4-H Delivers

Development of SET in Santa Barbara

 The Issue:
 Santa Barbara County needed to develop its Goleta clubs and increase 4-H visibility in the community. Capitalizing on the 4-H Science, Engineering, and Technology (SET) Initiative provided an effective way to strengthen 4-H programming and change the public’s perception of 4-H.

 

What has 4-H Done?:

Santa Barbara County conducted a range of activities: started county-wide projects in robotics and chemistry for local club members using university students as project leaders, created an environmental stewardship outreach/community service project in collaboration with the County of Santa Barbara Water Agency & Project Clean Water, and began a SET program committee to try to build science in the area.

 

Countywide projects in robotics and chemistry were great ways of building and strengthening the Santa Barbara area clubs. Although the county had many animal projects, the two clubs in Goleta—in the south of the county by the university—didn’t. These clubs tended to be smaller and offered fewer projects. To lead these countywide projects they recruited student volunteer leaders from UCSB. By working with the university, youth were provided with college mentors and clubs were given access to science led by future field leaders. It created new and dynamic projects that were exciting to the 4-H youth, their parents, and the UCSB volunteers.

 

Agua Pura is a watershed stewardship program that 4-H has developed with the County of Santa Barbara Water Agency. 4-H youth joined the Agua Pura project and were educated in issues of the watershed using the 4-H experiential learning concept. These youth then attended community events and educated other youth and community members about watershed management with a demonstration of a model of the watershed. This project is open to all 4-H youth, but special emphasis is put on bilingual outreach to provide the Latino community with watershed quality information. It is science education, community service, and 4-H visibility all wrapped into one project.

 

Santa Barbara found so many benefits using SET to build 4-H that they developed a SET committee. The purpose of this committee is to help increase SET projects throughout the county and use SET projects to recruit for and develop county clubs.

 

The Payoff:

These projects were a successful method of growing the two Goleta 4-H clubs, which increased by 41%. They were also very successful at increasing 4-H visibility in the community and at the local university. The countywide projects made UCSB students and faculty more aware of 4-H and the programs and projects it offers. Agua Pura attended six festivals and three school events as representatives of 4-H, sharing the watershed model and 4-H with a total 4,338 people. The SET future looks bright in sunny Santa Barbara.