209 - Capturing the Public Value of Minnesota 4-H: Amplifying Youth Community Impact

Abstract Information: The University of Minnesota Extension Center for Youth Development has a long history of leadership in the field of youth development and is best known for running Minnesota 4-H. Minnesota 4-H aims to provide young people with the opportunity to learn by developing a passion in their areas of interest and lead by being innovators and social change agents. As a part of Extension and largely funded by USDA-NIFA, we are also motivated to show the public value impact of our programming for young people across Minnesota. As with many organizations, while we may feel intrinsically that our programs have public value, measuring this has proven elusive. Sharing the program’s story of impact is a requirement of our Educators for accountability and petitioning for public funding. Greater though is the desire to instill in youth the ability to recognize their capacity to positively influence their communities - and inversely to make communities aware of the assets their youth hold. For the 2024 program year, we piloted a new initiative to evaluate their Community Impact. The multi-tiered approach will raise awareness of 4-H’s public value, equip participants to be intentional about how they are making a difference, and will open avenues for building evaluative capacity in our program participants. This poster will include an overview of the first year’s implementation, including the strengths and limitations, and the data we were able to collect from the broad-scale instrument. It will also present the analysis and process for amplifying our youth voices - not only in their community impact, but in influencing the narrative of their stories.