The international pandemic of 2020 provided new opportunities for Kenton Cooperative Extension to educate 4-H youth involved in local programs as well as provide resources to families and educators seeking support and educational opportunities.  

Kenton County CES Agent 4-H Youth Development (Kelley) followed the Youth Program Quality Model  “Research demonstrates that high-quality youth programs can have measurable impacts that result in positive youth development outcomes (Smith, Akiva, Sugar, Lo, Frank, Peck, Cortina, & Devaney, 2012)” in an effort to improve the point of service for new and engaged clientele during this challenging time.  

After assessing the curriculum needs of local youth and planning with resources available actions were taken to prepare educational exploration kits.  By organizing the process of assembling the kits staff members were able to create online resources and provide instructions.  Video, PowerPoint, revised lessons, and announcements were shared via 3 different social media formats.  The activity exploration kits are research based and linked to current 4-H curriculum resources and 4-H project books.  The resources shared via social media were tagged by school PTA Facebook pages and local hospital workers seeking resources for youth.  The activity kits were accessible at two different CES locations.  Additionally, CIPS teachers, farmer’s market vendors, and Court Designated Workers, picked up kits to distribute to their students and clientele.  The distribution broadened by other volunteers outside our immediate organization expanded the scope of the projects.  Project packets were labeled with contact information, and provided an activity, resource materials, and additional pertinent information such as hand washing guidelines, health bulletins, 4-H enrollment information, and county 4-H newsletters.  727 kits were assembled, 19 different projects and activities were shared, 12 different videos were created to support the effort. 

Outcomes achieved included new 4-H members signing up for summer educational day camps.  New adult clientele participating in a contest, experienced 4-H members completing projects for Rally Day entry in lieu of county fair opportunities, new youth and adult clientele utilizing CES resources due to the shared social media messages.  Data is still being compiled to assess if new practices are being adopted, however multiple new and experienced 4-H members completed projects as recorded in project books.  

As the pandemic situation continues the experience also allows for planning future at home activities and allocate resources to meet educational needs of local youth.  A high-quality program provides youth with access to key experiences that advance adaptive, developmental, and learning outcomes (Smith, Akiva, & Henry, 2006). 

Parent email and text messages included, “Thanks, you really made Haley’s day, she loved the kits”, “ Thank you so much for helping to keep the little minds busy at home, the kids love opening the kits to see what kind of treasures await them!”.. “We planted seeds, did experiments and dissected the owl pellets thanks…”

Smith, C., Akiva, T., Sugar, S.A., Lo, Y. J., Frank, K. A., Peck, S. C., Cortina, K. S., & Devaney, T. (2012). Continuous quality improvement in afterschool settings: Impact findings from the Youth Program Quality Intervention Study. Washington, DC: The Forum for Youth Investment.