University of Missouri Extension’s 4-H Center for Youth Development has received a five-year project award totaling $607,115 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Children, Youth and Families at Risk grant program.

The funding, beginning September 2024, will support 4-H Hopeful Paths for Youth Futures, which provides college and career programming to underrepresented middle and high school youths in Jackson, St. Louis and McDonald counties.

“The overall mission of the project is to increase high school completion, postsecondary enrollment, hope, positive relationships, durable skills and intentional self-regulation in youth served,” said Kellie Logan Seals, MU assistant extension professor in Human Development and Family Science and 4-H state specialist in College and Career Pathways.

4-H Hopeful Paths for Youth Futures is based on a statewide 4-H program, Youth Futures: College and Careers Within Reach. The program began more than 20 years ago to promote college as an achievable goal for high school youths who are typically underrepresented in higher education. Seals and colleagues have expanded the program to encompass career literacy and durable skills through a holistic, youth-centered approach. The program supports participants to identify and aspire to reach personal postsecondary goals based on their strengths and values and to expand accessibility to paths leading to such goals, Seals said.

Project leads for 4-H Hopeful Paths for Youth Futures are Seals, who is principal investigator, and co-principal investigator Jo Britt-Rankin, extension professor in Health Sciences. Joshua “Clay” Hurdle, assistant professor in Human Development and Family Science and 4-H state specialist in Leadership and Civic Engagement, will serve as project evaluator.

4-H Hopeful Paths for Youth Futures funding is through the Sustainable Communities Project, an initiative of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Children, Youth and Families at Risk program.