Category: Metro

Items of interest to staff involved in 4-H Metro work.

April 3, 2013

4-H Fights Hunger Through Feeding and Growing Our Communities

Illinois has been selected as one of five states to pilot the 4-H: Empowering Youth to End Hunger in Their Communities, an effort to heighten awareness of and solutions to reducing hunger and food insecurity in America. This grant opportunity, sponsored by the National 4-H Council with funding from the Howard G. Buffet Foundation is designed to engage and empower youth through service projects addressing community-based food security and hunger relief. Our goal is to engage a minimum of 500 youth and 100 adults in providing 10,000 service hours addressing this important issue. Program information for staff is posted to the Portal under Groups/4-H Contacts/Feeding and Growing Our Communities and includes:

Feeding and Growing Our Communities Overview – background information about the opportunity and useful websites.

2013 Illinois Challenge Grant Application – application form for use by 4-H clubs and extension staff in applying for funding.

4-H Ending Hunger Toolkit – a compiled source of resources, activities, and workshop suggestions to increase awareness of hunger and food insecurity and the Invest An Acre program for farmers and landowners.

Illini Fighting Hunger Community Partner Handbook – a step-by-step resource is provided by the Illini Fighting Hunger organization for groups interested in organizing a meal-packaging event to fight hunger in their community, county or region. Illini Fighting Hunger is a student led volunteer organization serving the UIUC campus and expands their reach into the state. If you are interested in observing and learning more about a meal-packaging event join Chancellor Phyllis Wise on April 20 as the U of I Campus community volunteers gather to assemble 146,000 meals representing 1,000 meals for every year the University of Illinois has been in existence.

This information will be posted to the State 4-H website and a notice will be emailed to 4-H leaders who had members enrolled in vegetable gardening during the 2011-12 4-H program year.

How can you get involved? Please communicate this opportunity to all 4-H clubs in your county/unit and challenge them to practice BIG M as they engage as a group to learn about hunger/food insecurity in their community and how they can become part of the solution in alleviating this significant need.

Feeding and Growing Our Communities Webinar – plan now to attend the Feeding and Growing Our Communities Webinar scheduled for Friday, April 19 from 1:30 – 2:30 PM. Following is the registration link:

https://webs.extension.uiuc.edu/registration/?RegistrationID=8182

Once your registration is complete you will receive a confirming email with the Meeting ID and Password.

Posted by William J. Million at 4:15 PM | Permalink |
Categories: Community Service, Metro, Partnerships, Teens, Volunteers, YLT

May 9, 2012

Illinois 4-H Receives $4,500 from 1st Farm Credit

The Illinois 4-H Foundation recently received a $4,500 grant as one of the annual charitable distributions from the 1st Farm Credit Donor Advised Fund, established in 2010 through the IAA Foundation. The mission of the IAA Foundation is to fund education, research, and charitable activities that benefit Illinois farm families and agriculture.

With these funds, the Illinois 4-H Foundation is able to help provide the 4-H experience and develop future leaders through new 4-H Metro Clubs and assist the 4-H Youth Leadership Team with efforts throughout the state while they mentor younger 4-H members. 1st Farm Credit's generosity will also allow the continued collaboration with Illinois 4-H as a Project Partner, focusing on providing experiences around science, engineering, and technology within all project areas.

To view full press release and photo: http://4hfoundation.illinois.edu/content/illinois-4-h-foundation-receives-gift

Posted by Angie Barnard at 10:26 AM | Permalink |
Categories: 4-H Foundation, Metro, YLT

January 26, 2012

Update from Denise

I really enjoy working on developmental projects which require lots of thought, discussions, testing, etc. A few of the items I am currently working on include:

  • A & S (analyze and strategize) report. This report will be in the hands of County Directors and 4-H YD Educators mid-February and the topic of discussion at a Feb 21 webinar for the same audience. This is the first time we are heavily relying on data-driven analysis of our 4-H program to shape future decision-making. Because it is the first time, I feel most comfortable managing the roll-out of this information by covering it with CDs and Educators first who will in turn use it for internal discussion at the Unit and County level.
  • Metro positions. Due to recent retirements and departures, as well as adequate state funding to slightly expand our work in metro areas, I am taking some time to learn from the field what our lessons are from the first 6 months. Look for us to post metro positions within a few weeks.
  • State-wide 4-H YD Impact being measured in 2012. Did you know we have a Survey Research Laboratory on campus and centrally housed at the University of Illinois in Chicago? We are seeking their services to develop tools, and do data reduction, analysis, and report-writing. Expect three tools that answer three questions: 1) are our 4-H clubs providing a high-quality PYD experience?, 2) do youth in our science learning experiences express interest and demonstrated aspirations in the field of science?, and 3) what percent of the youth aging out of 4-H go onto higher education and how did their 4-H leader, project, or participation influence their decision?

Like you, I also have operational tasks to fulfill. Currently I am on the search committee for our IT Director for Extension. It was exciting to hear the candidates talk about new technologies and their application to Extension. One candidate commented that 4-H could be training college faculty on what to expect next as we currently work with their future students. Interesting!

And, like you, I have organizational changes to embrace like Unified Communications (Lync). It's being rolled out on campus and at the State 4-H Office now; field-based colleagues will be hearing more about it soon. I decided to be an early adopter in the State 4-H Office and will be giving up my land-line phone to solely use Lync communication on my computer. The features are wonderful. As you have the opportunity to learn more, please take advantage.

Take care everyone!

Posted by Denise Legvold at 3:57 PM | Permalink |
Categories: E&R, Metro, PYD