Teen Vaping in Wisconsin

The Extension Vaping Work Group partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and the Applied Population Lab to analyze Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from 260,000 high school students and 188,000 middle school students across the state. The survey shows that males and females use vaping devices nearly the same. American Indian and […]

4-H Tech Changemakers

4-H has partnered with Microsoft to create the 4-H Tech Changemakers. There are eight teams nationwide, and each team is making a difference in their community with the use of technology. Meet the Teams Maine, Michigan, North Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Georgia and Virginia. Marketing Toolkit Resources from National 4-H Council, including event resources, logos […]

Youth on Local Government Boards and Committees

UW-Extension is working with county boards and city councils and their committees to include youth representation in several Wisconsin counties. Youth Representatives on Full Elected Board Adams County: The Adams County SAYL Program helps young people and government officials work together. The purpose of the program is to create a model of youth involvement within […]

Pre-Planning

Pre-planning is an essential process to lay the groundwork for a YACH project. It helps the group avoid issues that can derail youths’ best efforts later. Through pre-planning, the group establishes clear expectations about group behavior and a clear definition of the community they plan to serve. This is also a time for facilitators to […]

Choose Your Battle

Choosing Your Battle is the first official step in the project cycle. It pushes youth to look deeper at the community they have chosen to serve. It helps them to understand it in a new way. Youth will then begin to dive into the things about their community that are wonderful and those that are […]

Raise Awareness

Raising Awareness allows youth to think about how they want to communicate their goals, gather community feedback, and discover how their community partners can support them. While this step is sometimes overlooked, raising awareness is an important opportunity for youth to gain perspective on the need and refine their ideas. It is great practice for […]

Make Your Action Plan

Making an action plan is such an important step to clearly lay out action steps, involvement, resources, and goals of the project. During the pre-planning, choose your battle, and raise awareness sections, youth should have added several pieces to their action plan already. Now is the time to create a full plan for the project. […]

Implement Your Plan

Implementation pulls together all the work that youth have done. During this step, youth follow the action plan to implement the project and evaluate as they go. Youth should make sure to communicate to the community about their efforts.   Watch the video below for a short overview of Implement Youth Plan. In the Guidebook, […]

Evaluate Your Plan

Evaluation should occur throughout the entire project as well as at the end. Individual and group reflection, especially in a youth participatory action research project, provide the youth with opportunities to look back on their recent experience. It helps them think about their contributions, what they learned, and how they want to move forward. Take […]

Youth in Governance

What do we mean by Youth in Governance? Youth and adults working together in positions of authority to make decisions and take action to strengthen organizations, communities, and our democratic society. Why is it important? In 2002, over 2000 Wisconsin residents came together in 83 county-based conversations on youth development. They identified two top priorities […]

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