4-H Delivers

4-H Outdoor Skills in Santa Clara County

The Issue:
Two 4-H volunteer leaders, prior California Park Rangers, saw a lack of knowledge within the general public and 4-H community regarding the outdoors and California State Park system. A knowledge base within 4-H helps ensure members participate in outdoor activities safely. 

What has 4-H Done?
To address this issue, a new project was created to help teach the necessary information to the community. Throughout the project, 4-H members learned survival skills, first aid tactics and wilderness basics. To help reinforce these newly learned skills participants then had an opportunity to apply them in a camp setting. Youth with experience in the project taught the newcomers which helped reinforce the older members’ knowledge base and further develop their mentoring skills. Teamwork was emphasized at each project meeting and learning was reinforced through scenarios. Though basic first aid skills were covered, the members were encouraged to seek first aid certification as well as CPR training. The skill building camping trip required a lot of advanced planning and in preparation the youth researched costs, weather, fire restrictions, and rules and regulations and chose the camp site.  Additionally, the youth charted travel routes and used topographical maps to plan a hike while on the camping trip. 

The Payoff: 
This skill building project gave families who never camped in the wilderness an opportunity to do so with the support of experienced leaders. The result was a strengthening of families through a shared positive learning experience.  The project helped to serve youth from various socioeconomic levels and various ages with a focus of making the project accessible to all. In the future, the group hopes to also orient future members with the use of GPS technology.