Karee Teague
State ESP Early Career Award

Professional Achievements:
Adolescents, parents and communities need help in building the resilience of adolescents. Watauga County 4-H was asked to play a role in helping address the needs of adolescents in Watauga County. The county's pregnancy prevention coalition had lost its funding due to the county's relatively good pregnancy rates. Karee helped the coalition reshape itself into a totally volunteer entity, perform strategic planning, and expand its focus from pregnancy prevention to general adolescent health issues. She helped the coalition merged with Watauga County Healthy Carolinians, Watauga Medical Center, and other agencies. The coalition serves as a model for collaborative efforts for adolescents. About 400 youth each year have received education on preventing at risk behavior. Over 37 parents and volunteers have been trained on how to more successfully interact with their adolescents, and the general public has received increased awareness on how to communicate with adolescents. Karee was asked to attend the 1999 Priester Extension Health Conference in Denver, Colorado and lead a roundtable discussion group on collaborative approaches to teen pregnancy prevention efforts.

Watauga County previously had no child care open to all students on days that school was closed due to snow. During community needs meetings through the local JobLink, the need for snow day child care was identified. Collaborations with the Watauga County 4-H/Cooperative Extension and the Watauga County School System led to a pilot program the 97/98 school year. Karee applied for, managed and completed the Snow Day Child Care grant of $16,000.00 which helped get the program going. 4-H provided curriculum, resources, supplies and support/technical assistance to program staff. The program is now self-sustaining. Karee helped actively market the program, selected curriculum and helped recruit staff. An average of 100 youth have participated each year. 4-H trained 10 staff members on utilizing 4-H curriculum to provide enriching activities for the youth and helped orient two new program directors. Karee helped the program secure additional funding to provide enrichment activities. She also procured $600.00 of grant monies to fund heritage related art and craft activities.

Parents state that their children need something productive to do in the summer. Youth
who are not in child care need social interaction with others and a sense of accomplishment. A yearly average of 90 Watauga County youth participate in 4-H Super Summer workshops. The target audience is 5-13 year olds. These enrichment workshops provide meaningful activities during the summer. The workshops introduce the 8 curriculum categories provided by 4-H. Youth learned about topics such as woodworking, nutrition, gardening, and agriculture awareness. Parents reported youth left with an increased sense of pride, increased teamwork and cooperation, and increased social skills. Master Gardeners, other Extension staff and volunteers have helped provide the summer workshops. United Way funding helps support these programs.

The local volunteer outreach center (VOC) needed help continuing their Youth Service Day, first held in 1999. The event was largely put together by one individual, who moved away. VOC asked Watauga County 4-H for leadership. Karee worked extensively with the group to orchestrate the event. She helped define committee roles and trained subcommittee chairs on their roles. As a result, committee members were more involved and had a more active role. A committee of 15 adults and 20 teen board members planned the 2000 Youth Service Day in Watauga County. The event involved over 340 youth and 89 adult volunteers in over 30 service sites across the county. Service projects included beautification, clean-up, and sorting. After 2000, 4-H assisted the local Volunteer Outreach Center (VOC) continue Youth Service Day and assisted a new chair assume his role. She provided technical assistance so that the VOC could assume more ownership of the event. She created a resource book showing how to plan and manage the event. The event continues to be a success, with a yearly average of 400 youth and adult volunteers providing volunteer service at over 20 non-profit sites across the community.

Karee also continued the 4-H Club program. 4-H clubs help meet many developmental needs of youth, including the need for family support, adult role models, positive contribution, and community involvement, to name a few. A yearly average of 100 youth have participated in 4-H club activities through 4-H clubs and individual enrollment. An example of program planning and delivering is the formation of a home school club. Environmental scans showed that home-school families are increasing. Over 200 home-schools are registered in Watauga County. A relationship with some home-school parents was developed through the 4-H Special Interest programming. After building a rapport with some home-school parents, 4-H was invited to attend a county-wide home-school resource fair. From this event, 4-H was invited to present information to an informal grouping of home-school families. Karee helped the families assess what their needs are. The families identified that they wanted to promote home, family and community. They surveyed families and identified major topics of interest, including gardening, farm animals, and social development. The group decided 4-H would mesh well with their interests and continued to meet in order to formulate the structure of the club. At the kick-off meeting, over 60 individuals attended, expressing interest in 4-H. The group began meeting regularly, elected club officers and writing a quarterly newsletter. Project groups of dogs, horses, gardening, and poultry were formed. Youth have assumed other leadership roles, such as being in charge of recreation, community service, fundraising and refreshments. 30 youth now regularly attend club meetings. Parents report youth are more excited about learning, have increased leadership, decision making, and social skills.

Significance
Karee has collaborated with others in her county to help meet the needs of youth and youth serving agencies in Watauga County. She helped initiate the Snowday Childcare program, which serves around 100 youth each season. She helped expand and sustain the Adolescent Health Committee and Youth Service Day, each of which reach 400 young people each. She maintained a 4-H club program and offered other educational opportunities for young people, and has brought over $60,000.00 in youth development funding to her county.