Connecting Community Needs: Youth Development & Family Living

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Community Development & Vitality
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Youth Development & Family Living
Summary
Annual Report

Extension helps create vibrant, sustainable futures for individuals, families, and communities. We work with community and county partners to empower youth and families to function effectively in a changing world.

Program priorities in youth development and family living are promoting quality out-of-school time, strengthening families, preparing for aging, and improving housing.

Youth need quality out-of-school opportunities that promote learning and growth. Extension's 4-H Youth Development program creates challenging opportunities for Minnesota youth to learn, lead, and serve.

Promoting quality out-of-school time

Parents want their children to be in safe, productive, fun places during out-of-school hours. Students achieve higher academic levels, hold higher expectations for themselves, and are more optimistic when they are engaged in effective out-of-school programs. Constructive time use helps prevent risky behaviors, encourages positive behaviors, and provides for interaction with peers and caring adults.

Extension provides communities with research-based assistance in planning quality out-of-school programs. We help families make wise choices about children's activities. We empower adults and older youth to use research-based best practices to support a wide range of programs in many areas including the arts, sciences, and leadership development. Our 4-H youth development programs en-rich out-of-school programs in community youth centers and other related settings across Minnesota.

Strengthening families

All families have strengths. At times, however, families need outside support to make it through challenges such as transitions due to immigration, moving from welfare to work, and divorce; inadequate income; escalating health-care costs; inadequate employment benefits; inadequate housing; and changing family structures.

Extension mobilizes communities to develop comprehensive systems for increasing family stability. We teach skills in decision making, parenting, money and housing management, nutrition, health, and engaging youth as resources. These educational programs are grounded in research and developed in partnership with University, county, and community partners.

Programs aimed at strengthening families include Parents Forever, Positive Parenting, Nutrition Education Programs, and Dollarworks.

Preparing for aging

The average age in America is rising rapidly. Extension is helping Minnesotans prepare for the consequences of this age shift by bringing University research to communities as they build the infrastructure needed to support people of all ages and abilities. Our focus is on nurturing physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social resilience in individuals and families as they age.

Improving housing

Housing is a key determinant of quality of life. The physical and social environments associated with housing influence family functioning, children's growth, and, ultimately, societal well-being.

Housing issues in Minnesota include a need for information on how to build and maintain a safe, healthy home; frequent moves among low-resource families; affordability; land-use planning; public policy to provide housing alternatives in small towns and rural areas; affordable housing in urban and suburban areas; and need for education and affordable mortgage products for first-time buyers in rural communities.

Extension teaches decision-making and home-maintenance skills, especially for first-time home buyers in rural communities. We also help communities develop policies and programs that promote access to adequate, affordable, technologically sound, and environmentally safe housing for all.

Trends

Minnesota has the highest percentage (40 percent versus 24 percent nationally) of 10- to 12-year-olds home alone while parents work.

Poor eating patterns of limited resource and minority families in Minnesota lead to increased risk for chronic disease compared to more affluent non-minority families. Poverty in communities of color has a significantly negative impact on the health status of minority families.

Minnesota has the second highest percentage of part-time workers in the nation. Most of their jobs are without benefits such as health insurance, retirement, and savings plans.

By 2030, 23 percent of Minnesotans will be 65 years or older--up from 12.7 percent in 2000.

Many Minnesota communities are experiencing a shortage of safe, healthy, and affordable housing.

Nationally, 61 percent of parents surveyed want safe, productive, fun places for children in out-of-school hours.

High rates of residential mobility among low-resource families results in disruption of friendships, support groups, and adaptation to school and neighborhood surroundings.

University Expertise

Extension's 4-H Youth Development program benefits more than 260,000 Minnesota youth annually with the help of more than 8,800 adult volunteers who donate more than 800,000 hours a year.
Extension programs draw upon the Center for 4-H Youth Development; Children, Youth and Family Consortium; College of Human Ecology; College of Education and Human Development; School of Public Health; School of Nursing; Crookston Campus; and Southwest and West Central Research and Outreach Centers.
Extension's Food and Nutrition Programs have provided critical nutrition education to more than 27,000 participants in 2000.
Extension has a 100-year history of developing and delivering research-based youth and family living educational programs in Minnesota.
More than 300,000 Minnesota parents have benefited from Extension's Positive Parenting program. Parents Forever, an educational program for families in divorce transition, has reached more than 7,000 families.
Extension faculty provided 160 hours of training on housing technology and indoor air quality, reaching more than 2,300 builders and developers in 2000.

Delivering programs and information

The University of Minnesota Extension Service is committed to delivering high-quality, relevant educational programs and information to Minnesota citizens and communities. Our statewide network of researchers, educators, and volunteers addresses critical needs by focusing on issues where research-based education can make a difference.

The University of Minnesota Extension Service:

Addresses critical issues through research and education
Works in urban, suburban, and rural Minnesota communities
Builds the capacity of individuals and communities to address critical issues
Works in partnership with private organizations and local, state, and national governments
Creates and responds to opportunities for learning
Fosters the strength that comes from diversity
Leverages private and public resources

Extension's statewide network focuses on:

Community development and vitality
Land, food, and environment
Youth development and family living

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