MSU Extension 4-H Volunteering & Mentoring

He. Sorry. Good afternoon. I'd like to welcome everyone to our Michigan Four H volunteer webinar series. Today's topic is positive Youth Development one oh one, bringing strong relationship, building strong relationships through every stage. Myself, Christine Havery, who I'm an extension educator based in Clayton county and on our volunteer Excellence Support team, and work on how we support and train volunteers. And Michelle Nef is one of our other presenters. So she wants to give a quick introduction. Yeah. Hi, I'm Michelle Na. I do club development work. So working with clubs and volunteers on resources for themselves, I also am a District six for each supervising educator, so I help the program coordinators in my area. Then we also have Janelle Stewart helping in the background today a little bit too, so she wants to give a quick introduction also. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Gile Stewart, and I am a educator on the leadership Civic cultural Engagement team, as well as a program coordinator for Lenway County, and I just love the topic of ages and stages. So I'm excited to kind of be in the background helping and supporting with things. So this is part of our webinar series, and we're excited for you to be with us today. MSU extension fully believes in the principles of diversity equity and inclusion. We know that human differences enrich our lives work in community. We embrace our responsibility to be a resource for all and are committed to providing programs to all segments of our community. It's also important to understand the longstanding history and legacy of colonialism that has brought us to reside in the land and seek to understand our place within the history and the land acknowledgment on the screen is one step in that process. Go to put into the chat a quick demographic survey link. If you wouldn't mind, please taking that to help us understand how we're meeting the different segments of the population, that would be greatly appreciated. If you're an MSU extension staff member attending and you're doing it as a staff member, please don't complete it, but if you're a staff member doing this as part of your volunteer role, you are welcome to complete this survey. This has been a series of webinars that we have been doing for 2023 and 2024 that provides a variety of different topics for volunteers on different things. I'm happy to share the 2025 webinar topics are up on the screen, and then I'm going to put into the link into the chat where all the recordings from the past Webinars are. The registration for the 25 topics will be coming out in early December, and they will be up on that same website. So feel free to explore the different options that are out there for you on volunteer topics. To help us get started this evening, we're going to do a water fall this afternoon. We're going to do a quick waterfall chat. So how that works is I'm going to read the question for you. I want you to type your answer into the chat pot. Then when I tell you to press inter, then you'll share so they all come and flow in at one time. So think about and share a time when you watched a youth beam, and share into the chat, what did you notice? Think about a time when you watched a youth beam, share into the chat, what you noticed. I'll give you a minute to type out your answers, and then I'll say press inter. All right. So think about a time when you watched a youth beam and sharon to the chat, what did you notice? So like light up, the light bub would go off in their head. All right. Press enter with those answers. They were excited. What else did we notice about youth when you saw a joy. Noticed the joy of them realizing they had an idea, they gained new knowledge. So we're kind of using that as something quick. Yes. So that's kind of the preset is that In Four HH, we have the opportunity to work with youth in many non formal settings. These spaces provide youth a place to belong, matter, and explore their personal spark. That's a moment when they start to beam and things go off. The relationships youth have with each other, as volunteers, helps with that skill development, engagement, and belonging, and makes the four H program impactful. Today, we're going to start to give you some strategies to think through as you work with youth with different parts of the developmental stages that they go through. So we think about it. Sparks are those internal strengths in someone that are good, useful, and provide purpose in life. In some cases, it's that opportunity when they gain that new knowledge when the thing clicks. It helps them really showcase that ability to have something go off in F. We want to help you find their spark, and we can help you find their spark in any stages of development. So it's like starting to look for them from the start of those developments and really moving forward to have them gain sparks and figure out what is that internal things that make them have a purpose in life. Okay, so we're going to really start now talking a little bit about development and how the important part of understanding child development, youth development kind of falls into that spark, that developing those relationships, because once we know how kids develop, we can kind of help work with them where they're at in different aspects of their life. So I'm not sure if everyone is familiar with Ron Thinner or Bron Brenner, it's a harder word for me to say. But he came from Germany and he is really well known in our time when it comes to child development. He has created a bio econological framework that really helps us understand child development. It really explains that how a child develops and how their environment really affects how they grow and develop. What his framework really talks a little bit about is we're going to talk through some of those, but there's these different levels and it really all affects how a child develops. If we think about how we can influence an environment, we can also influence our children's development. He also went to Cornell University and got a PhD from UOM. And if you were to if you wanted to find out more about him, if you just Googled Bron Fin Brenner, you'll find a lot of articles, a lot of research, a lot of stuff that he's done. Again, he's a child psychologist. So one of the things about the framework, it's really all about the context. So it's about what it is that influencing those childs, and every child is going to have a little bit different development. It's also embedded in multiple layers in multiple different ways and systems in the environment is going to affect a child's development. So you can see these six stages that are up on the screen. So we know that the child development has their own internal traits and characteristics, their DNA. All of that affects a child's development, that DNA that they have inside them. But there's also microsystems, mesosystems, ecosystems, macrosystems, and then chronosystems. We're not going to get into all of those, but I just want everyone to understand that all of these systems help and are part of this framework that really affects a child's development. And so it's complex, but relationships affect multiple levels. Again, if we think about these different, we in his framework, he breaks them down into different systems, and I'm going to show you a picture that helps you kind of understand that a little bit. The microsystem is the most influential level. So that second level, that microsystem is the most influential, encompassing a child's intermediate environment, mostly in their family and their school. So if we think about what one that we want to maybe control the most or have a lot of impact in and for each volunteers, it's that micro and meso layer. It's also important to know that this principle has been used in many educational context practices to help them understand and help children develop. This is another picture that helps you understand that all of these layers are two dimensional, so meaning going back and forth between a microsystem and a mesosystem, really is important. That again, that environment is there surrounding those kids as they develop and those youth as they develop. Really, FH falls into that microsystem, and in some cases, could be the mesosystem because they're clubs that the kids are involved in. They have direct relationships with Four club leaders that type of thing. But mesosystem might be like the fair or some of the other broader things that are happening around that child that may affect them. And then you can see the ecosystem and the macrosystem. Those are all the culture that a child has grown up in is going to also affect how they develop. The neighborhood that they are part of, that ecosystem is going to affect how that child develops. So really important to understand that the environment that a child is in is going to be affected by a lot of the things that environment that that child is part of. And so relationships with parents, caregivers, really are going to help are really essential in that individual child development. And then those relationships that they may have with schools and work and all the other things that come into the development into your society as you are raising children are also going to affect their development. So it's a big picture. Again, if you want to learn more about his research, there is a lot out there. But I wanted to just understand the framework of child development starts really in the environment. We want to make sure that four H is providing positive environments, positive relationships, and if we understand how children develop, we can help develop those positive environments. So in child development, there are some four bigger categories, three s four because social and emotional, sometimes it's separate, sometimes it's lumped together. But really our children develop physically, meaning that they develop their body develops, meaning they get their size of their body, the proportions, their appearance changes. If you've ever seen a baby picture, you don't look like you do when your baby. Your appearance changes over time, your physical health, the functions of your body changes. All of that is happening in our children while they're developing. Also brain is developing, and their cognitive learning is happening. That cognitive development is happening throughout their development. Then also, they have this social emotional development taking place. A lot of that is communication skills, interpersonal skills, friendship skills, knowledge about other people, interacting with others, maybe making friends, thinking about reasoning and behavior. All of that is taking place as well. We're going to dive into a little bit of the different ages and stages, and you've maybe heard those words before and what those look like for the different groups. Again, we have four different areas that we're going to focus on and under each one of these four areas are what we call as stages. These stages are really we break down some characteristics in each stage so that you understand this is this age group, but know that every child develops at their own pace and not all characteristics are observed for each child. Some of the things I say, you'll be like, well, my kid didn't go through that or my kid didn't seem to have that issue. That's okay. Again, it's a fluid type of situation, just like we talked about in context, not every not every child is going to develop the exact same way. But this is a general idea of this age group. These are some of the developmental stages that they're going to go through. This is some of the stuff that they're going to go through. Also, it's important to know that age is not a predictor of maturity. Most youth go through these stages in order, five to eight, nine to 12. But there also could be some times when you might be working with some older kids and they have a maturity level that's a lot younger. Maybe they had some trauma growing up or maybe they just have had some other environmental issues that have affected their development. We need to make sure that we're providing a variety of activities at different levels, difficulty levels, for youth, just know that. Then again, the growth may happen at different rates. So it may not all be at the same time that the growth is happening, it may take a long time. A child may experience different things to reach their full potential. Those are just some general aviat about these next stages that we're going to go through. And I will say if anal is on or Krissy, if you have anything you want to add about at each stage, just feel free to jump in because we all like to learn from each other. So we're going to talk about the five to 8-year-old stage. And I want you to put in the chat. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the five to 8-year-old age group? And we called this the early childhood. Age group. What comes to mind? Exploring, Very active, energy movement, asking questions, full of energy. Yeah, the why. Observing everything they do like to observe. Yeah. Curiosity, big motor skills, right? They're learning how to jump and skip and all those big things. Okay. So we're going for each age group, I'm going to kind of highlight a few things that it's important for us to think about as volunteers when we're in this. There is a lot, and at the end, we'll put a couple fact sheets like links that you can go to that kind of talks a little about each age group, what this age group is going through, and then what are some of the implications? But we're just going to highlight some of those for early for the early childhood. So group. One of the things that they're really, this is a period of slow growth and steady growth. So it's important that we have active learning experiences in four H clubs. We need to make sure that this age group is actively learning. They're experiencing things, meaning that they may be running around, playing games, all that type of thing, but they are growing and inactive. Another thing is important is they are more interested in the process than the product. It's okay for a 5-year-old to only work on a project rather than complete it. They may be really excited and I want to paint and pick out all the paint that to do a ceramic, but they may never completely finish it because their focus is on what colors they're going to do and all that type of thing, and they're not as focused on completion or getting that completed. Again, it's all about understanding that process of what they're doing. They also are learning how to be friends and may have several best friends. So it's important as a four H volunteer to provide a balance of activities with not only kids by themselves, but in small groups and making sure we allow for individual attention. But again, this age group, they're really starting to kind of interact and start to be social with friends in different ways. This is one of the main things I think for this age group that a lot of people may overlook is that this age group has a very, very short attention span. They all deal with here in the now. If you ask this group to start talking about the future and give brainstorm a whole bunch of ideas, they may have a harder time with that because that's not something physical that they can think about right now. It's not here in the now. We want to make sure that we have a lot of free time planned and encouraged ahead of time where they're moving from one thing to another, maybe, they're not in a lecture for a half an hour, that type of thing because them sitting still, paying attention just is not the best for them. Being very specific, clear on instructions and keeping them moving. Another one is to have they desire to still have approval from adults. So they are going to normally do what an adult says or volunteer says. And so it's important that we as adults try to make sure that there's an adult with those younger kids, maybe a group of three or four kids with an adult or an older teen, that type of thing. Does anybody have any questions about this age group? Michelle, I'd like to just throw it an example. One thing I love about thinking about this age bracket. As we think of project orientation type of thing. So this is a prime example where if you want to teach kids how to knit or crochet, teaching five to seven year olds, five to eight year olds how to finger knit versus needle knit is a prime example of how that's a fine motor skill that's bigger and allows them to do it, tear it out, start do all that because it's that real big, loose stuff versus when you get into the finer part of needle. So it shows a good example of how you can do a developmental activity that's going from finger to needle and that type of thing. And I just think it's fun to watch them grow and change in those processes there. So Yeah, y. It's also really important in this age group to have a variety. Let them experience a lot of different things because they really are an active learning experience and want to explore and figure out the processes and be okay. Completely be okay with them not finishing things because they may not. There's a lot of other things that we didn't touch on. L, you know, they also are a little sensitive to criticism and that kind of thing and don't like to, you know, type of thing. So there's just know that yes, there is a lot. If you look on the f sheet when we send at the end, you'll also see some other implications, but these are some highlighted ones that we wanted to share. Next age group is our nine to 11-year-old. This is called our middle childhood? What are some things that come to mind when you think about middle childhood? Growing independence, making connections, nine to 11. This would be like, Later elementary, probably fourth, fifth and sixth grade, maybe seeking approval from friends, starting to determine that they are what they're more interested in. They start to feel like, Hey, I want this. Yeah. Hormones are starting to maybe come up. Attle still emotional displaying more reason, a little bit longer attention span. I will say that, but they still don't have a Terrible really, really long attention span. Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Some highlights that we wanted to just touch base with on this group. Again, we can talk a little bit about some more later is we really want this group to think about they like group activities, and we want to emphasize group learning experiences. This age group is a lot more of, let's do things together as a group. Maybe that's some games, maybe that being a part of a club or a friends group type of thing, but they're really more into group activities. They also have a lot of energy. So making sure you have active group learning, meaning you're going to get them up and doing something in this age group as well. In addition, they also usually do their best when presented in small pieces. So this is hard to give them a whole list of things that they should do, it's better to break it up into smaller chunks. So if you're going to do a project, maybe break that project up into, k, this week, we're going to focus on this. Next week, we're going to focus on this, or this is our first step, and then once that steps complete, let's go to the next step. Again, keeping things simple in short directions. This group, this group is very curious about the y, and someone put that in y in the tat. This group wants to know why we're doing things. So make sure that we're cautious before we answer the questions that they ask all the time, and we throw it back on them and help them start to think about, what is that y? So this is really where science, those science ideas of inquisitive minds and having them start to think through and process through. We don't want to just give the answer when kids ask things all the time. We want them to start to think. What do you think that would be? Why do you think that is and helping them? Because again, they're going to be very curious at this age group. Then also making sure they understand instead of comparing each other, we want them to build confidence in themselves, and they might have a little bit delicate self confidence because they're still, they're still figuring out what they like to do. So we don't want to compare them to others. We really want to compare themselves to how they're growing in themselves, what they've accomplished in their own and not to other performances of other individuals. So this is again, that age group, nine to 11, who again, are still learning and exploring. They still enjoy cooperating with each other, that kind of thing. Janelle or Kristine have anything else to add to this age group. So the next K group is a 12 to 14-year-old. What do you think are some things that come to mind when you think about the 12 to 14 year olds? Competitive. Yeah, they're a little bit more into the competitiveness, hormones. I have a 12 to 14-year-old, I will 100% tell you that is a thing. Gaining independence, very much. More peer pressure, caring about peers think, 100%, those middle schoolers. Do I look okay? Do I have the most exciting shoes? All that good stuff is happening. Awesome. Thanks everyone for sharing in the chat. So when we think about some key things to think about in those young teens, area is really we want to make sure that we are concentrating on developing individual skills. Again, are self conscious and need help in overcoming inferior complexes. So they sometimes will think really bad about themselves, like they're stupid, they're, you know, maybe not able, not as good as their friends, that type of thing. And so we really want to make sure in this age group that we focus on helping them develop individual skills, individually, how they're doing that type of thing. We also want to make sure that they are prepared to discuss about their natural body and what's going on because their body is developing a lot in this age group. They're going through puberty. Things are changing, their voice is changing. My son's voice change, and he's like, M I don't like this. I'm like, I know buddy, but this way this. I can't change that. Um So just being ready, and I know that sometimes feels a little uneasy. But if to talk about that what's happening to their body and those type of things, because again, there's some anxiety sometimes associated with and it's important just to know that that's happening with your with this age group. Again, those changing hormones, mood swings, and making sure we accept their feelings if they're upset. They still depend on parental guidelines, even though they are starting to push back. So we need to help you be involved in deciding rules. So when we start talking about what is bedtime and that type of thing. This is the age group where discussions and relationships should really be happening. Maybe them deciding a lot of club things happening in that club setting, having them decide what projects they want to focus on that type of thing. Again, they want parents to guide them, but they also need to start they're starting to be independent and they want to start making some of their own decisions. And one of the big things is also the peer pressure is increasing, and they're going to look to their peers a little bit more than they may look to the parents. So making sure that we have positive peers around them and that we use peer positive influence to help them encourage them in that type of thing. We know that you know, kids can sometimes be negative. So we want to make sure that we have positive peers and talk about those friendship developments and what's healthy and that. And then we also want them to gain skills and social relationships. So providing opportunities for them to interact with peers and adults to foster that social interaction is so so key. I think since COVID, a lot of kids maybe have not had those opportunities to have those social interactions, and Four H is a great way to do that. So getting them up and talking in front of a group. Talking with a adults asking youth questions and where they have to answer that all helps that social relationship that we really want them to have. I'm going to jump in here. This is one of the things is passionate about youth leadership and youth and adult partnerships and decision making for young teens to be involved in. This is the age bracket, as Michelle said, that they want to make their own decisions, but they also haven't fully developed that opportunity to think through everything from start to finish. This is the age bracket. We're really truly giving them options. I would you like to do ABCDE whatever that would be versus that wide open brainstorming? I mean, they are developing that, but making sure that you're giving them options, and it's not option A or B. Give a broad stroke, big option. They really feel like that engaging in a decision making, but you're also narrowing it and focusing it a little bit. Also, it's a great opportunity as we are very heavily involved in for in the career exploration world, that you really truly can start linking all of our activities, programs and projects we do with those careers. I like you enjoy working with, if you thought about how this looks as a career because what we do know about young people and what I know about myself even growing up is you do the careers that you know about. You don't do careers that you You can't envision, right? So how do you envision other careers as other people giving them and throwing them into the key interests that they have. So T kind of build on Genel this is the age where I talked about at the very beginning, you have to help youth find their spark. This is where we really need to start fostering that with what are the other opportunities they can do? Help them expose them to those leadership opportunities, really start to expose them to those pieces through the relationships that they have with their peers, through the relationships they formed with other leaders. Use this time to really foster that spark. And now we got to our last group, older group that we work with in four H is the five to 18 year olds, five to 19 year olds. This is our older teen group. What comes to mind when you think about older teens? I have one of these as well. What comes to mind when you think about older teens? Need to tailor their interests to keep their attention, right? So if they're not interested in that topic, they're probably not going to care or be a part of that. They want independence. I will tell you, I think my daughter feels like, that I'm not it's never going to happen to me, or you know, that whole, like, complex of, you know, you're not inferior, but I'm trying to think what to say, but that's what invincibility. You can do anything and nothing's going to happen type of thing. So taking risks, Yeah, stronger opinions. Very good. Peer relations are more important to them. Yeah. They get into that were school. Is it really that exciting? No? Not really. Yeah. Okay, Developmentally, sometimes they have foggy brain. Developmentally, some of the things that we want to just talk about is emphasizing personal development whenever possible. We really want to increase their social needs and desires. Where is it that they might need some help developing those? If they don't feel comfortable talking in front of people, giving them some opportunities in a slow manner in a comfortable setting to do that, again, to help them emphasize, what is it that some personal development that they might need or see. This age group also is They want adult leadership roles, they want to be able to take on take on things and make choices and decisions. We want to emphasize adults more of coaching rather than leading so that those youth can actually make those decisions in the adults leaders just there to give direction, not necessarily make the decisions. So again, emphasizing the guidance and coaching and giving those teams those opportunities to make decisions, to do action, to actually make a difference. We want to put youth in real life problem situations that allow them to fully discover ideas, make decisions, and evaluate those outcomes. We want them to make mistakes because that's how they learn. And so we they're starting to really develop this high level abstract thinking and problem solving. So they can choose a purpose, make a plan, carrying it out, and we want them to try things, and it may not work, and it may. And so then to kind of figure that out. This age group also has a wide, widespread feelings of inferiority, like I said, in adequacy. Like counting those feelings by encouraging youth and helping them to see that they have positive worth. But also, yeah, understanding that they have they are important and they are worthy. I know in our community, they just did a asset development survey and self esteem and sensitive purpose, we're one of the two lowest things that a lot of our 18 have. So we want to try to help develop that in Fg and making sure that they see that. There's a lot you probably could talk about more with teens. So I don't know. Jenn works with teens a lot. They want to travel. They're very curious. They want to make change. They're a little bit more about wanting to, you know, get in there and make some differences. So Yeah, I would just add, Michelle, you know, this is also the age bracket, where they are getting a more sense of community. So although we believe in foster community service throughout the entire age program of Four, this is where they're really trying and start to get it a little bit more is that it's more than just raking leaves. It's like, Oh, I really helped a person versus just raking their leaves and that. Then I also like for this is my Jam. This is I love this bracket here. I have to say that. You know, one of the things that we as adults need to do when we're working with this age bracket, especially in the area of four H is the opportunity to allow kids to fail. I mean, that is one of the biggest things that we have as a complex for adults is not wanting a child to fail at anything. And I know sometimes that's a harsh word. But you know, this is the opportunity for them to learn by their decisions that obviously don't hurt someone or is not going to bankrupt us or put us on the front page of newspaper. I always like to say that or in social media blow up. But there's times where the youth want to make a decision that we know as adults, it's like, it's not their best decision. And the opportunity for us to run through quickly in our brain saying, Okay, but can they learn from it? And really, is there a big problem with them having to struggle a little bit that learning because it does foster them the opportunity to really feel valued and hurt. As well as learning from their mistakes when we do allow them to have that opportunity to take ownership of decisions and things like that. So I just really encourage us at this age don't be afraid to allow the kids to make decisions, as we don't be afraid to allow them to have to really work through those decision making opportunities, even if we know that's going to be a bad decision, but no one's going to be hurt. Let's run with them. Let them learn from I think it's also important to know that a little bit on the side note, brain development, teens brains are 100% majorly still developing at this age group. And so, you know, our brain isn't fully developed until the age of 26. So a lot of times people like, I feel like my teenagers are like toddlers. They're not listening to me. They know, they're very defiant, that kind of thing. That is 100% normal. Their brain, their frontal lobe is totally going through a lot of stages in this teenage group. And so they may hate you right now, and they, you know, may cut at you. But again, it's part of this whole brain development part, and when their brain will fully be developed at the age of 26, but they need to make some of those decisions so that they can learn from them and help wire it correctly. So This is a great sheet and a reference of kind of what we talked about, just some tips and tricks for the different age groups. Not exactly the same things we talked about, but some of them are similar, you know, having the short, simple instructions. You probably may remember this if you took one of the module or you probably took a module when you became a volunteer. This was in that. But again, you can also reference this to the link that we just submitted as well. So, how do we put this all in action and our role as a volunteer? So as your role as a volunteer, it's really important that you build those developmental relationships with the youth that you're working with. You have to build that secure attachment between youth and caring adults. You got to get that mutual respect, warmth, and trust. That allows youth to grow and listen. So how you do that, no matter what age, no matter age, they're in their development, you need to listen to them. Give them opportunities to explore their areas of interest. It's different on Hari. When they're younger, they're trying to explore the process. As they get older, they want to understand what's the impact of this. How does this make community change? So utilize that, giving them opportunities to explore their interests. But thinking about how does it impact them at their age? Pushing them to try something new, no matter what age they're in, they are, in their development. We want to push them to try something new. Keep pushing them. How you push them is different, and how you support them is and how far you push them is different, but finding those things and then always connecting them with others. In those younger ages, you're helping them connect with their peers, learn how to make friends, but also how to form strong relationships with adults. As they grow, you're wanting to connect them more and more to different peers, but building those strong relationships with them. Okay. So one of the things is really, we want to think on that developmental framework, and you are going to get this handout sent to you afterwards because it's only as a PDF. But each of these categories helps reflect on the people and the elements of developmental framework, and how you can help grow successful you through different experiences through those different connections. So you have some different strategies. You can try to build things in express care and challenging growth, providing support, and sharing power and expanding possibilities. So how you do those in different age, different developmental stages. So when we think about this, no matter what we do in four H, we have to build youth voice into it. But how we do it in different ages and stages is different. How we do it with our younger youth is we have we can't give them the wide open canvas. We have to give them, here are some options to consider, or we have to plan this out and give them those pieces. And as they get older, you give them more and more pieces. We're about giving youth the opportunity to make voice, their decisions, and plan things out. And we need to do that no matter where they are and they develop, so they start to gain those leadership skills and feel the importance of everything. Chanel, do you want to add anything on youth voice? No, I think you did it great, Christine. It is super important that we start building it in with that early childhood five to seven because I think you'll reap the benefits and rewards by the time a 17 18 and that type of area. I think that also stands us out different from other youth development programs. If we continue or keep and start building it in as young as we can. And as we said, that looks different for each area, but we can really truly hold our hat on and separate ourselves from other youth development programs by saying that the youth truly are part of the decision making and the development of the program, not just they come to us for programming. So, I want to first take the time to thank everyone for coming. I'm going to stop the recording now.