Youth Development (Socorro County)

Hot August Nights: The City of Socorro requested that the Socorro County 4-H’ers provide activities for the youth in the community during their Hot August Night events. To Socorro County 4-H’ers its quite the honor to be the one “youth” organization asked to provide these activities. Socorro County 4-H Council Officers provided assistance to the hand-on arts and craft projects that the City of Socorro provides us with, as well as a variety of games such as ring toss, bean bag toss, twister, and hula hoop contests. The 4-H youth learn lifeskills such as patience because they often times get bombarded with children wanting to complete projects and play games all at the same time. This event is a great opportunity for us to promote 4-H and talk to people who are interested in joining.
Through this event youth learned several life skills. Some of these include:
Heart: Relating
• Social Skills- Youth learned to communicate with the public; adults and youth.
• Communication- The youth learned how to communicate the directions on the activities as well as talking to the parents about 4-H and how they can enroll their child.
Hands: Giving
• Community Service Volunteering- 4-H youth give back to the community by volunteering their time to work with other youth in the community. They gain an understanding that not all youth are as privileged as they are.

Socorro Family Fun Fest: A community wide youth day sponsored by CYFD was held during the month of March. Organizations were invited to present information to the public. Socorro County 4-H took advantage of the opportunity and developed hands-on stations allowing youth to make an item and take it with them. Socorro County 4-H Council Officers assisted the 4-H Agent by helping youth make Gardens in a Glove, Horse Feed (trail mix) and shrink-dink 4-H Clovers. 170 youth were given material on 4-H through brochures and flyers.
HEALTH: Being
• Self-responsibility – Youth were required to be responsible for their gardens. They had to make sure it got home and taped to a window, otherwise the seeds would not sprout. Once the seeds sprouted they were required to plant them into the ground and care for them by watering and harvesting the vegetables once their ready.
HEART: Relating
• Cooperation – Youth had to cooperate with the 4-H volunteer leaders to complete their project. The youth had to wait in line, be patient and wait their turn.

Kids, Kows & More: Socorro County Extension Service hosted their 4nd Annual Kids, Kows & More on April 26, 2010. 562 youth and 50 teachers attended the event which was an educational and hands-on learning experience that introduced children and adults to the agriculture industry and where their milk comes from. The program was open to all 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in Socorro County. Students rotated through 7 fifteen minute presentations, topics included: Food for America: Where do we get our meat?, Cattle Ranching; Sheep Shearing, Farming, Water Conservation, Food Safety, and Where our Milk comes from. Following the event, we have an essay contest and the winner of the essay contest wins a $100 savings bond and an ice cream party for their entire class. 4-H materials are sent home with each student and teacher by putting a pencil and brochure into each goody bag.
Health: Living
• Healthy Lifestyle Choices – Youth learn where their food comes from and what kinds of food are healthy. They also learned about food safety and how to prepare their food to help minimize diseases in their food.
HEAD: Thinking
• Learning to Lean – Youth learn about a variety of agricultural related topics. Many of these kids have no idea where their food and clothing comes from and we are trying to do our part to change that.
HEAD: Managing
• Wise Use of Resources – Through Kids, Kows and More youth are learning how to conserve many of our earth resources such as water. Water is very limited in New Mexico and we need to teach our youth early on how to conserve it.

Egg to Chick: The 4-H Agent has assisted 115 youth in kindergarten through 3rd grade in completing the Egg to Chick program this spring. The 4-H Agent assisted youth with curriculum instruction, egg candling, and egg hatching. Youth have learned responsibility through the care of the eggs to the care of the chicks after they are hatched. In April 2010, an evaluation was given to 25 students in the Magdalena 3rd grade class asking them to color the face that is the best answer. 25 students colored a happy face stating that the activity was fun; 25 colored a happy face stating that the activity helped them learn about chickens; 25 colored a happy face stating they learned how a baby chick grows; and 25 colored a happy face stating they told their family about this project. At this year’s Socorro County Fair one of the chickens that we hatched out at Magdalena was awarded Best of Show in the Poultry show. She was given to one of our 4-H members who continued to care for her throughout the summer and entered her into the Fair in August. The Magdalena children and their teacher, Mrs. Mounyo, where so excited to learn about their hen win the big prize.

HANDS: Giving
• Responsible Citizenship – Youth learn to be responsible by caring for the eggs. Students are responsible for making sure that the incubators have plenty of water, the temperature remains at 99.5 and that eggs get turned. They also have to care for the chick after they hatch by making sure they have water and food.
HEAD: Managing
• Keeping Records - Youth keep daily records of water levels, incubator temperature, what we saw when we candled the eggs, how many hatched, how many did not hatch and why.
• Learning to Learn - Youth spend roughly 30 days learning about embryology. Teachers are provided curriculum that they teach to their students from the time we set up the incubators until the hatched chicks leave their classroom.
HEART: Caring
• Concern for Others – Youth learn to care for things other than themselves. They care for the eggs before they hatch and the chicks after they hatch.

City of Socorro After school Program: Boy has this been a challenging 6 months!! In August, the Mayor of Socorro decided that since the Socorro Consolidated Schools already had an afterschool program for elementary aged kids, the afterschool program needed to refocus its efforts to a group that has not yet been reached. He wanted the efforts to target the Middle School to High School age groups, which has been challenging in several ways. We had to start by asking ourselves several questions. Number one, how are we going to entice them to come? Number two, what will do them while they’re there to keep them interested and wanted to come back for more.
Cindy Rivera, program coordinator was contacted by the JPO, requesting that youth be allowed to be court ordered to the afterschool program. That all seemed quite promising, since we were looking at hundreds of kids being put on probation in the area. A meeting was set up to try to involve difference organizations within the city. Plans were to start up a Teen Court program, weekly ping pong lessons, fitness training by the National Guardsmen, wood working, 4-H and more. Unfortunately, to date the only program that has come through is the 4-H program and the Juvenile Probation Office has only referred three youth to the program.
The program is structured differently now, which is also a major challenge. Youth are not required to go through 30 minute rotations like they were once expected to. They are now allowed to roam around and do whatever they want as long a staff member is around. So trying to get them interested in 4-H has been yet another challenge in itself. They love doing the arts and crafts and hands-on activities that we do but getting them to listen to the lessons and actually learn something has been hard. The Agent has continued to offer 4-H every Tuesday and Wednesday. Roughly 13 youth attend each day ranging from 9 to 13 years old. In addition, three 16 year-old girls that are court ordered as part of their probation attend every day.
Information and project ideas are taken from the 4-H project list and adapted to fit a variety of themes ranging from seasonal lessons to cultural exploration. The Agent also utilizes the Ag in the Classroom curriculum to provide an agricultural twist to each lesson. Programs performed during this reporting period included:
• During the month of September we focused on the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We learned about “How an Hot Air Balloon works” using information found of the Internet. We also used information from the Model Rocket 4-H project as supplemental information. As a hands-on activity we built paper mache hot air balloons. The youth used the Hot Air Balloons they made as decorations around the gym.
• In October, we learned all about Pumpkins. The Agent used curriculum from the Illinois Ag in the Classroom to teach youth about pumpkin growth. We also learned about the variety of uses for pumpkins and how they are used by the youth in the program. We were able to get pumpkins donated to us by a local farmer and the youth made jack-o-lanterns out of them. We used one the pumpkins to make a pumpkin pie using the Pumpkin Patch Pie in a Bag recipe found on the Ag in the Classroom website.
• During National 4-H Week, the Socorro County 4-H Council Officers presented a workshop to the youth at Finley Gym educating them on projects they can participate in, life skills you learn in 4-H and way to become a leader in 4-H. Flyers were sent home with all the parents explaining to them what 4-H is and how they can join a club in their community.
• 4-H and the staff at Finley Gym collaborated to host a Halloween Carnival for all the local youth in the community. Organizations from around the community were also invited to participate. Each organization provided a both with different games and activities. 4-H provided an arts and crafts booth, were youth made foam picture frames. Traditional 4-H members helped the Agent assist youth in the community to complete their project. Over 200 youth made a Halloween picture frame and received information regarding 4-H.
• November was a difficult month. Every year the afterschool program participates in the Christmas Light Parade held the Saturday after Thanksgiving, this year was no different. However, this year instead of the float decorating being included in the daily rotation, the youth were allowed to work on the float the whole time they were there if they wanted to. So trying to compete with that was quite challenging.
• December was spent focusing on the importance of family and friends. This group of kids is quite unique; many of them are living with people other than their parents because their parents are incarcerated for whatever reason. Utilizing the Character Counts curriculum, we focused on the Caring and Respect. The Agents objective was to make the youth aware that compassion involves understanding and engaging in another person’s life. The students cut out pictures of people in magazines and viewed the images of those people. They then creatively interpreted what they saw. It was amazing to see how some youth view people, especially those different from them. We also focused on respect; we talked about how respect sounds and what it looks like: tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language. 
Youth participated in an activity that provided a great visual about how important using respectful language is, how quickly words can come out, and the importance of thinking before we speak because of how difficult it is to take words back. As the holiday season approached, the Agent felt it was important to teach these youth what the real meanings of the holidays represent. Many of these families can’t afford a huge Christmas their lucky to get one Christmas present. However the Agent tried to make them understand that they needed to focus more of spending quality time with their family rather than the gifts they get. As a hand-on activity, the youth covered an empty vegetable can with Christmas fabric decorated with bells, mini ornaments and/or flowers. Their covered can (Housing & Interior Design 4-H project) was given to their parents/guardians as a Christmas present.
• In December, the Socorro County Extension Agents worked with the US Forest Service and the Pound Ranch to obtain a permit to cut down 2 Christmas trees for Finley Gym. In the past youth would decorate the Christmas trees and enjoy them at the gym, however this year we felt that there were a few family that were in more need for it at their house, so we donated the trees to them instead.
Through these activities youth have learned several life skills. Some of these have included:
HEART: Relating
• Cooperation- Youth learn to cooperate with each other as well as with the Agent to complete task. Youth must be patient by waiting for their turn to speak as well as waiting in line to gather their supplies.
Caring
• Concern for Others- Youth at Finley Gym are expected to follow certain rules, they can not touch each other, fight or call each other names. They are expected to respect each other, the staff, and things that don’t belong to them.
• Nurturing Relationships- Youth learned to appreciate things like their parents/guardians during our discussion on the true meanings of Christmas.
HEAD: Managing
• Wise Use of Resources- The Agent brings the supplies for the activities and the youth need to be creative in designing their end product. They are also expected to not waste materials.
• Wise Use of Resources- During the pumpkin discussion, youth learn that every part of the pumpkin is used for something and that nothing is wasted. Youth learned to use our recourses wisely and waste things.
HANDS: & HEART: Working & Relating
• Teamwork & Communication- Youth play different activities that teach them teamwork and communication.

January was an interesting month at the Afterschool program. Mayor Bhasker decided to change the program once again!! He finally saw that the program which included middle and high school students was not working. The program could not bring in the audience that it was intended to, so the Mayor decided it was time to go back to its original 4-12 year old audience. The City of Socorro also obtained from the County the use of the Socorro County Youth Center. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed that the City of Socorro would take over the building with the understanding that Socorro County 4-H would be allowed to use the building whenever needed. Needless to say, it took a while to for the program to pick back up because #1, we had changed locations and #2, we had to get the word out that the program was now taking elementary aged youth. We had roughly 25-30 youth per day ranging in age from 5 years old to 12 years old. Youth met staff after school and walked over to the youth center where parents picked them up at between 5:00 and 5:30. Upon entering the program, youth were given a nutritious snack and were provided time to complete any homework they had. Youth then spent 30 minutes in each rotation (arts & crafts, game time, outdoor recreation, & gym). The Socorro County 4-H Agent made bi-weekly visits on Tuesday’s, Wednesday’s and school half days in which a 4-H rotation was added in their daily rotation schedule; on the 4-H days we substituted 4-H for the game time. Information and project ideas were taken from the 4-H project list and adapted to fit a variety of themes ranging from seasonal lessons to cultural exploration. Programs performed during this reporting period include:
• During January, we focused on the Welcome to NM 4-H project. Youth learned the basics of the 4-H program including the 4-H pledge, colors, motto and slogan. The objective was to introduce them to the 4-H program since they would be learning much more about it in the next several months. As a hands-on activity each student made a shrinky-dink 4-H clover. They had to trace it, color it correctly using the 4-H colors, cut it out and watch it shrink! We all worked together to complete the workbook and at the end of the month all youth were able to recite the 4-H pledge.
• In February, the afterschool program began to pick back up. Parents started becoming aware of the program and we started picking students up from the school and walking them over to the Youth Center. This month we focused on Valentines and learning to be a caring citizen in our community. The Agent used the Good Ideas to Help Young People Develop Good Character curriculum to teach youth about caring. Within that curriculum there are several fun activities that help youth learn about caring. During the week of Valentines the youth made valentine cards and colored pictures to take to the Senior Citizen Center to pass out. The senior’s loved all the stuff that the kids had made and were very appreciative of the fact the kids thought of them.
• Flower and Vegetable gardening is always a big hit with the kids at the Afterschool program. However, due to the fact that we had to change locations this year, a garden was going to take a lot of work. Finding a plot behind the building was not a problem but preparing the ground for a garden was going to be a big undertaking. During the month of March, it was still too cold outside to plant anything so we focused that month on learning about the different kinds of soils and what we needed to do to prepare our soil for planting. Tom Dean, Socorro County Ag Agent, assisted us by testing the soil and determining what needed to be done to prepare it for planting. We studied the 4-H: Exploring the world of Plants and Soil project, which taught the youth about soils, effects of water, temperature and light on plant growth, parts of plants and flowers, how plants reproduce and how to grow and use plants. The City of Socorro’s Parks and Rec’s department volunteered to rotatill the soil. Once the ground was rotatilled, the youth spent a lot time taking out the big rocks and making rows throughout our garden.
• During the month of April, we learned a lot about flower gardening; how to select the plants, how to sow the seeds, how to arrange the plants in the garden, garden care, and how to identify leaves and flowers from different types of annuals and perennials. As a hands-on activity youth planted flowers by seed in cups and were required to care for them daily. After the seeds had sprouted and the plants were ready to be transplanted, we planted them in large containers that the youth had decorated and placed in front of the youth center to make the front entrance of the center look nice for the community.
• In May we decided it was time to do some vegetable gardening. We learned how to prepare the soil by tiling and fertilizing it, how to identify different vegetables, and how to determine what we wanted to plant. As a hands-on activity we tiled and fertilized the soil then we made “Gardens in a glove” where we placed lettuce, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and cucumber seeds into a plastic glove and taped it to the window. After the seeds sprouted the kids planted them in the garden area we prepared in March. The kids are required to water, pull weeds, and harvest the vegetables when they are ready.
• Every Monday during the month of June, the youth in the summer program participated in Nutrition Education Classes. The 4-H Agent and the ICAN (Ideas for Cooking and Nutrition) Nutrition Educator have coordinated to provide an hour long nutrition class once a week. The youth get a 5 week in-depth look into their nutrition and ways to improve it. The youth get the experience of making their snack items so that they can teach their parents how to make it when they get home.
• In July, the Socorro County Extension Staff presented a two-day youth camp held at the City of Socorro summer youth program. Youth rotated through four 45 minute workshops with a break for lunch. Socorro County Council Officers taught youth songs and served as group leaders. Youth participated in workshops such as: Germ Detection, Food and Nutrition, Arts and Crafts, Fashion Design, Recreation, Wildlife, and Shooting Sports. Youth leaned a variety of life skills that will benefit them in the future. The Agent utilized the State 4-H Shooting Sports trailer to teach youth about gun safety and responsibility. Over 120 youth participated in the two day event.
Through these activities youth have learned several life skills. Some of these have included:
HEALTH: Living
• Healthy Lifestyle Choices- Youth must participate in a physical activity every day; ways they can participate are through kick ball, basketball, soccer, and elbow tag.
• Disease Prevention- Youth learned how to prevent the spreading of germs by learning proper techniques to their wash their hands.
• Healthy Lifestyle Choices- Youth learned to make healthier food choices through their nutrition courses.
Being
• Healthy Lifestyle Choices - The Nutrition Educator talked to the youth about nutrition and ways to make the snacks that they eat healthier. She taught them healthy snack ideas, food safety and about the food guide pyramid.
HEART: Relating
• Cooperation- Youth has to cooperate with each other as well as with the Agent to complete task. Youth must be patient by waiting for their turn to speak as well as waiting in line to gather their supplies.
Caring
• Concern for Others- Youth at the Youth Center are expected to follow certain rules, they cannot touch each other, fight or call each other names. They are expected to respect each other, the staff, and things that don’t belong to them.
HEAD: Managing
• Wise Use of Resources- The Agent brings the supplies for the activities and the youth need to be creative in designing their end product. They are also expected to not waste materials.
HANDS: Giving
• Responsible Citizenship – Youth learn responsibility by caring for the flower and vegetable plants that they planted. They also learn the importance of making their center beautiful for the rest of the community by planting flowers in front of the building.
• Responsible Citizenship - Youth learned to be responsible when handling a firearm. They learned gun safety by learning proper ways to handle a firearm, proper uses of a firearm, and different shooting positions.
Working
• Teamwork- Youth learned to work and play together through recreational activities