- Author: Marcel Horowitz
- Author: Dorina Espinoza
- Author: Anne Iaccopucci
- Author: Natalie Cunha
As a result of UC 4-H Mindful Mechanics classes, 4-H staff feel better prepared to lead lessons and discussions with 4-H youth around mindfulness, mental health, and stress-management, demonstrating UC ANR's commitment to healthy people and communities.
The Issue
Seven out of ten teens are struggling with mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, as is demonstrated by a 2020 report from national 4-H. Poor mental health can lead to uncertainty, anxiety and depression. Eighty two percent of youth surveyed are “calling on America to talk more openly and honestly about mental health issues in this country.” Seventy-nine percent wished there was a safe space for people in school to talk about mental health, and 70% want schools to teach them more about mental health and coping. As the nation's largest out-of school youth organization, 4-H has a significant role to play in ameliorating these concerns and issues.
“In particular, teens who are less resilient seem to struggle, reporting more frequent feelings of anxiety and depression, as well as a stronger struggle with ambiguity and pressure from others to hide their feelings (National 4-H). However, many Cooperative Extension professionals don't feel prepared to discuss, much less teach, the concepts that build emotional resilience.
How UC Delivers
UC ANR academics, Anne Iaccopucci and Katherine Soule, partnered with Kendra Lewis of University of New Hampshire to change that. With the development of the Mindful Mechanics curriculum adopted by National 4-H, Youth Development professionals have a tool to begin these conversations and interventions with youth members ages twelve and older.
Using this curriculum, the UC 4-H Healthy Living Leadership Team (comprised of Marcel Horowitz, Dorina Espinoza and Natalie Cunha, in addition to the lead author of the curriculum) offered a 13-lesson virtual statewide project for teen members in the winter of 2021, which occurred one year into stay-at-home orders that exacerbated mental health issues for many youth.
In particular, the Mindful Mechanics project taught youth to check in with their body, manage thoughts and emotions, focus on the present moment, find reasons to be grateful, use positive self-talk to improve their outlook, and to visualize joy. All of these skills are found to increase positive psychology in individuals.
A national 4-H survey stated that “4‑H Healthy Living programs provide youth with a better understanding of how their choices can help themselves, their families, and their communities.” To help their communities, youth were asked to draw a lifesize walking meditation labyrinth in a public location for others to use.
The Impact
Youth in the project reported that they learned “to appreciate myself and the things I am capable of doing”, and “how to calm myself.” National 4-H research has found that resilient teens report higher levels of confidence solving their own mental health struggles, as well as helping others with theirs; they also feel more equipped to tap into support networks compared with individuals who did not consider themselves resilient. Programs like the UC 4-H Mindfulness Mechanics class demonstrate UC ANR's commitment to healthy people and communities.
The project leaders all reported improvements in their confidence and abilities to teach mindfulness and stress-reductions skills to adolescents.
Natalie Cunha, 4-H Community Education Specialist and Co-Project Leader, stated “Cooperative Extension professionals can pass their skills on to volunteers who will then take the knowledge further into their community to positively affect their youth, integrating public and mental health into the 4-H programs.”
Dorina Espinoza, Youth, Families and Communities Advisor in Humboldt/Del Norte Counties, stated the importance of incorporating even short regular mindful practices into 4-H programming, “several participants expressed the positive impact of a 5-minute mindfulness session at the beginning of each project session”.
Marcel Horowitz, Healthy Living Leadership Team Co-Chair, Healthy Youth, Families and Communities Advisor in Yolo County, and Co-Project Leader “feels more empowered to work with teens to teach them ways they can manage the stress in their lives. These materials provide a framework for leading teens through the development of skills they need to learn to manage these emotions throughout their lives. A successful, thriving life depends on it”.
Anne Iaccopucci, Healthy Living Academic Coordinator and lead author, shared “opportunities, like the UC 4-H Virtual Mindful Mechanics project, provide extension professionals experience in delivering virtual social-emotional content through a supportive community of co-leaders.”
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- Author: Beatriz Adrianna Rojas
- co-author: Andra Nicoli
- co-author: Angie Keihner
CFHL, UCCE and 4-H team up in Kern County to offer comprehensive food and nutrition education to farmworker families. Participants improved their food resource management and nutrition practices, contributing to UC ANR's public value of promoting healthy people and communities.
The Issue
Shafter Healthy Start Family Resource Center (FRC) is part of the Richland School District in Shafter, CA. Shafer is a rural city located 18 miles northwest of Bakersfield. In order to proactively support families in creating healthy lifestyles, administrators and staff at Shafter Healthy Start FRC collaborated with CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE Kern (CFHL, UCCE Kern) and the Kern 4-H Program to provide family-centered virtual nutrition and cooking education from April 28 to May 19, 2021.
According to KidsData, Kern County has a food insecurity rate that is higher than the state average at 23.8% compared to California's overall rate of 18%. Forty-four percent of children were drinking one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day, and only 34.8% of children ate five or more servings of fruits & vegetables a day. Obesity rates are also high, with nearly 50% of children and 74% of adults being either overweight or obese.
How UC Delivers
To provide comprehensive services to the 12 enrolled families, CFHL, UCCE Kern collaborated with the 4-H Program. Both parents and children received virtual lessons through Zoom to reduce obesity through healthy nutrition. Food resource management lessons from the Plan, Shop, Save, and Cook curriculum were taught in Spanish were also provided for families, with sessions held in the afternoon to accommodate farm working schedules. During the lessons, parents were taught how to plan their meals, read and understand food labels, save money on food, and ensure food safety. Physical activity breaks are incorporated in the lesson plan to illustrate the importance of active living for health and wellness.
The Kern 4-H Family Cooking Academy provided families with virtual cooking demonstrations using the Teens as Teachers model. A teen volunteer facilitated the food demonstration to the younger peers. Families received a bag with all the ingredients needed to follow along during the food demonstrations. Recipes chosen followed MyPlate recommendations and included various infused water recipes. During the demonstrations, food safety principles for both youth and adults were discussed. All food costs were covered by the Kern Family Health Care Community Grant that Shafter Healthy Start FRC received.
The Impact
Families shared their enthusiasm to prepare food they had never tried before like tofu and quinoa. Some children seen on video gave a “thumbs up” after tasting the meals they helped create. Many shared that they would be willing to serve the recipe again to their families.
Plan, Shop, Save, and Cook (PSSC) adult participant evaluation survey results indicated that:
- 6 out of 7 participants reported improvement in at least 1 of the 5 food resource management behaviors (plan, prices, shop, think, facts).
- 6 out of 7 participants reported shopping with a grocery list more often.5 out of 7 participants reported planning meals ahead of time more often.
- 4 out of 7 participants reported that they use "Nutrition Facts" on the food label to make food choices more often.
- 4 out of 7 participants reported using MyPlate to make food choices more often.
- 4 out of 7 participants reported running out of food before the end of the month less often.
- 2 out of 7 participants reported comparing unit prices before buying food more often.
- 1 out of 7 participants reported that when deciding what to feed their family, they thought about healthy food choices more often.
The majority of these participants responded “Most of the time” (n=2) or “Almost always” (n=5) on the pre survey – leaving little room for improvement during the post survey.
Through this local partnership, CFHL, UCCE Kern and Kern 4-H demonstrate UC ANR's commitment to healthy people and communities, helping to improve the budgeting, nutrition knowledge and skills of farm working families in rural agricultural areas that would otherwise receive limited services of this type which can help influence future health outcomes.
"The nutrition classes have helped families try new healthy alternative ingredients that they normally do not buy or know much about. Having this partnership has given us the opportunity to educate children at their level of understanding, as well as parents. Shafter Healthy Start parents and students had a great experience during the class with the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. Thank You!" - Shafter Healthy Start FRC
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- Author: Andra Nicoli
- Author: Chutima Ganthavorn
- Contributor: Claudia Carlos
Alvord USD teachers implemented virtual physical activity with over 3,100 students in the first 3 months following CFHL, UCCE training during COVID-19 school closures, contributing to improved health for all and UC ANR's public value of developing healthy people and communities.
The Issue
During the COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders, Riverside County schools, including Alvord School District, closed its school sites. This led teachers, many of whom were learning an array of remote educational skills for the first time, to attend district-sponsored professional development classes in order to reach over 18,000 students through new virtual platforms.
How UC Delivers
Six hundred teachers at Alvord Unified in Riverside County discovered ways to make physical activity breaks fun in the virtual classroom with lessons from the CalFresh Healthy Living, University of California Cooperative Extension (CFHL, UCCE) Riverside County team.
CFHL, UCCE presented a "Brain Breaks in the Virtual World" session to elementary, middle and high school teachers. The presentation included:
- four virtual physical activity break demonstrations
- a teacher resource list with links to virtual physical activity videos
The CalFresh Healthy Living, UC and UCCE Riverside County's virtual professional development training for teachers assisted them with skills to effectively reach the 18,000 students in the school district over the period of the pandemic.
The Impact
Teacher feedback about the professional development series was overwhelmingly positive:
Two hundred and thirty participants responded to a poll with 88% indicating that they are "very likely" or "likely" to schedule a physical activity break during their virtual lessons.
A follow-up survey verified that teachers began implementing virtual physical activity breaks, reaching over 3,100 students within 3 months of the training.
Qualitative feedback demonstrated appreciation and skill development:
"We believe that your workshop helped empower and reduce the anxiety of our teachers as they started the school year teaching over 18,000 students remotely using the technology and resources that we introduced during the summit." -AUSD Administrator
"I notice that they (students) are more energetic and talkative (which is what I want in my setting, peer collaboration) after a brain break. You can totally see a physical reaction after as well. The majority are sitting upright in front of their Chromebooks. I have also noticed more smiling." -AUSD teacher responded to the 3-month follow-up survey
According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2018), regular moderate-to-vigorous physical activity reduces the risk of many chronic diseases among children and adults. This intervention fosters healthy childcare environments as part of UC ANR's commitment to promoting health and wellness in the community.
/h3>/h3>/h3>- Author: Betsy George
- Author: Carolyn D Rider
- Author: Janice Kao
- Contributor: Christina Becker
- View More...
SNAP-Ed practitioners adopt a practical, effective tool from UC ANR's NPI to evaluate program impact in schools, ECEs, after-school programs, and grocery stores, adding workforce capacity to public health agencies.
The Issue
In recent decades, increasing attention has been placed on improving access to healthy foods and opportunities to participate in physical activity in California communities with high rates of poverty and food insecurity. Schools and other places where children receive care are important partners in promoting wellness, as are the retail establishments where families purchase food. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) interventions partner with these community sites to promote healthy eating and physical activity.
UC ANR's Nutrition Policy Institute (NPI) has developed and tested Site-level Assessment Questionnaires (SLAQs) to empower local health departments (LHDs) and other agencies working with schools, early childhood education centers (ECE), out-of-school programs, and grocery stores to perform annual assessments of wellness practices at each site. A SLAQ is a setting-customized, easy-to-use questionnaire comprised of multiple sections, each of which addresses a specific wellness domain, such as the school food environment or prominence of healthy food displays in a grocery store. Topic experts, including extension and SNAP-Ed professionals, education professionals with nutrition expertise, and academic researchers,reviewed SLAQs and provided valuable contributions regarding their questionnaire validity and content. The SLAQs were then pilot-tested in the field for feasibility, validity, and reliability.
Extension programs can partner with schools, ECEs, out-of-school programs, and grocery stores to use completed SLAQs to identify areas of need and create action plans for improvement. As sites perform annual reassessments, they receive concrete data that reflect the progress of their programs. SLAQ scores from multiple sites can be aggregated to measure the degree of health promotion in a community, a county, or across the state. Extension programs can also examine how improving health-promoting practices over time relates to changes in health outcomes.
The Impact
In the first year, SLAQs were implemented across 46 California counties receiving SNAP-Ed funding, including 161 schools, 144 ECE sites, 68 out-of-school programs and 87 grocery stores. Additionally, SLAQs were adopted for use by five California LHDs who received CDC SPAN funding and SNAP-Ed funded elementary schools in Washington.
Local SNAP-Ed implementing agencies are already working with sites to tailor interventions based on the individual site's areas of strengths and opportunities. SLAQ users appreciate having a standardized tool to gather data, pinpoint weaker areas of performance, and strengthen their efforts to improve the health of California's children. NPI's role in expanding science-based evaluation practices demonstrates UC ANR's commitment to promoting healthy people and communities. Maridet Ibanez, Project Director for Orange County Health Care Agency's CalFresh Healthy Living program, highlighted how SLAQs helped them create a “menu” of intervention options that they were ready and willing to collaborate with their sites to implement:
We were able to compare 10 different [ECE] sites. It was a uniform tool that we could use to assess our sites. This wouldn't have been possible without the SLAQs. - Maridet Ibanez, Project Director
- Author: Steven M. Worker
- Author: Martin H Smith
- Editor: Karen Giovannini
Multi-state youth education pilot results in 85% of 4-H participants improving their understanding of recycling and intention to help others recycle more, increasing civic engagement and contributing to UC ANR's public value of developing a qualified workforce.
The Issue
The generation of plastics has grown to over 381 million metric tons annually, nearly a 200-fold increase since 1950. Most of the plastic waste is disposed of in landfills (75%). Only 8% of plastic waste is recycled, and much plastic waste ends up in the world's oceans. Detrimental environmental effects from the production and disposal of plastics has been well-documented. While there have been large-scale campaigns to engage youth in recycling, different strategies are needed to help young people explore viable alternative options to mitigate the “plastic crisis.”
How UC Delivers
Through a multi-state collaboration with the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers and Minnesota, California, and New York 4-H, Cooperative Extension educators worked to develop and pilot youth-focused curricula to introduce youth to the prevalence and impacts of plastics in everyday life. Experiential activities were designed to help youth learn that plastics are versatile materials that come with advantages and disadvantages. For example, plastic beverage containers are lightweight and durable, reducing energy needed for transportation. However, extraction and manufacturing contributes to climate change, and many plastics are produced for single-use and do not easily decompose. The curricula also introduce youth to the new ways scientists and engineers are working to develop bio-plastics in order to lessen effects on our environment.
The curricula were designed to build foundational skills of science and engineering: observation, asking questions and defining problems, planning and carrying out investigations, and communicating. The curricula are intended for delivery during out-of-school time and facilitated by educators such as trained volunteers or program staff. Three curricula are available for download and print copies are available from Shop 4-H (Note: only K-2 is available now, grades 3-5 and 6-8 are coming soon). The curricula were piloted with more than 300 youth.
The Impact
Findings from pilot outcome data included 4-H youth self-reporting that they learned some materials can be recycled and some cannot (89% of 161 youth) and that many things are made of plastic (86% of 155 youth). Youth also came up with ideas for how to care for the environment (87% of 158 youth) and expressed their intent to help family or friends recycle more (91% of 156 youth). While recycling plastic has some ecological benefits, not all plastics are recyclable, and recycling is not likely to be the only solution needed. Youth learned that the other 5 R's are important in finding sustainable solutions, including refusing plastics altogether, reducing use, reusing plastic items, repurposing plastic products, or purchasing plastics made with renewable materials that rot (compost). Place-Based Education research shows that integrating science learning with materials and experiences youth are familiar with helps lead to more meaningful and engaged learning , and thus, youth are more likely to be motivated to help improve their communities. In this way, this project and 4-H's work in the mission areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) contributes to condition changes of improved civic engagement, increased college readiness, and increased ecological sustainability.
For more information, please contact Martin Smith, Specialist in Cooperative Extension, mhsmith@ucanr.edu; or Steven Worker, 4-H Youth Development Advisor, smworker@ucanr.edu
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