One of the biggest complaints I hear from community members about youth is they do not know how to talk to people, and I believe we can all agree no matter a youth's career path, they will use communications skills in their future jobs.  Through the pandemic, we had very low participation in many 4-H events and activities, but having the communications contest virtually was one of the programs last year that really suffered. We only had three youth that participated. 

This year, I realized we would be able to have the communications contest in person, so the other 4-H agents and I began having our school contest again. We go into 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classrooms and have classroom level speaking contests. We deliver a lesson in  the class about writing effective speeches, and then the students deliver their speeches in class. The speeches are judged, and the top speakers  from every class are invited to the county-level speaking contest. 

Madison County has also been the host to many agriculture related projects and clubs this spring; the youth in these clubs and activities made up a big part of the communications contest. This is  the first year Madison County has offered the Youth Agricultural Incentives Program to youth. This is a 50-50 cost share program where youth can get funds for agriculture related projects. The youth have to have 6 hours of 4-H education, and give a presentation about their project. So, I also asked al of the YAIP participants to give their presentation at the county communications contest, and eleven of them did participate. We also have a large country ham club and we encouraged many of these youth to write their speeches early and give them at the communications night, as they would get feedback from the judges on how to improve. Several of those youth participated as well. 

Overall, with the help of many volunteers and 4-H staff, we had 56 youth give speeches this year! This was an incredible success, and tremendous growth over the three that participated last year. Of curse the communications contest is not a new activity in Madison County, but the regrowth coming out of the pandemic was a wonderful thing to see. I am thankful we get to provide youth with the opportunity to develop these communication skills!