An interview with Valerie Pearson, Executive Director

Can you tell us first about the mission of the 4-H and your flagship programs?

The 4-H is a project-based youth organization dedicated to the growth and development of our members, leaders, volunteers, and staff through our motto: “Learn to do by doing”.

Our agency helps young people shine and develop new skills through project-based learning. So whether they want to rebuild an old car, learn to make digital films, design new fashions, reduce their impact on the earth, learn to ride a horse, care for an animal, or have an outdoor adventure — that is what our program is about, working as a group to make decisions and learn new skills.

With a focus on fun and learning we provide opportunities for youth that develop skills needed in an ever-changing future. We are building their confidence, self-esteem, and community ties. Each member has to do some kind of public speaking, which has been very positive.

We’re rooted in rural Saskatchewan but even youth here are thinking of other projects beyond cows and horses! They’re learning leadership and building self-confidence in the process.

What accomplishments are you most proud of as an organization?

The four H’s have always been front and centre within the 4-H program. 4-H Clubs use their hands to perfect a craft, their heart to reach out to other people, their head to learn and strategize and they spend every healthy day making a difference in the world.

Another accomplishment is how many generations of families we continue to impact. A recent survey found that 27% of our volunteer leaders started first as members. Many indicated their earlier experiences as a child in our program was the reason for having their own children join — which is a great testament to the value placed in our program.

All our volunteers and members show outstanding commitment to the program; without them, we wouldn’t have a program to offer. We have close to 1,000 volunteers. They oversee their own clubs and we do volunteer recruitment here. For the leaders themselves we provide material to help them do their role, making sure they have a positive experience.

We have 225 clubs in the province and the unique thing is the youth are making their own decisions. So for every club there will be a youth who is president, another who’s a reporter, another who’s a treasurer and one who’s a secretary. Only the youth can vote. But volunteer leaders are there to help them learn and develop skills to be community leaders down the road.

What is unique about your services?

The 4-H program in Saskatchewan targets youth ages 6-21 as well as adults to lead the program, making it a great family based activity that involves the entire community. The program takes place around your kitchen table, outdoors, or within your neighbourhood and is a world of hands-on projects and leadership development.

Some of that is changing a bit as we move into urban centres. Parents don’t always want to come to meetings and stay and we’re having to adapt. Whereas in rural areas, parents come to stay. But we’re evolving with what people need.

The 4-H program is also traditional, yet flexible. We have been able to stay true to our pledge, motto and program for nearly a century while still adapting to new technologies, interests, and markets.

What challenges have you encountered in running your programs?

Volunteer leaders are the key to our program, but their recruitment and retention was our largest challenge in 2009. Society is just so busy and there are so many options out there to compete with. Our turnover was 31%. We were losing leaders faster than we could gain.

And you can imagine, paperwork was high and training was constant. That’s where a lot of our work revolved around lately.

What did you do to overcome this?

Steps taken to overcome this challenge include additional funding secured to implement a new training program to help volunteers become confident, self-sufficient, and empowered to become long-term leaders. Then some succession planning was also put into place, with clubs encouraged to bring on more leaders.

Some materials were downsized and tools put into place to help take the pressure off of leaders. Online support and customer service have been developed and increased. Communication increased through email updates to all leaders and members. Material distribution has been re-jigged. And the Fun Factor Challenge was developed to help incorporate fun into program without overwhelming our leaders. One of our core values is fun.

Plus a new welcome package has been developed. We moved the leadership training sessions down to the local level, so [people] don’t have to travel so far and take as much time. We made random phone calls with leaders to identify problems, lend an ear, and provide advice. Leader appreciation was stepped up. We sent out a compass to signify they were “leading the way”. A marketing campaign was developed to re-introduce potential leaders to our program. Staff received sales training to promote our program. Tools have been developed for leaders to promote their local clubs.

The results to date are a 26% increase in volunteer retention and a 40% increase in new clubs that we gained!

Moving forward, we’ve secured some additional grant money so we can continue to work on providing help to the volunteer leaders, make their lives easier so they stay on and don’t feel as overwhelmed.

What key lessons have you learned?

Saskatchewan 4-H would not be in the position that we are today if it were not for our members and leaders. We are very fortunate to have a very strong following of dedicated participants (They do the day-to-day, we administer it). Everyone is a volunteer — even our board of directors. There is so much pride in the 4-H program throughout the country. It is that dedication and word of mouth that keeps the 4-H program flourishing.

However, that did not just happen overnight. For our organization to be successful, we must always ensure participants are having a great experience and continue to grow our program. Surveying our participants for feedback, proactively exceeding our customer’s expectations, and having a solid strategic plan are keys to our success.

Sometimes it’s been tough because we had to make changes [based on our survey]. To keep the organization going, we know we have to change. And that could be difficult when you want the organization to be the same as when you were a youth. Some of them [those who’ve been around since their youth] want to keep it that way — and you can’t.

So we changed the way we’ve done things. We used to do a lot more programming at the provincial level, for example. But because the province is so large, we’d have people driving five or six hours one way and they told us that that’s not what they want. They want stuff to be closer to home or online. We’ve already moved that way since people are so busy these days. Online [trainings] can actually enhance the process because they have so much information right at their fingertips.

And we’re moving into becoming more environmentally friendly. We hope it will attract a whole new group of people and will provide additional information to the ones that have been around a long time in terms of looking at the environmental impact in whatever project they’re doing.

Something most nonprofits struggle with is you can’t always pay the highest wages, so you do other things to prevent turnover. And we certainly have had our share of turnover but the last couple of years we haven’t. We have an amazing staff team right now and we know it’s not the norm to have staff putting in 100% every day, all positive, wanting to be at work all day. Having a board that’s supportive of our staff team, who let them do the operations, has been great. I’m just loving every day of it. It’s because of those things that we’ve risen to where we are with our accomplishments.

The Donner Awards is Canada’s largest nonprofit awards program. An award valued at $5,000 is presented to a winning organization in each of seven different categories. One of these organizations is also granted the William H. Donner Award for Excellence in the Delivery of Social Services, valued at $20,000. Learn more and apply this year at www.donnerwawards.org.

Elisa Birnbaum is a freelance journalist, producer and communications consultant living in Toronto. She is also president of Elle Communications and can be reached at: info@ellecommunications.ca.

Please note: While we ensure that all links and email addresses are accurate at their publishing date, the quick-changing nature of the web means that some links to other websites and email addresses may no longer be accurate.