings for youth
to talk about what they learned and what
they want to do next. Youth committees
have small teams lead parts of planning,
events, service projects, fundraisers,
things like that. Skill sharing.
Encourage youth to teach each other.
Peer learning increases engagement
and confidence. Challenge zones.
This is a way to offer opportunities
that push youth just a little outside
of their comfort zone, enough to
stretch and grow. And public showcases.
Yet let youth present, perform, or display
what they've learned to others. It gives
them purpose and pride to their efforts. We
do a really good job in 4-H with this with
our animal projects because we always
have shows going on or opportunities for
them to showcase their projects, but what about
the other things they learn in 4-H? What about
the service learning projects and public
speaking? All of those kinds of things that
they're doing as well. Give them areas
to show those as well. You can help increase
engagement by using questions such as, when
was the last time you felt really excited
about something you were doing. What was
it that you were doing? So take a moment
to think, to reflect on the current
4-H experiences or clubs you
lead or support. On a scale of
one to five, how much voice and
choice do youth have in what
they learn? How meetings or events
are structured? the roles they take on
feel free to put them in the chat and to take
this further if you are a little bit
lower and you want to increase it think about
one area you can increase youth voice or choice
in your club you don't have to share that
in the chat but think about and write and
jot it down of like one thing I could do
to help increase youth voice and choice in the
4-H club I'm working So, ensuring youth
voice, youth have meaningful, age-appropriate
roles in planning, decision-making, or
leading the experience. Short-term programs
ensure that youth have an opportunity
to learn how they can become more
engaged in 4-H to showcase their voice
and leadership. Offer activities that
have an option for youth to share their
voice or their choice. In long-term
programs, ensure youth have an age
-appropriate role in planning, decision
-making, or leading. There are some ways
you can encourage youth voice during your
club meetings as well. Youth help plan
the agenda. Activities are
created so that youth can lead them rather
than the adults. Even if it's the adults
that are doing the pre-planning of it,
have it as an activity that the youth can lead
during your meeting. Have officers and have them lead the meeting. Allow youth to present
committee reports. Again, even if it's
information that you're sharing with them, allow
the youth to present that and have that
discussion about that. Make sure adults at the
meeting are allowing for youth voice by
allowing youth time to think before
jumping in yourself. We already talked about
separating adults, but we have to be
there as the volunteers and the leaders,
but make sure we're giving that pause so
that youth have time to answer before we
give our own answers. Redirect questions
back to youth, such as, what do you
think we should do? How do you
think that went? Listen fully without
interrupting. and listen intentionally, not don't listen
to respond, but listen to hear
what they're really saying. So what are
some examples of how you ensure
youth are having a voice in your meetings
or activities? All right. So some
things we have are ask if any questions
or concerns in the meeting in an email.
This year, we're creating committees
that every member had to pick one and they
can make decisions based on their
committee project they also have to report
at every meeting um every one of every one
of our club committees has used numbers on
it other ideas that people do that really
engage or ensure youth voice in their
club we have a lot of younger kids who need to
get out their injuries so i play this or
that with them when we figure out what
they all want to do for their monthly still
life project that way they can have a voice
but they're also running around that's a good
idea this or that for it yes great ideas
give them time to speak to the group or
speak to me privately if they're shy or
uncomfortable yeah so making sure part of
that youth voices is depending on the age
and um the comfort level of some youth is that
you might not they might not want to show
it in front of a whole big group and they
might need to do it in a smaller setting
to build that before they're comfortable. And
as you build stronger development of
relationships, hopefully they open up more, but
also continue to give people that opportunity
to share those things to you in a way
that works for them. So in our 4-H experiences,
we need to build a level of awareness
with your families that they understand
they're engaged in 4-H experiences. Do
the youth you have working with you know
they're engaged in 4 -H? Do they know what
4-H is about and do they make the connection
to what's happening that is part of their
4-H experiences. As a 4-H volunteer,
you play a key role in helping youth
in your family make this connection to
4-H. Simple actions at your 4-H program
can go a long way to help with this.
Set up 4-H flags and recite and display
the 4-H pledge. Use 4-H branded resources
whenever possible and ensure the
proper use of the 4 -H name and emblem on
your own materials. Connect the
activities back to one of the H's
of the pledge. Additionally, having
a 4-H elevator speech is important. Every 4
-H volunteer member will eventually ask, what
is 4-H? Whether it's at a community event,
a showcase, during the fair, or in a casual
conversation with a curious friend or adult,
it's important that they feel confident answering.
As a 4-H volunteer, you can help youth
by assisting them to develop a clear,
personal, and enthusiastic response known as a 4
-H elevator pitch. The 4-H and 4 activity helps
youth and volunteers develop their own 30
-second elevator speech by thinking about 4-H
through 4-E prompts. To begin, that
helps them have this short, personal, and
enthusiastic explanation that they could
take time to share at any point in
time. So we're going to drop the resource
article on how to help you create
that, but it's just a simple way to have
them think about what 4-H is to them and
how they can do it. So what are some
things that you do that build the 4-H pledge into
your 4-H experiences? So when you think
about your 4-H club meetings, how do you
build the 4-H pledge into your meetings beyond
just stating the pledge? One thing I try to do
is relate each activity that we're doing back
to one of the H's. So maybe it's something
we're doing with our hands or we're
talking about our health. I try to relate it
back to one of the H's. That also helps youth
understand why we say that pledge and
why it's important. We do a similar thing
is every activity is somehow connected
to one of the pages. When we do
community service, we talk about it as
our hearts. We're showcasing our hearts
within the community. We talk about how when
we do certain things that are letting
us be physically active at the meeting
or caring for other people because that's
good for our emotional health. So it's,
we're always finding ways to connect back
to the pledge with everything. What are
some other things that people might do?
I'll pause for like, a little bit longer. While people are
thinking about that, I want to jump
back to a couple of comments in the chat
about youth voice. One is using a parking
lot and post it notes so kids who
don't want to speak up verbally can post it
on a post it note. That's a great idea.
And then another idea is they have a link
to a Google Doc that collects ideas from
anyone in the club and has the opportunities
to submit ideas. I like that idea as
well because that can be open all the
time. And if kids are at home and they think
of something they want to share or even
other adults, they can add that in there
and not forget it. So we're moving to
the point where we're going to do some idea
sharing. So we first want to take a moment
to thank you for being active participants
in our content today. As you choose to
leave the webinar, there will be an
evaluation that pops up to share
your thoughts of what you learned today
and ideas to help us think about
future ones. Also, at this time, I'm going to stop the recording.