Healthy Living
4-H healthy living encompasses a holistic approach, including healthy eating habits, physical fitness, the capacity to recognize and direct emotions, and the ability to develop and maintain positive social interactions and relationships.
Youth and their families engaged in 4-H healthy living will develop an awareness and positive attitude about healthy living while increasing their knowledge, skills, and competencies in physical, social, and emotional well-being. Healthy living curricula offers a range of engaging and challenging experiences for youth of all ages and abilities and their families. It builds healthy living literacy while meeting the fundamental developmental needs of youth.
For more information, please see the Healthy Living Advisory Committee.
Guiding Principles
Intended to spur dialogue and inform the direction and strategies of the 4-H community on healthy living at every level, this framework is based on four guiding principles that give 4-H a clear niche in the healthy living arena:
2. 4-H's approach to healthy living must include youth-adult partnerships. Youth-adult partnerships are integral to non-formal experiential learning and must be a part of any plans to engage youth in 4-H healthy living. Youth-adult partnerships facilitate youth involvement as full partners in design, implementation, and evaluation of healthy living learning opportunities created for them. The role of older youth will be expanded as they provide training and support to volunteers, teach and mentor younger participants, and help incorporate new technologies into the learning opportunities of this mission mandate. This expanded role for teens and young adults provides new leadership opportunities in 4-H and encourages their continued participation.
3. 4-H delivers healthy living activities in a variety of program areas to diverse youth in rural, suburban, and urban areas, including the inner city. One of 4-H’s strengths is the ability to offer all youth ages 5-19 a variety of programs in which they can participate, including 4-H clubs, 4-H camps, and 4-H afterschool. Because of the wide variety of healthy living programs and resources 4-H already offers, 4-H has the opportunity to tailor its learning opportunities so that it can expand the number of girls and boys involved in
4. 4-H healthy living programs and their curricula must be based on "best practices" within healthy living research. The 4-H Healthy Living Task Force has undertaken an exhaustive review of the literature to illuminate what is known within the healthy living area focused on physical, social, and emotional well-being. This literature review has provided strong evidence of the need for this mission mandate and it has also become the foundation from which this strategic framework has been created. The next major undertaking of the Task Force involves a synthesis and a delineation of standards on physical, social, and emotional well-being. In addition to standards, the synthesis will delineate evidence-based programs that address the three major well-being foci of physical, social, and emotional well-being. After the synthesis is complete, the 4-H Healthy Living Mission Mandate Task Force will institute a review process to ensure that 4-H healthy living learning opportunities, their curricula, and materials include the essential elements of 4-H youth development; consider the diversity of cultures and learning styles of youth; outline evaluation strategies; and provide a delivery design that involves experientially-based, hands-on, learning-by-doing methods.
