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Ky 4-H Health Rocks!
D.K. Reed
State 4-H Youth Development
Project Description
Children often engage in behaviors that threaten their development. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists six categories of health-risk behavior in youth. They include: tobacco use, alcohol & other drug use, behaviors that result in injuries, sexual behaviors that result in HIV infection, other STDs and unintended pregnancies, poor diets and insufficient physical activity. It’s important that children realize they have a lot to lose by engaging in risky behaviors. Youth who are focused on future goals and supported by firm life skills and decision-making abilities are less likely to sabotage their health & future. The Health Rocks! curriculum is one component of the Kentucky 4-H Health Core Curriculum and addresses many of these high-risk behaviors.
Impact
In January 2007, a formal youth-adult partnership training was facilitated for nine counties (eleven teams); teams were trained and armed with the means to implement Health Rocks! program in their county and to train additional teams for program expansion. To date, over two hundred youth have been impacted by the Health Rocks! program. County staff have reported a 99% positive evaluation feedback from participants, 80% of youth have proclaimed to make wiser decisions for their future and 100% of youth pledged to be drug and alcohol free.
Additional funding has been acquired to support the Health Rocks! program for FY 08. The State 4-H Youth Development office received a $16,500 Venture grant from the Kentucky 4-H Foundation and Fayette County 4-H received a $2,000 Health Rocks! Community Site grant from Mississippi State University.