Ingham County 4-H and Lansing Parks and Recreation Programs are partnering to provide summer youth recreation activities such as gardening and foods and nutrition at 15 sites around the city. (Photo provided by Lansing parks and Recreation Programs.)

By Stephanie Cluley

In Ingham County, a great partnership has formed between 4-H and Lansing Parks and Recreation, as both organizations looked for ways to work together to benefit each agency’s programming. One of the programs that has benefited from the partnership is a drop-in program that Lansing Parks and Recreation runs in the summers at 15 sites around the city. 4-H offered to develop activities and train the staff for each week.

As the 4-H liaison for the partnership, I was very excited when Lansing Parks and Recreation agreed that their programs would be better if we partnered and were willing to work with me to develop lesson plans that would be appropriate for the sites. This was accomplished by first attending the week-long orientation that Parks and Recreation gives their staff. As a way to introduce the 4-H philosophies, 4-H staff taught one session about youth development and engagement. Ages and stages were discussed, an activity from the Moving Ahead: Preparing the Youth Development Professional curriculum about protective and risk factors was used, and a video was shown titled Teaching from the Heart.

Every other week, 4-H staff went to the Parks and Recreation summer staff meetings to train them in the skills necessary to complete the lessons with the youth and to provide supplies. There were four topics that had activities for the youth to do in two sessions. The Parks and Recreation staff had 4-H time every Tuesday. The four topics that were decided on for the summer were gardening, sewing and diversity, entomology, and foods and nutrition. I really enjoyed doing the trainings. I was only there for an hour every other week, but a lot of good skills were taught. Some of the staff felt unsure about the 4-H activities because they were very hands-on. At the training, I helped them learn ways to lead so that the youth could learn the skills and be safe. 4-H staff used several resources to develop the lesson plans that would be low cost, introductory level, important and interesting to the youth, and easy to facilitate.
The cost for the supplies was divided between the two agencies and ranged from 20 cents to 50 cents a child, depending on the activity. An estimated 300 youth participated in the 4-H activities each week. Emily Stevens, special recreation services coordinator with Lansing Parks and Recreation, said, “Working with 4-H has enabled us to teach youth basic skills that can help them throughout life—such as gardening and sewing—by giving us well thought out lesson plans, easy to use supplies and clear direction. Without 4-H, none of this would be possible. We are very lucky to have them as a part of our team.”

The other program that 4-H worked with Lansing Parks and Recreation on was a youth gardening program. Thanks to a partnership between Allen Community Center, Lansing Parks and Recreation, MSU Extension 4-H, Garden Project and Capital Area Youth Alliance, the program is being run with almost no supply funds. These agencies got together and figured out a way to run the program by using the staff already employed. The idea originated from research that showed an increase in brain development if children eat fresh produce early in life. We know that by exposing youth to gardening, they gain interest in eating the fresh produce and they gain the experience of gardening.

For this program, the Lansing Parks and Recreation staff walked four blocks with the youth from the community center to the community garden. They did this twice a week with twenty different youth each day, to meet Aimee Miller, community garden manager, as well as 4-H staff and volunteers, to garden and harvest produce for 30 minutes. Miller said, “Our partnership has been one of the most productive I’ve ever been part of. We have accomplished things together we could never have done as individual agencies.”