Improving Healthy Living Youth Development Program Outreach in Extension: Lessons Learned from the 4-H Health Rocks! Program

This article discusses a qualitative evaluation of the Florida 4-H Health Rocks! program aimed at youth alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use prevention. A questionnaire was distributed to Extension professionals across Florida to gain insight into the strengths and barriers they faced with programming. Programmatic strengths included targeting a significant issue, using experiential activities, building life skills, and emphasizing youth-adult partnerships. Major programmatic barriers included time constraints, unsuccessful recruitment of volunteers, and an inability to fulfill implementation requirements. Specific recommendations are proposed to Extension professionals in order to improve overall Extension programming

The 4-H Health Rocks! Program in Florida: Outcomes on Youth Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Substance Abuse Prevention

Youth tobacco, alcohol, and other substance abuse is a serious concern in the State of Florida, as well as across the nation. 4-H Health Rocks! is a positive youth development prevention program that utilizes experiential learning methods and youth-adult partnerships. The program and supporting curriculum were designed to foster personal and social skills to better equip adolescents to overcome pressures to participate in substance use. The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation of Health Rocks! in Florida and program evaluation including its impact on participants’ drug knowledge, drug beliefs and attitudes, and drug resistance skills. Program evaluation indicates that 4-H Health Rocks! resulted in statistically significant improvement in each of these categories for hundreds of youth reached in 2009-2012. The importance of program components in preventing and influencing adolescent substance abuse are discussed