Volunteer Administration Academy

A program council, volunteers and a county action plan are a requisite for a successful 4-H Youth Development program.  The mission of the Volunteer Administration Academy (VAA) is to provide 4-H Youth Development Educators with the tools, resources, and knowledge to evaluate on-going programs, envision opportunities, secure support from key program stakeholders and develop volunteer resources necessary to achieve county program goals.  Utilizing the GEMS model, agents can direct volunteers and volunteer programs.  GEMS allows the agent to expand volunteer involvement on the county level and reach underserved audience through volunteer delivery methods, councils and committees.  A SWOT  profile was distributed by mail and email to 178 volunteers, community leaders, school educators, teens and other community members to determine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the Ohio County 4-H Youth Development program. Forty respondents indicated Strengths include Community Pride and Volunteers; Weaknesses included a lack of quality volunteers and youth opportunities: Opportunities listed were Youth Life Skills and Volunteer Education; Threats included lack of volunteers and large rural county.  The 4-H Council (18 adult and 6 youth) participated in a Councils 101 training to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the council and developed a county action plan by setting six Goals, Objectives and Action steps for the 2019-2020 4-H program year.  A 4-H Volunteer packet specific to Ohio County 4-H, developed for volunteer recruitment, was utilized to recruit volunteers for 4-H Camp and the Clover Bud club. Volunteer Job Descriptions, Planning Aids and Volunteer Evaluations were created for specific volunteer roles in Ohio County.  Agent, parent, youth, co-volunteers and self-evaluations of the 4-H Livestock leaders were utilized to strengthen the youth livestock program.   The agent attended the National Extension Conference on Volunteerism to network with other volunteers across the nation.   Achieving the goals set in VAA  makes a significant impact upon staff, volunteers and clientele at the community level. This is made possible by transforming the program from one that is delivered by the agent to a volunteer-delivered program that is coordinated by the agent serving as a volunteer administrator.