Money Sense - Using Enlisted Personnel as Master Volunteers

Part of the recent emphasis on evaluation in Extension is to demonstrate how its programs affect participants, both immediately and overtime.Warner and Christenson discuss the need to evaluate the "impact on people's lives within a larger environment." 1 Others have called for studies to show how Extension is "making a difference in the lives of people and communities, " 2 including "program results and social or economic benefits and costs to clientele and society. 3" Obviously, the long-term impact is more difficult both to study and to document, but is clearly important.Such evaluation would be especially relevant to the 4-H program, 4 where one major goal is for youth to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will enable them to become "self-directing, productive members of society." 5 The underlying objective is for youth to carry this acquired skill and knowledge into their adult lives.However, studies demonstrating what 4-H has contributed to the adult lives of its former members are virtually nonexistent, primarily because it's so difficult to conduct research on long-term program impacts. 6This study explores possible long-term benefits to farmers who are former 4-H members.One special problem is showing direct cause and effect relationships between the program and present situations or characteristics.However, by using comparison groups, 8 relationships can be examined, even if cause can't be proven.Consistent with the stated goals of 4-H, we expected to find that farmers who had 4-H experiences as youth were more successful and innovative than farmers without 4-H backgrounds. Study of FarmersThe reason for studying this group was to assess a traditional 4-H agricultural program area among some traditional Extension supporters-farmers.Farmers who weren't 4-H members as youth were used as a comparison group.We wanted to see to what extent farmers had been involved in 4-H programs when they were growing up and whether this related to their current farm situations.Data were collected in 1982 by mail questionnaires from a statewide survey of Kentucky farmers.The sample was randomly selected from all county lists of farmers receiving benefits from the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service.A total of 2,004 farmers returned questionnaires, for a response rate of 71 %.