Recipient Organization
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
2229 Lincoln Way
AMES,IA 50011
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Through the research-based, evidence-informed Pathways for Our Future program model, 120 Latino 8th grade youth (13-14 yrs) at-risk for not graduating from high school in two rural Iowa communities will engage in high context, high contact activities to gain knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary to pursue paths that will prepare them for careers and college. Short-term outcomes: (1) improved youth social competencies; (2) improved youth understanding of career and college pathways; (3) improved parent involvement; (4) improved family communication. Long-term outcomes: (5) youth pursue career and college pathways aligned with their goals; and (6) Extension has increased capacity to engage Latino audiences in programming on an on-going basis. Technology that foster life skills and access to information is integrated into project activities. Model components: (1) ¡Salir Adelante! six family-based weekly workshops; (2) 4-H Career Pathways Academy: six monthly Find Your Sparks sessions and summer worksite externships; (3) Family Events throughout each year to reinforce and extend information and skill building and foster family communication; (4) monthly ¡Salir Adelante! 4-H Clubs focus on experiential learning to foster leadership and life skills; (5) Family Visits to trade schools, community colleges, 4-year colleges/universities; and (6) youth participation in long-term, increasingly challenging educational experiences via local (4-H County Council), state (4-H Connect Retreat, Iowa Youth Conference), and national (National 4-H Youth Conference, 4-H Congress) opportunities. Community advisory committees guide program development, implementation and evaluation, and strategies for program sustainability. Data collected at multiple time-points to determine program impact on youth over time.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Major goal: Foster career and college readiness among Latino youth.Short-term objectives: (1) improveyouth socialcompetencies; (2) improveyouthunderstanding of careerand college pathways; (3) improve parentinvolvement; (4) improvefamilycommunication.Long-term objectives:(1) youth will pursue careerand college pathwaysaligned with their goals; and (2)Extension will increase its capacity to engage Latinoaudiences inprogramming on an ongoingbasis.
Project Methods
Effforts/Activities: (1)Latino youth in middle school (grades 6-8) and their families participate in Salir Adelante - six (2.5 hour)weekly sessions; (2) 8th gradeyouth participate in4-H Career Pathways Academy; (3)Youth and their families participate in Family Events held three times a year; (4) Youth and their families visit postsecondary institutions; (5) Salir Adelante 4-H clubs; (6) 4-H conferences and/or retreats. Evaluation: (1)Over the course of the five-year project, 120 youth (n=120) and at least one of their parents/primary caregivers (n=120) will be enrolled in the project, for a total of 120 youth/parentor primary caregiverdyads (N=240). Community-based professionals will be trained to assist with collecting project data from youth and parents/caregivers in Spanish or English based on their preferences. Responses to survey itemswill be entered into an online Qualtrics surveyusing tablets, cell phones, or iPads. Each survey will take 25-30 minutes to complete. Survey items include: (1) Required CYFAR demographic related questions (7items) andmeasures (i.e., pre/post- life skills- 26 items, resilience- 17 items; post- engagement- 9 items, participation- 7 items, quality- 24 items) and (2) Program specific measures (i.e., knowledge related to how to support youth-8 items, parent involvement-17 items, family communication-10 items, academic aspirations and expectations (2 items), and additional demographic questions- 5 items.Data Collection Time-points: During the first year of enrollment in the project, all cohorts of 8th grade youth/primary caregiver dyads will complete the survey three times. During subsequent years in the project, all cohorts of youth/primary caregiver dyads will complete the survey annually in mid-August for as long as they are in the program. Time 1 (T1): mid-Sept, within 2 weeks before the first Salir Adelante workshop; Time 2 (T2): mid-Nov/early Dec, within 2 weeks after the last Salir Adelante workshop; Time 3 (T3): mid-August, at the end of the 4-H Career Pathways Summer Externship.Growth models will be estimated within a multilevel modeling framework to examine whether there are individual differences over time on the CYFAR common measures (e.g., life skills30) and whether other variables (e.g., participation, dosage, parent involvement27, family communication28) explain the between youth variability in individual trajectories over time. Participation and dosage will serve as covariates. This evaluation plan allows us to track whether the program helped youth to improve over time, whether time in the program (e.g., 1 year vs. 2 years) affected this change, and whether different components were more or less predictive of this change.