Youth in 4-H Latino Initiative programs achieve similar outcomes to youth in 4-H community clubs

Abstract

Until recently, California 4-H programs did not represent the ethnic diversity found in California's population of young people. To close the gap in representation particularly with Latino youth UC ANR began the 4-H Latino Initiative, an effort to pilot adapted programs that would target the engagement of Latino youth and families. In this paper, we explore and compare young people's program experience and youth development outcomes between 4-H community clubs and 4-H Latino Initiative programs. We employed comparative post-test survey methodology with two treatment groups (community clubs versus 4-H Latino Initiative programs). The findings provide encouraging evidence that young people experienced positive outcomes from participating in 4-H programs, inclusive of both 4-H community clubs and 4-H Latino Initiative programs. Additionally, we found that the program experience including relationship building and youth engagement were similar across community clubs and 4-H Latino Initiative programs.