Youth Organizations

Four-H is a youth organization dedicated to fostering better family living, community progress, social understanding, and civic responsibility. It sponsors projects in agriculture, homemaking, personal improvement, community service, and good citizenship.

Program

The earliest 4-H programs were tightly focused on agriculture and other rural concerns. Since then, however, the 4-H has evolved into a nationwide organization operating under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Cooperative Extension Service. It has chapters in urban and suburban as well as rural counties and has redefined its mission from improving agricultural production to developing the character and skills of young people in a variety of different ways.

Four-H activities are administered through the county extension agencies in the states, and students may join through their schools. The program offers meetings, camps, workshops, and social activities, but the core of the program is the 4-H project. Members are expected to tackle projects from one or more of eight categories: citizenship and civic education, communications and the expressive arts, consumer and family sciences, environmental education and earth science, healthy lifestyle education, personal development and leadership, plants and animals, and science and technology. Projects are designed to allow the participant to "learn by doing," in accordance with the 4-H slogan.

Organization and Support

Approximately 6.8 million young people are members of 4-H clubs nationwide. Leadership is provided by the USDA, and the program is administered through county extension agents. Council groups at the state, district, and county level provide planning and guidance. Individual clubs are led by adult volunteers, many of whom were themselves 4-H club members during their youth. Meetings are usually held in the home of the club leader, in community centers, or in schools. The local clubs draft their own programs, in accordance with the general organizational standards set by the USDA.

There are no dues for membership in the 4-H. The bulk of the program's funding comes from the government, but civic groups, local businesses, and other organizations often donate to 4-H groups at the local level. In addition, local clubs may hold fund-raising activities for a particular project.

Membership

Any boy or girl age nine to nineteen is welcome to join the 4-H, regardless of race or creed. Interested young persons can join a club through their school or by contacting the county extension office in their area. There are no dues. The early clubs allocated projects according to the gender attitudes of their time, assigning boys to farm and livestock projects and girls to domestic skills, such as canning, baking, and sewing. Today, however, this has changed: all projects are open to any member, with no distinction made between boys and girls.

History

At the start of the twentieth century, rural America was still the cornerstone of the nation's economy, but times were clearly changing. Young people were moving to the cities, while older people were holding tenaciously to outmoded farming techniques, so that many of the family farms were in danger of failing. In the Midwest, local civic leaders and educators responded to these problems by looking for ways to make agriculture attractive to young people, while also making improved farming techniques more available to established farmers. Out of this original grassroots movement, the 4-H clubs were born.

The early clubs were based on the idea that education, especially agricultural education, was best accomplished through hands-on experience. This principle has remained a core concept in 4-H. Much of the organization's early success came from the effective use of members as demonstrators of new farming technology. For example, to spread the word about improved seed corn strains, contests were held in which the young person who achieved the best crop would win a prize. Project-based contests were, and continue to be, held at a countywide level, and they have widened to include competitions in such diverse activities as livestock breeding, conservation, and personal development.

By 1914 4-H had become a truly national movement, and the Smith-Lever Act, passed by Congress in that year, forged a formal link between the local clubs and the County Extension Service of the USDA. With the passage of this act, the local groups became eligible for federal funds. To help foster a national identity, the leadership of the movement adopted an official emblem, a three-leaf clover with a capital H on each leaf, denoting Head, Heart, and Hands to express the organization's emphasis on personal development through action. The fourth H was added soon after; at first it stood for Hustle but was quickly changed to Health. The 4-H philosophy is summed up in the official pledge:

I pledge …

My Head to clearer thinking,

My Heart to greater loyalty,

My Hands to larger service,

and my Health to better living

For my club, my community, my country, and my world.