4-H program needs mentors for youth

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Youth Development Program is looking for positive adult role models to mentor youth enrolled in the 4-H Youth and Families with Promise Program. Mentors will be working with youth between the ages of 8 and 14, meeting one-on-one with a youth individually and attending monthly group activity nights and trainings.

Mentors should strive to enter into structured and trusting relationships as caring individuals who will offer guidance, support and encouragement to the youth. They should help mentees improve academic performance, increase social competency and strengthen family bonds. Most importantly, they should have fun with their mentees.

The 4-H Youth and Families with Promise Program works with youth living in Reno Housing Authority sites. The program hosts regular after-school 4-H meetings for youth to get homework help or participate in enrichment activities; family nights out, where youth and their families can participate together; and mentor-mentee meetings, where the mentors and mentees have fun and strengthen bonds.

The program is just one of Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Youth Development Programs, which teach youth ages 5 to 19 leadership, citizenship and life skills, as well as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Fueled by university-backed curriculum and led by trained staff and dedicated volunteers, 4-H programs engage youth in experiential, or “hands-on,” learning.

According to a 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development in 2012 by Tufts University, youth in 4-H are two times more likely to plan to go to college than their peers and are 3.4 times more likely to actively contribute to their communities than their peers.

To learn more about becoming a mentor in the 4-H Youth and Families with Promise Program, contact Samantha Shoupe at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, 775-336-0270 or shoupes@unce.unr.edu.