Performing Department
Extension Youth Programs
Non Technical Summary
The Utah 4-H Mentoring, operated through Utah State University, provides one-on-one and group mentoring to rural at-risk youth and their families. The program will match 60-75 at-risk rural youth in grades 4 through 8 with.This proposal targets two rural counties which are Duchesne and Carbon. The target population includes youth at risk of delinquent behaviors from economically disadvantaged and historically underserved neighborhoods. Mentors will be recruited based on similar lived experiences and cultural backgrounds to foster trust and understanding.The purpose of this project is to decrease delinquent behavior and increase positive outcomes for youth through the evidence-based 4-H Mentoring Youth & Families with Promise Model. The program's four key design components are:One-on-One or Group Mentoring: Tailored to meet the needs of individual youth.4-H Enrichment Opportunities: Including 4-H club projects, camps, contests, and events to enhance personal growth and social skills.Youth and Family Partnerships: Strengthening family engagement through monthly family workshops (Family Night Out), an annual 4-H family camp, and the development of a statewide youth and parent advisory council, ensuring families and youth have a voice in program implementation and direction.Monthly Structured Mentoring Activities: Providing consistent support and developmental opportunities for mentoring participants.The project's goals and expected outcomes include decreased delinquent behavior, increased positive outcomes, and strengthened family bonds for youth and their families. These goals will be measured by collecting end-of-year statewide Utah 4-H impact survey, and gathering data from mentor reports and program activity attendance.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Goal #1: Reduce delinquent behaviors, focusing on juvenile delinquency, substance misuse, and other risk factors.Goal #2: Improve educational outcomes and social competencies among at-risk youth.Goal#3: Strengthen family relationships and community ties.
Project Methods
Evaluation Methods:Mentee Survey:Mentees will participate in the Annual 4-H Youth Evaluation that is intended only to generate internal improvements to the services provided.In order to acquire data from as many participants as possible, distribution of survey instruments link will take place during high-attended 4-H afterschool clubs and other mentoring activities during the survey period which is May-Sept each year. The survey questions were developed by the Extension Evaluation Specialist on USU Campus and protocols were reviewed by the Institutional Review Board and was designated as not human subjects research and is assigned exemption number IRB# 12879.Parent Survey::New for this grant, PI, Co-Pi and Project Director plan to work with the USU Extension Evaluation Specialist with resources from the National Mentoring Resource Center to develop a new survey instrument to administer to the parents/guardians of the youth served that will measure the short-term results of 15% reduction in negative behaviors, 15% improvement in social competences, and positive impact on family interactions. Utah 4-H Mentoring feels it is more appropriate to ask parents rather than the youth the more sensitive questions related to negative behaviors. This evaluation instrument will be distributed to parents/guardians through electronic means. It will be a Qualtrics survey and should be able to track responses received with no personal identifiers. This survey instrument/protocol/methodology will be developed during the first year of funding and will need IRB approval before being administered if fuOther Data CollectionAdditional information required to track the progress of program short term results will be collected through 4h.zsuite.org and other data entry systems that consist of entry and exit dates for mentoring participants, length of mentor matches, attendance at mentoring activities and 4-H enrichment opportunities, and number of youth served, etc. Each month, mentors turn in an online mentor report. This online data system is updated regularly by mentoring coordinators and monitored by the Project Director to ensure quality and accuracy.