4-H Youth Development Program, San Mateo/San Francisco Counties

“Without 4-H, I wouldn’t be able to deliver a speech in front of a crowd of people, lead a project of thirty members, or comfortably talk to people I’ve just met.” – Peri, age 18

When you support 4-H, you help youth in your community develop the life skills necessary to become caring, engaged citizens now and as adults. We know that 4-H works, yet we’re only currently able to reach a small fraction of children who need positive youth development and a relationship with a caring adult mentor. 

Your investment today will allow us to reach more kids and sustain our programs.

Through hands-on projects, 4-H youth learn self-advocacy, experience teamwork, develop resiliency, engage in public speaking, develop money management skills, take on challenging responsibilities, and foster the discipline that comes with hard work. Our youth grow into exemplary teenage role models for younger members.  One 4-H member wrote about leading the first club meeting of the year:

“I hope the new parents saw us officers lead that meeting with just our own voices, keeping more than 100 kids paying attention. The skills that allowed us to lead that meeting don’t come without effort or practice and I hope they realized it is because of 4-H that we have those skills.” – Anya (age 16)

4-H has made a difference and changed lives since its inception over 100 years ago.  With innovative programming building upon our experience in agricultural education, today’s 4-H volunteers help youth in your community develop critical skills that stay with them for a lifetime.

Your gift will help youth in your community succeed.

Two years ago, we kicked off a ground-breaking program that combines community service, healthy living, science education, and leadership development by literally digging into school gardens. Our Healthy Living Ambassador program trains 4-H teens to deliver garden-based nutrition and science education by teaching young children how to grow vegetables in school gardens. These teens learn how to lead, they learn how to teach, and everyone learns about nutrition. Through this program, we’ve discovered that children are more likely to develop a taste for new fruits and vegetables if they grow the produce themselves, so there are direct health benefits, too!

Your support will help teach local students about healthy living.

In 4-H, we’ve built upon our agricultural research heritage and developed many Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math (S.T.E.M) projects. Not only do our members continue to learn about agriculture and livestock science, they now engage in physics, chemistry, robotics, and computer programming. Members get practical experience in these areas, while our older youth often work with younger members, providing opportunities for children of all ages to learn together.

“What I really like about S.E.T. is you get to be like a scientist and make totally cool experiments and learn at the same time. I also like the Rube Goldberg machine [experiment] because you get to use your creativity to the max capacity” – Logan, age 9

Your gift will help inspire hundreds of local children to pursue their interests in S.T.E.M.

Join our SV Gives Campaign to Change Lives 

Together, we can reach more children, provide scholarships for low-income families, and expand our programs. Our goal is to raise more than $10,000 this spring to increase the positive impact of 4-H in San Mateo and San Francisco Counties. We will be counting on support from hundreds of 4-H alumni, parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, and neighbors. And we are counting on you, because you know the value of 4-H and the impact it has on our children and our community.  

Your gift of any amount helps 4-H continue the important work of youth development in our communities and it helps us serve more local youth. Thank you for “making the best better!”