PRESS RELEASE
Southern University and A&M College
Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center
__________________________________________________________________
Contact: Bridget Udoh
(225) 771-5714
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
National 4-H Council Announces National Mentoring Program With Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center
BATON ROUGE, LA, 2/2/2011 – National 4-H Council is proud to announce that it has launched a nationwide mentoring initiative to increase youth social competency, family relationships, and academic success. The 4-H National Mentoring Program will provide funding to land-grant universities in 47 states to replicate three evidence-based Extension 4-H programs in communities that have an increased risk for youth delinquency.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded a $5 million grant to National 4-H Council in support of the 4-H National Mentoring Program. The grant comes as a part of the OJJDP’s national effort to strengthen, expand and implement youth mentoring activities nationwide to improve the lives of millions of young Americans.
Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center is pleased to announce it has been selected to implement 4-H LIFE – Living Interactive Family Education as a part of the 4-H National Mentoring Program. Staff members recently joined representatives from other state 4-H programs for training at the National 4-H Youth Conference Center in Chevy Chase, MD, near Washington, DC, January 10-15, 2011. State 4-H programs selected from three of Cooperative Extension’s proven mentoring programs to implement in their local communities: 4-H Mentoring: Youth & Families with Promise (YFP), created by Utah State University; 4-H Tech Wizards, created by Oregon State University; and 4-H Living Interactive Family Education (LIFE), created by the University of Missouri.
The 4-H LIFE Program is a family strengthening program that addresses the needs of children of incarcerated parents. The overall objective of the 4-H LIFE Program is to promote a strong, healthy, and nurturing family environment for children of incarcerated parents, while helping incarcerated parents and trained 4-H volunteers become positive role models and mentors.
The program has three, interwoven components focused on parenting skills classes and planning meetings for the incarcerated parents and 4-H club meetings that unite children with their families inside the prison visiting room. These components are designed to create stronger parent-child bonds, improve the quality of prison-based family visits, and increase youth decision-making and communication skills. Incarcerated parents are required to participate in weekly parenting, leadership, and planning meetings in order to qualify for the program. Children of offenders who are involved in 4-H LIFE are also enrolled as members of county 4-H programs and are mentored by 4-H volunteers.
It has been demonstrated that a trusting relationship with a caring adult can have a life-changing effect on a young person. Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center will implement, monitor, and assess program mentoring strategies to create positive outcomes for youth. Research data indicates that mentoring programs have reduced first-time drug use by almost 50 percent and first-time alcohol use by 33 percent. In addition, mentored youth displayed greater confidence in their schoolwork and improved their academic performance.
###
About 4-H
4-H is a community of six million young people across America learning leadership, citizenship, and life skills. National 4-H Council is the private sector, non-profit partner of 4-H National Headquarters at the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) within USDA. 4-H programs are implemented by 109 land-grant universities and the Cooperative Extension System through their 3,100 local Extension offices in every county across the country. Learn more about 4-H at www.4-H.org.
This project is supported by Award No. 2010-JU-FX-0016 awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs
For further detail, please contact Tiffany Franklin at 225-771-2242 or (225) 771-2775
###
www.suagcenter.com
No comments:
Post a Comment