Suchergebnisse

This article summarizes a literature review; teen-identified health concerns and issues; and teen bold ideas for actions. Findings from the National 4-H Council and Molina Healthcare Teens Take on Health initiative are provided and implications for 4-H programming tied to the new Cooperative Extension National Framework for Health and Wellness are addressed. The article is intended as background for Extension educators, volunteers and administrators as they review the 4-H Healthy Living Mission Mandate, learn what mattered to teens and consider how to incorporate the findings into state and local 4-H youth development programming.

4-H Healthy Living programs address healthy eating; physical activity; social-emotional health and well-being; alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use prevention; and injury prevention. Using the Systematic Screening and Assessment Method, this paper identified 32 4-H Healthy Living programs across the nation ready for comprehensive outcome evaluation and/or national replication based on 6 criteria. Weaknesses in an additional 78 programs that did not meet the criteria were also identified. Programs that failed to meet the criteria did so primarily because they lacked a clearly delineated theory of change or appropriate evaluation. Implications for practice include ways to strengthen program planning and use of a comprehensive evaluation framework. Specific attention is given to professional development for 4-H professionals.

The 4‐H youth development program of the nation's 109 land‐grant universities and the Cooperative Extension System is one of the largest youth development organization in the United States serving approximately six million youth. The 4‐H Healthy Living initiative began in 2008 to promote achievement of optimal physical, social, and emotional well‐being for youth and families. In 2013, the National 4‐H Council sought to identify 4‐H Healthy Living programs in the domains of healthy eating and physical activity that adhered to the national 4‐H Healthy Living mission and were ready for comprehensive outcome evaluation or replication at a national level. This chapter shares findings from an environmental scan of 4‐H programs and (a) identifies programs with evidence of promoting a healthy diet and physical activity, (b) describes program impacts related to healthy diet and physical activity, and (c) clarifies select program characteristics associated with reported healthy eating and/or physical activity outcomes. The RE‐AIM evaluation framework is introduced as an effective approach to assessing program impact for 4‐H Healthy Living and similar out‐of‐school time programs.

Within Extension, environmental scans are most commonly used to assess community or organizational issues or for strategic planning purposes. However, Extension has expanded the use of environmental scans to systematically identify "what programs exist" on a given topic or focus area. Yet, despite recent attention to the topic of environmental scanning in Extension, survey instruments used to conduct environmental scans have not been published. Given the emphasis on implementation of evidence-based practices and programs, having a ready-made survey that can be used to identify programs on a specific topic and that could subsequently lead to an evaluability assessment of those programs would be a useful resource. To encourage the use of environmental scans to identify existing evidence-based programs, this article describes a survey instrument developed for the purpose of scanning for 4-H Healthy Living programs ready for rigorous outcome evaluation and/or national replication. It focuses on the rationale for survey items, as well as provides a summary and definition of those items. The survey tool can be easily adapted for future programmatic environmental scans both within and outside Extension.