Progress 09/01/16 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience are economically disadvantaged youth who reside in public housing in Lewiston and Portland, Maine. The target population are youth who are enrolled in grades 3-6 in public schools. The secondary population are youth who are in grades 9-12, who act as mentors. Minority and underrepresented youth are statistically at an increase of participation in this program. A majority of the youth served are children of refugees and are classified as ethinic or racial minorities. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Extension staff have worked with staff and volunteers at Lewiston Housing Authority, McMahon Elementary School, and 5 community partners to deliver educational 4-H activities with a focus on science, science literacy, and building life skills. Through these efforts almost 500 youth have received regular programming for 7-34 weeks. Some youth attend programming at school and at after-school or summer programming sites, attending 2 sessions per week/more weeks out of the year. Maine 4-H Community Central staff have served on advisory committees regarding summer learning loss. Provided ongoing training and support for youth serving organizations throughout the year. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results of this project have been disseminated to communitiies of interest ongoing through the use of the Maine 4-H Community Central blog. An advisory meeting with community partners occurs twice a year and results of the project have been shared at this time. Annually the efforts of this project are reported and shared with UMaine Cooperative Extension and it's stakeholders. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Ongoing recruitment and retention of youth, teens and volunteers. Continue to program in partnership with local public housing, schools and other community partners.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Sessions where held in multiple locations through out Lewiston and Portland, ME. Each location participated in 4-H STEM curriculum themed clubs: Emergency Preparedness, Chemical Reactions, Aquaculture - Maine Seaweeds, Maine Wildlife - Alewives, Bats, Wind Energy, and other themes. A binder has been created for each grade with curriculums used during the school year to leave with teachers for their use while 4-H is visiting another grade level (each year the time of year that 4-H visits rotates in order to offer curriculum that encompases a whole year at the end of each full grant cycle). Quarterly family events also help. Teen leaders also participated in Summer of Science program training, 4-H Page Day at the Maine State House, and supported staff at outreach and public events.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Submitted Year Published: 2016 Citation: Ouellette, K & Mason, M. Maine 4-H Community Central: Working with underserved youth in their communities. National Association of 4-H Agents Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Progress 09/01/15 to 08/31/16

Outputs
Target Audience: In Lewiston, our primary target audience remained youth in grades three to five within the Lewiston community living at Lewiston Housing Authority's Hillview Family site, and youth attending McMahon Elementary School. Our secondary target audience included any youth in Lewiston in grades three to give and programming was offered through community partners including: The Root Cellar, Tree Street Youth Center, and The Boys and Girls Club Auburn/Lewiston Clubhouse. We also targeted teen mentors from Lewiston Highschool who mentored and provided educational programming for younger students. In Portland, our primary audience encompassed two age ranges: youth in grades three to five in the Portland Housing Authority Front Street neighborhood including Presumpscot Elementary School. Our secondary target was Portland high school students who mentored and advised the primary students in STEM fields. In particular were high school students in 4-H clubs at Front Street Study Center, Portland High School and the Summer of Science Teen Teachers. Changes/Problems:In Portland, We ended a relationship with a middle school because a) the focus was on grades 3-5 and b) the school changed leadership and was not meeting the partnership expectations. There has been discussion with the schools regarding the role of Extension staff in the schools and the implementation of confidentiality rules. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Teen Leaders were offered several training and professional development opportunities including leadership development workshops, touring college science departments, visiting the Boston Science Museum, Summer of Science Trainings, and ongoing leadership development mentorship. Maisy and Laura attended the Lewiston Campaign for Grade Level Reading's three part Summer Learning Training Series. Topics were: Literacy Standards, Restorative Justice, and Experiential Learning. CYFAR staff also attended the CYFAR professional development conference and various webinars. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of these trainings have been shared with communities of interest through the incorporation into CYFAR programming, passed on to Teen Leaders and program helpers/volunteers, and passed on to youth program members. The Community Central staff and public housing hosted local teachers from area schools to explain the collaboration between Extension and Public Housing. Quarterly meetings with key stakeholders from public housing and community central staff have been a key method of disseminating information. Also an ongoing blog is shared with key stakeholders, providing updates and success stories. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our goal for the next reporting period is to engage more parents and recruit volunteers from these communities.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Community Central provided sessions to youth at several sites across Lewiston, both in and out of school time, provided information for parents, attended parent-teacher conference evenings, and provided sessions during summer school to rising third and fourth graders. Sessions offered both during the school year and through summer were held at faith-based organizations, school, and community centers/programs. Community volunteers and teachers at these locations also supported the programming, along with Teen Leaders. Sessions provided were all from 4-H curriculum or taught using the Experiential Learning Model and included links to community, science literacy, life skills, and everyday life experiences. The population served by Community Central includes youth participating in ELL services through their school and the literacy involved in the sessions was modified to meet youth's reading/writing levels and also expand their literacy learning. The key element of the Program Model in Portland was to increase relationships with the Portland Housing Authority Study Center at the housing site to provide education and increase linkages for the betterment of the community. The study center serves as an after-school home for many youth in the neighborhood with working parents. It's primary focus is to increase academic success within the context of community needs while providing community access to critical resources. Among the STEM activities taking place (and taught by Community Central Staff, Teen Teachers and volunteers) were Science Fridays, Construction Math, Physics Roadshow, Math tutoring, and the 4-H Aquaculture Summer of Science. Teen Teacher opportunities include two participants in 4-H Citizenship Washington Focus, 4-H@UMaine college weekend, two college trips to Boston, Blueberry Cove 4-H Camp Leadership Training, Summer of Science Teen Teacher training, and the page program at the state capitol in Augusta.

Publications

Progress 09/01/14 to 08/31/15

Outputs
Target Audience:The follow table shows the number of enrolled youth as part of the Community Central Program year one. Lewiston Total Youth Total Female Total Male Grade Levels Racial Groups Hispanic 73 38 35 1st: 2 White: 19 2nd: 2 Black: 46 3rd: 30 American Indian/Alaska Native: 2 4th: 23 Bi-Racial: 3 5th: 14 Other: 2 6th: 2 PORTLAND Total Youth Total Female Total Male Grade Levels Racial Groups Hispanic 417 222 195 1st: 23 White: 136 10 2nd: 46 Black: 225 3rd: 79 American Indian/Alaska Native: 1 Asian American: 53 4th: 75 Bi-Racial: 2 5th: 63 6th: 29 BANGOR Total Youth Total Female Total Male Grade Levels Racial Groups Hispanic 54 29 25 1st: White: 45 2nd Black: 7 3rd: 12 American Indian/Alaska Native: 2 4th: 17 5th: 13 6th: 5 Total youth served: 544 The three community central sites delivered 468 hours of community based programming to 23 sites providing informal STEM and Postive Youth Development experiences. A total of 19 Teen Leaders in three sites mentored younger youth and programmed a total of 468 hours to youth in the three counties. Changes/Problems:One major change was a staffing issue in one of the community sites, we were unable to hire someone as soon as we had hoped and the position is currently being filled by a temp employee. Our plan to is hire ASAP. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has provided opportunities for teen leaders to learn: how to teach science to younger youth how to mentor youth adult partnerships how to plan and implement activities classroom management developmentally appropriate expectations public speaking How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Sucesss stories have been shared with county commissioners, community partners and entered in the UMaine Planning and Reporting System. We will also do a press release celbrating the youth who have completed year one of the project. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue to program with community partners. Work even closer with school systems and other youth serving organizations. Focus on youth entering grades 3 and 4 as our target audience for this year. Site Coordinators will also start blogging with youth to track their growth and development througout the duration of the program.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? UMaine Extension staff provided multiple opportunities for out of school time education in Lewiston, Portland and Bangor. In this first year reationships with public housing and local school departments were strengthened. Year one of this project provided opportunities to form new relationships with youth serving organizations in the three communities, bringing together an advisory board of Public Housing officials from the three sites and working with school departments to have a bettern understanding of how this project can best serve youth and connect parents, a goal for all parties. This summer youth were engaged in hands on learning opportunites in all three sites, these sessions were lead by teen mentors from each community. During supervision, the Teen Leaders have provided the following feedback: The science work has been exciting, seeing what ideas pop into the kid's heads and the differences I've seen over a few weeks. It has been challenging: tyring not to lead for everyone, including the other leaders. With th kids sometimes its hard not telling them the idea won't work but helping them try it out . I'm working on that. Regarding gaining leadership experience: This involves working with kids while teaching and changing landguage from my vocabulary to words they'll understand. Working with the little kids has been exciting, they are excited to be here and want to do more and more than we have planned. I have learned from the activities too, the teachers never went as deep into watersheds as we did. I can talk more in front of people now, its getting easier to speak up. One community site (Lewiston) provided 4-H science for all students attending summer school in the district. This is a new partnership which will continue in subsequent years. We are exploring the possibility to expand this model to the other two community sites (Bangor, Portland)

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2015 Citation: Ouellette, K., Mason, M. & Sparks, S. Programming Where the Kids Are. Exploring the benefits of collaborating with Public Housing. National Extension Conference on Volunteerism. Portland, Maine
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2015 Citation: Ouellette, K., Mason, M., Issac Ali, A. Programming Where the Kids Are. Community Central Update. North East 4-H Program Leaders Meeting. Portland, Maine