Over the last program year, 4-H volunteers were asked to change how they provided experiential, hands-on educational activities to the youth of our community. These protocols were often changing at a pace that was dizzyingly rapid as new information was brought to the forefront of the pandemic.  Green County 4-H recognized the importance of keeping volunteers engaged with contemporary skills to be effective leaders in educational youth projects.  

For the program year 2021, Green County 4-H screened seventeen adult volunteers through the intensive Client Protection protocols involving background checks, absence from all sex-offender list, reference checks, and personal interviews.  These are the first steps for volunteers to be engaged with vulnerable audiences like youth with the initial screening being valid for five years.  

Once leaders have completed necessary pre-engagement screening, they are ready for program-specific training on content and research-based positive youth development practices. Leader training occurs on many levels from event short-term activities like speech judges, to overnight events with 24 hours of mandatory training for camp volunteers.  Projects that relate to large livestock animals (i.e. beef, dairy, swine, goats), horse, and shooting sports require volunteers to attend a state-sponsored certification program where they learn specific youth development skills relating to those program areas.  These projects also require mandatory follow-up refresher courses annually to ensure volunteers are relevant to current trends and project changes.  In the Covid era, all training included elements of ensuring the health and safety of both volunteers and clientele.  

 Screened and trained leaders were equipped with the skills to engage youth in new opportunities for our community like Community Arts Club, Natural Resource Club, and Garden Clubs and restart programs like Horse Clubs that were originally halted due to in-person meetings restrictions. Through the Cooperative Extension Service and 4-H, Green County volunteers are trained and properly screened to be competent, effective leaders in the community.