Youth Development

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 Pin wheels, Horse Feed (trail mix) and Dirt Babies. This year we also brought out the 4-H shooting sports trailer and youth got to learn about handling a fire arm and took a chance and shooting at a target. 170 youth were given material on 4-H through brochures and flyers.

Kids, Kows & More: Socorro County Extension Service hosted their 5th Annual Kids, Kows & More on April 21, 2011. 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 and 4th 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, Weaving, 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.

Earth Day: Midway Elementary in Lemitar, NM hosted an Earth Day event at their school where they invited the Socorro County Extension Office, Bosque Del Apache and a Geologist to their school to discuss topics related to Earth Day. The Socorro County Extension Agents discussed how plants affect the earth. We discussed what plants need to live such as soil, water, sun and carbon dioxide. We discussed how plants help us by producing oxygen that we need to breathe and we produce carbon dioxide that plants need to breathe. Each child was allowed to make a dirt baby to take home and care for. Every Midway Elementary in Lemitar, NM hosted an Earth Day event at their school where they invited the Socorro County Extension Office, Bosque Del Apache and a Geologist to their school to discuss topics related to Earth Day. The Socorro County Extension Agents discussed how plants affect the earth. We discussed what plants need to live such as soil, water, sun and carbon dioxide. We discussed how plants help us by producing oxygen that we need to breathe and we produce carbon dioxide that plants need to breathe. Each child was allowed to make a dirt baby to take home and care for. Every Kindergarten through 5th grade students in the school participated in the activity, with 100 dirt babies being made. By participating in this workshop, youth learned how to be a responsible citizen, how to use their resources wisely and caring for the world around them.

Egg to Chick: The 4-H Agent has assisted 68 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 2011, 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. The Agent spent a lot of hours this spring researching the problems we have been having with the project. We have had full developed eggs that won’t hatch out for several years now. The Agent worked with a specialist from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension who helped us to regulate our humidity and temperature. I do have to say we had better success this year but some of our same problems still existed.

From October 2010 through September 2011, Socorro County Extension planned and delivered a number of programs designed to strengthen life skill development in youth. Throughout this reporting period these efforts have reached 3,436 youth ranging in age from 5 to 16 years old. Delivery methods used have included after school programs, special interest and school enrichment. Youth have experienced a variety of hands-on activities. Following is a detail account of the programs delivered by Socorro County Extension Agent during the October through September reporting period.
Socorro County Schools were gearing up for another exciting school year. Socorro County 4-H Agent spent hours planning programs and collaborating with schools to provide curriculum and discuss opportunities for 4-H school enrichment and after school programs. A letter was mailed out to all school officials regarding collaborations between the Extension Service and the schools. To follow up the Agent visited every school providing them with a New Mexico 4-H Youth Development Curriculum Kits booklet provided to Agents from the State 4-H Office.

City of Socorro After School Program Things went back to normal this year at the youth center. The Major finally decided that gearing the program to Jr. High youth was not working and finally opened it back up to the elementary aged youth. He continued to allow the Jr. High youth to come, that just wasn’t our main focus. We had roughly 50-60 youth per day ranging in age from 4 years old to 12 years old. The Socorro County 4-H Agent made bi-weekly visits on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s in which a 4-H rotation was added in their daily rotation schedule. 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:
• 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 Youth Center 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 the Youth Center 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, but they did it!! The youth were very excited to win 2nd place with their float.
• 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 the Youth Center. In the past youth would decorate the Christmas trees and enjoy them at the youth center, 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.
• 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.
• During the month of March, 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 identifying 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 center to make the front entrance of the center look nice for the community.
• The kids loved the flower gardening so much that in April we decided 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 a garden area in the side yard. The kids are required to water, pull weeds, and harvest the vegetables when they are ready.
• 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.
• Once a month on a half day of school and during the summer months the youth at the youth center 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 got a 8 week in-depth look into their nutrition and ways to improve it.
• 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 center.