Reaching Migrant Farmworker Youth Through 4-H Career amd Workforce Programs

In the U.S. today, there are approximately 12,000 college age youth in the migrant farmworker stream. In Texas, the Migrant Education Program estimates the current migrant youth population (Pre K-12) at 136,000. Of those, 70,000 migrant youth reside in border counties in the Rio Grade Valley. Migrant lifestyles are perpetuated because families follow work opportunities harvesting crops in the state and across the country.

In Texas, as elsewhere, migrant youth face many barriers to completing basic education. For migrant students, school work is constantly interrupted, grades suffer, and their school drop out rates are high (Salerno, 1991). Some drop out as early as the upper elementary grades (Menchaca & Ruiz-Escalante, 1995). Few earn college degrees.

Because of these and other factors, migrant youth are left without a firm foundation enabling them to find and hold well-paying jobs. For those who succeed in breaking the migrancy cycle, pursuing higher education and employment in the food and fiber system is not highly desirable because they generally have a perception of agricultural jobs as being hard and low paying. Lack of knowledge of career options and access to programs (Imel, 1989) and particulary, lack of information and exposure to academic programs, and job opportunities in the food and fiber system, further hinder migrant youth's ability to pursue these options.

In the past decade, in an effort to reach out to new and culturally diverse audiences, the 4-H and Youth Development Program of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service has implemented programs creating ways to participate in 4-H outside traditional clubs. Novel and successful approaches have been implemented across the state based on community needs assessment, funding availability, partnership opportunities, and other factors that help develop long-term program sustainability.

The presence of a strong migrant youth population in border counties, the 4-H program outreach goals, the agency's expertise, and nationwide 4-H emphasis on youth workforce preparedness provided the right environment to begin discussion for strategies to reach migrant youth through 4-H special-interest programming. For the past two years, 4-H in Texas has been involved in a multi-state project funded by the W.K. Kellogg foundation to test educational activities aiming to enhance migrant youths' access to higher education.

With support from the grant, a migrant youth conference titled "Food for Thought: Exploring Careers in the Food and Fiber System" was held early in 1998. Extension faculty from border counties, 4-H volunteers, and district Extension faculty, worked in partnership with local Migrant Education Program administrators on program development. This collaborative process resulted in a conference with two goals to help migrant youth: (a) learn about specific work and career paths in the food and fiber system, and (b) gain an understanding of training and careers currently available to prepare for entering the food and fiber system workforce.

To achieve the intended goals, a six-hour program was designed. The program included a variety of activities such as a breakfast sponsored by local corporations in the food and fiber industry, recreational activities led by local 4-H Ambassadors, a welcome and orientation session, a keynote speaker, concurrent presentations by professionals in careers related to education, management, science and industry, and tours of labs, greenhouses, food processing plants, and other worksites. This part of the program was geared towards addressing the first goal of helping migrant youth learn about specific work and career paths in the food and fiber system.

To address goal number two, helping migrant youth gain an understanding of training and careers currently available to prepare them for the professions and vocations to enter the food and fiber system workforce, youth visited with college recruiters from six different technical and higher education institutions and participated in a panel discussion by college representatives regarding accessing higher education and financial aid.

During the day-long program, over 50 individuals representing educational agencies, private industry, the media, and community organizations provided support coordinating and leading the different conference activities. The conference was evaluated by (a) the number and profile of targeted audience, (b) program impact on participants' perceptions related to the concepts agriculture and agriculture as a career, (c) participants perception of program delivery and quality, and (d) participants' awareness of agriculture-related careers employment options.

Qualitative and quantitative analysis of survey data collected from 94 program participants supported the hoped-for outcomes of the conference. Through this special 4-H program, migrant youth learned about specific work and career paths in the food and fiber system and gained an understanding of training and careers currently available to prepare them to enter the food and fiber system workforce.

The general benefits of this educational approach are twofold (a) it is a successful approach to reach new and underrepresented audiences through 4-H, and (b) it is an effective educational tool to create career awareness and promote workforce preparedness by positively impacting youth's decisions to pursue higher education and careers or employment opportunities within the food and fiber system. Specific advantages for replicability of this program throughout the Cooperative Extension Service 4-H network are (a) the linkages 4-H maintains with land grant colleges and the food and fiber industry in each state from which to draw resources for conference program planning, and (b) the nation-wide presence of Migrant Education program counterparts to access the target audience and to partner with to build long-term program sustainability.

Imel, S. (1989). The new workforce (Trends and Issues Alerts). Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 312 412)

Salerno, A. (1991). Migrant students who leave school early: Strategies for retrieval. ERIC Digest. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. (DIGEST EDO-RC-91-7)

Menchaca, V.D., & Ruiz-Escalante, J.A. (1995). Instructional strategies for migrant students. ERIC Digest. Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. (DIGEST EDO-RC-95-10)

ABSTRACT

Reaching Migrant Farmworker Youth Through 4-H Workforce Preparedness and Career Awareness Educational Programming

As the population in the U.S. changes, The Extension 4-H program is challenged to reach out to new and culturally diverse youth audiences. Addressing this challenge, South Texas Extension 4-H faculty developed partnerships with educational agencies, community organizations and private industry to reach out to migrant farmworker youth. Through a day-long conference focused on careers in the food and fiber system and higher education, migrant youth learned about employment opportunities in agriculture and related technical and college education options. This model program: (1)provides an alternate avenue of participation in 4-H, in addition to traditional clubs, to new audiences and (2) develops career awareness and workforce preparedness among youth.