Note: This site is for reviewing legacy plan of work data from 2007-2011. If you are looking for the current plan of work interface, visit pow.nmsu.edu.

Impact Report

For plan Adult Volunteer Leader Development (Socorro County)
Date October 25, 2010, 8:12 pm
For Objective Short-term Show short-term objectives
Impact Report Five hundred ninety five youth and adult volunteers have been involved in Socorro County 4-H programming, assisting Extension Agent in reaching new and under served youth audiences. Adult & youth volunteers have assisted agent with instructions and facilitation of programs. After school Programming: During the after school program, volunteers help to maintain order and assist with completion of projects. The youth are broken up into four groups; adult volunteer leaders are in charge of each group. Their duties are to lead their group through each rotation, assist the youth complete their projects, and interact with the youth by playing games with them or helping them with their homework. As we were gearing up for the summer and preparing to have 150 to 200 youth participating in the Summer program, we felt the need to provide a staff training for the all of the staff hired to work during the summer. We spent several hours talking about the 8 essential elements of youth development and what role the staff played in implementing them. We emphasized the importance of environment and creating opportunities for young people. We then spent the next hour talking about what it means to be a good and bad employee. We went over their job description and talk about key points in the City of Socorro’s policies and procedures manual. The final hour was spent teaching them games and activities that could be used within their group. To follow up, we developed an evaluation instrument to assess the staff progress as we go through the summer. We meet on Monday evenings for a staff meeting to go over any problems that have come up the week before and go over ways to solve those problems. In this program we also utilize elderly women that call themselves “Grandma’s” that volunteer their time to assist young people in the community. The Grandma’s volunteer 4 hours a day and assist us by gathering materials, preparing projects for the day, and helping youth with arts and crafts projects. During the school year we have 4-5 grandmas’ daily attending the program and now during the summer program we have 8-10 volunteering daily. School Enrichment: During the school enrichment programs, volunteer teachers assist with maintaining order of their classrooms, preparing snacks during our nutrition courses, and assisting the agent to prepare and clean up before and after the class. Volunteer teachers also assist by delivering curriculum provided to them to their students. Special Interests Volunteer leaders assist the Extension Agent by helping youth complete projects. They make sure that youth understand the instructions and assist youth with the hands-on activities. Socorro County 4-H’ers also assists with program planning, presentation, and facilitation when called upon.