4-H

One of the unique aspects of the annual National Four-H conference is answering questions. Annie Ceccarini of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and National Four-H coordinator explains. W e have 20 federal partners. They put forward a question and they ask youth about something that that agency is working on and that they'd like to hear youth opinion on. To give you an example, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, they will ask a question about college affordability. What are their ideas for making college more affordable? This question and answer process is one reason why the National Four-H event is considered a working conference. Speaker2: The youth work in small groups throughout conference. They'll do research before coming to conference. Then at conference they'll work together and they put together a 45 minute youth perspective briefing. Speaker1: With presentations taking place within federal agency sites during the conference. They travel to that federal agency and they present those ideas in person. And really, that's their opportunity to share their voice with the federal government, with decision makers, and then to influence what those federal agencies, their practices and policies are. And we've seen in the last few years that 4-Hers have been really influential in bringing about change. A couple years ago, they presented to the US Forest Service on how the Forest Service could make forests more accessible, and the youth came up with gear swaps. Maybe that there are young people and families that don't go out into forest because they might not have holes or hiking shoes or the right attire, and that's intimidating. Or they can't afford it. So is it possibility to add gear swaps where you can borrow gear? So they had just some really creative, innovative ideas that they have shared with every agency every year. And the agencies are kind of lured by youth perspective and come back every year asking if they can participate again.