Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Accomplishments and Short-term Outcomes for Objectives:

Objective 1: Convene researchers, Extension educators, and faculty to foster interdisciplinary work on social capital and community youth development.

Accomplishments: A large number of team members have been involved in publishing results in peer-reviewed publications and delivering scholarly presentations and professional development sessions. The range of states and disciplines involved has increased the reach of these presentations to include youth development, evaluation, community development, and education.

Outputs: On November 12, 2017, during the NAE4-HA National 4-H Conference, we convened researchers, Extension educators, and faculty whose research, teaching and/or practice involves youth and community development in order to foster interdisciplinary work on social capital and community youth development by unveiling the Social Capital Toolkit we have created.

Milestones:

• Project and research teams continue with 75% attendance on monthly calls and 60% attendance at yearly meeting(s).
• Submitted additional proposals to two funding sources.
  • CNCS Research Grant, July 2017
  • NCRCRD First Impressions Grant, Feb 2018

Short-term Outcomes: As examples of the current and continuing multi-state and interdisciplinary engagement, California, Maine and Maryland staff are developing and piloting the current survey instrument. The national roll-out will involve other states that are represented on the project and additional states will be recruited. The qualitative data collection process has been implemented in over ten states and was initially refined by Iowa, Wisconsin and Maine. The special issue of New Directions for Youth Development included work of team members (all authors of articles) from Maine, Missouri, Wisconsin, California, South Dakota, New Jersey, Kansas, and NIFA. Additional publications have been led by California and New Jersey.

Objective 2: Fund and implement a major national research project utilizing the tools already piloted and validated by this project to explore how 4-H Programming contributes to the development of social capital within communities.

Accomplishments and Short term outcome: The social capital survey and interview protocol piloted in California demonstrated robust reliability. A participatory ripple mapping process is integrated into a toolkit as a first step in measuring community change in the USDA-funded Engaging Youth Serving Communities project.

Outputs: Over the course of this year, 2017-18, we developed Memorandums of Agreement from University of Maryland 4-H Foundation with several Universities to fund and implement a major national research project utilizing the survey tools already piloted and validated by this project to explore how the 4-H Program contributes to the development of social capital within communities, specifically: a. To determine 4-H experiences that contributes to the development of youths' social capital. b. To identify and analyze how the quantity and quality of the 4-H Program's community involvement impacts the level of social capital among youth and adult volunteers c. To identify and analyze how the quantity and quality of the 4-H Program's community involvement impacts the development of social capital within the community. We have received 445/1000 of our target… will be 499/1000 once Maine’s are received.

Milestones: Team continues data collection and continues to analyze data;

• Team reports findings through white papers, reports to practitioners, and begins preparation of peer-reviewed journal articles. See list of articles below.
• Team identifies additional opportunities to conduct investigation with Cooperative Extension and other community and youth development practitioners and participants. See list of statewide programs above.

Objective 3: Refine existing and develop new measurement tools to identify and analyze how the 4-H Program impacts the level of the various capitals (as identified in the Community Capital Framework) within the community.

Accomplishments and Current Efforts: The survey will be piloted in Maryland this fall to test validity with urban youth. An accompanying rubric to measure program practices is being refined to increase its sensitivity and to reflect early findings as well as to align with the Thrive model developed by Mary Arnold.  The team plans to utilize both tools in a national study in the first year of the new project.

• We have held discussions about refining the matrix in efforts toward refining existing and developing new measurement tools to identify and analyze how the 4-H Program impacts the level of the various capitals (as identified in the Community Capital Framework) within the community.

Objective 4: Improve the quality of community youth development practice in the Extension system and beyond.

Accomplishments: Research findings have been disseminated through the Extension system via CYFAR, NAE4-HA and Galaxy Conference presentations, Journal of Extension articles, and national and state webinars and training sessions. Findings have been shared more broadly with the field, notably through a 2013 special issue of New Directions for Youth Development and our members contributed to 2017 Chazdon and Emery’s A Field Guide to Ripple Effects Mapping. Findings from current research are building content for training modules in the Toolkit.

• At several conferences and the NAE4-HA Pre-Conference we improved the quality of community youth development practice in the Extension system and beyond by a. Disseminating research findings b. Creating and delivering training modules on effective program practices.

Activities: Organized and specific functions or duties carried out by individuals or teams using scientific methods to reveal new knowledge and develop new understanding.

• NAE4-HA Pre- Conference, October 2018. 26 Youth Development professionals and administrators in attendance with representation from each region (National, Maryland, New Hampshire, Iowa, Oregon, Illinois, Florida, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Indiana, Arkansas, Minnesota, Georgia, Montana and California) . One additional state signed on for the quantitative survey study after the pre-conference session. Feedback from participants have also led to updates and edits in the Social Capital Toolkit and the drafting of a Toolkit part 2 (putting the frameworks into practice).

Other extension program improvement and professional development activities include:

• Youth empowerment task force presentation (Neil)
• Integrated REM into 4-H Tech Changemakers training
• In-state presentations to faculty around social capital
  • Maryland webinar
• Statewide programs that include social capital principles:
  • Maryland 4-H Issue Forum: Food Insecurity
  • Wisconsin First Impressions (Neil)
    • Interstate conversations from CDS that led to MO training
  • Wisconsin’s Youth as Partners in Civic Leadership Conference participants tracked their relationship-building change during a conference weekend. (Matt)
  • 4-H Tech Changemakers utilized Ripple Effect Mapping tool to document community impacts, with a focus on social capital developed through intentional community stakeholder engagement. (WA, ND, WI, MI, ME, VA)
  • Minnesota’s YELLO!
  • Missouri Youth Civic Leaders Summit (Steve)

• Team implements research and extension activities across multiple Extension program areas. Especially noted by the NAE4-HA Pre-Conference Workshop.
• Developed a compendium (Toolkit) for 4-H and other Extension programs of practices and strategies to increase the development of social capital; prepare and submit final reports as part of the Toolkit. Also, Mary Emery edited “A Field Guide to Ripple Effects Mapping” with other NCERA215 members contributing to it.

Outputs: Defined products (tangible or intangible) that are delivered by a research project. Examples of outputs are reports, data, information, observations, publications, and patents.

  Objective 2: To fund and implement a major national research project utilizing the tools already piloted and validated by this project to explore how the 4-H Program contributes to the development of social capital within communities, specifically: a. To determine 4-H experiences that contributes to the development of youths' social capital. b. To identify and analyze how the quantity and quality of the 4-H Program's community involvement impacts the level of social capital among youth and adult volunteers c. To identify and analyze how the quantity and quality of the 4-H Program's community involvement impacts the development of social capital within the community:

Objective 3: To refine existing and develop new measurement tools to identify and analyze how the 4-H Program impacts the level of the various capitals (as identified in the Community Capital Framework) within the community

Objective 4:To improve the quality of community youth development practice in the Extension system and beyond by a. Disseminating research findings b. Creating and delivering training modules on effective program practices:

Milestones:

FOR OBJECTIVE 1:

• Project and research teams continue with 75% attendance on monthly calls and 60% attendance at yearly meeting(s).
• Submitted additional proposals to two funding sources.
  • CNCS Research Grant, July 2017
  • NCRCRD First Impressions Grant, Feb 2018

FOR OBJECTIVES 2 and 3:

• The research methods and instruments developed by the team are more widely used across the Extension system, making reliable information about social capital development available for the first time. The team’s experience has shown that this information is important to stakeholders and program participants. This project will address the need for more evidence-based programming in the areas of youth community engagement and citizenship.Three states (WV, MD, ME) provided funding ($1,500/ea.) to join survey and receive local data reports.

FOR OBJECTIVE 4:

• Team implements research and extension activities across multiple Extension program areas. Especially noted by the NAE4-HA Pre-Conference Workshop.
• Developed a compendium (Toolkit) for 4-H and other Extension programs of practices and strategies to increase the development of social capital; prepare and submit final reports as part of the Toolkit. Also, Mary Emery edited “A Field Guide to Ripple Effects Mapping” with other NCERA215 members contributing to it.

2017-2018:

Calvert, M., Zierl, L. and Small, S. Pierce-St. Croix County CARES Coalition: Addressing Child and Family Social and Emotional Well-Being. In Chazdon, Emery et al (Eds). (2017). A Field Guide to Ripple Effects Mapping, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.

Chazdon, S., Emery, M., Hansen, D., Higgins, L, & Sero, R. (2017). A Field Guide to Ripple Effects Mapping.

Fields, N. (2017). The contribution of urban 4-H to social capital and the implications for social justice. Journal of Extension, 6FEA1,  https://joe.org/joe/2017december/a1.php

Franzen-Castle, L., Colby, S.E., Kattelmann, K.K., Olfert, M.D., Mathews, D., Yerxa, K., Baker, B. A., Krehbiel, M., Lehrke, T., Wilson-Sweebe, K., Flanagan, S. M., Ford, A., Aguirre, T., White A. A. (2018 Submission) Development of the iCook 4-H Curriculum for Youth and Adults: Cooking, Eating, and Playing Together for Childhood Obesity Prevention. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

Haskell, J., Baker, B., Olfert M. D., Colby S., Kattelmann K., Franzen-Castle L., White, A., (2018 Tentative Acceptance). Using Ripple Effects Maps to Identify Story Threads: A Framework to Link Private to Public Value. Journal of Human Sciences and Extension https://www.jhseonline.com/

Henness, S., & Moncheski, M. (2017). Youth/adult partnerships impacting rural poverty: The case of Lamar, Missouri. In S. Chazdon, M. Emery, D. Hansen, L. Higgins & R. Sero (eds). A field guide to ripple effects mapping. (72-78). Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute.  Retrieved from https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/190639

Henness, S. & Calvert, M. (2017). Missouri 4-H community service-learning census. 2016-17.  Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Extension.  Retrieved from http://4h.missouri.edu//documents/missouri-4h-sl-census-2017.pdf

Olfert MD, Hagedorn RL, White JA, Baker BA, Colby SE, Franzen-Castle L, Kattelmann KK, White AA. An Impact Mapping Method to Generate Robust Qualitative Evaluation of Community-Based Research Programs for Youth and Adults. Methods and Protocols. 2018; 1(3):25. https://doi.org/10.3390/mps1030025 (registering DOI) - Retrieved 17 July 2018

Olfert M. D., King S., Hagedorn R. L., Barr M. L., Baker B. A., Colby S. E., Kattelmann K. K., Franzen-Castle L., White A. A. (2018 submission). Ripple Effects Mapping Outcomes of a Childhood Obesity Prevention Program from Youth and Adult Pairs Using a Qualitative Approach: iCook 4-H In review by JNEB Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, https://www.jneb.org/

Earlier publications:

Fields, N. (2016). The contribution of urban 4-H positive youth development towards social capital and social justice. (Doctoral dissertation).

Fields, N. & Nathaniel, K. (2015). Our role in and responsibility toward social justice. Journal of Extension, 53(5), 5COM2, http://www.joe.org/joe/2015october/comm2.php.

Calvert, M., Emery, M. & Kinsey, S. (Eds) (2013). New directions for youth development. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emery, M., Higgins, L., Chazdon, S., & Hanson, D.  (2015). Using ripple effect mapping to evaluate program impact: Choosing or combining the methods that work best for you. Journal of Extension, 53(2), Article 2TOT1. Available at: https://www.joe.org/joe/2015april/tt1.php

Presentations 2017-2018:

Calvert, M., Emery, M., Fields, N. & Baker, B. (2017) When is Youth Development also Community Development? Youth program practices that foster Social Capital. Poster presented at Federal Reserve System Community Development Conference, Washington DC, March, 2017

Fields, N. (2017). Increasing Social Capital and Social Justice through Urban Positive Youth Development. Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations. Toronto, Canada. (Refereed).

Fields, N. (2017). The Contribution of Urban 4-H to Social Capital and the Implications for Social Justice. National Vulnerable Populations Taskforce Meeting. Chevy Chase, MD. (Invited by National Program Leader).

Fields, N. (2017). Social Capital and Social Justice in Youth Development. National 4-H E-Academy Series: Diversity and Inclusion in PYD presented to 271 participants. (Invited by National 4-H Program Leader).

Fields, N. (2017). Social Capital and Social Justice in Youth Development. Nevada 4-H State program webinar presented to ­­­­10 participants. (Invited by Nevada 4-H Program Manager).

Fields, N. (2018). Keynote-Purposeful Belonging: Fostering Inclusive Settings with Equity in Mind. Oregon 4-H Spring Retreat. (Invited by Oregon 4-H Program Leaders)

Fields, N., Henness, S., Nathaniel, K., Baker, B., Klemme, N., and Anderson, C. (2017). Building social capital in 4-H: Identifying and measuring program practices that strengthen communities.  National Association of Extension 4-H Agents. Indianapolis, IN.

Henness, S. (2017). Improving your serve. Missouri 4-H Center for Youth Development. Columbia, MO.

Henness, S. (2017).  MCB youth progress and pride. Missouri Community Betterment Conference.  Columbia, MO.

Klemme, N., Johnson, T. (2017). Youth and Community Design. Community Development Society Conference. Big Sky, MT.

Klemme, N., Johnson, T (2018). Empowering Youth to Transform Communities. Creative Placemaking Leadership Summit. Chattanooga, TN.

Klemme, N., Van Treek, C., (2018). Follow the Yellow Brick Road. Missouri Community Betterment Conference. Columbia, MO.

Klemme, N., (2018). What Makes My Community Great? Wisconsin State 4-H Youth Conference. Madison, WI.