4-H Youth Development

About Georgia 4-H

4-H is the nation’s largest youth leadership development organization empowering nearly six million young people across the U.S. with the skills to lead for a lifetime and Georgia is proud to be one of the largest state programs in the country with almost 170,000 active 4-H’ers across the state.

The four H’s symbolize the development of the HEAD (to think, plan and reason), the HEART (to be concerned with the welfare of others, accept the responsibility of citizenship and develop positive attitudes), the HANDS (to be useful, helpful and skillful) and HEALTH (to practice healthy living, enjoy life and use time wisely). 4-H is a major partner in education. Lessons taught, experiences shared and information presented in 4-H is based on the research of the University of Georgia and Fort Valley State University.

Mission

The mission of Georgia 4-H is to assist youth in acquiring knowledge, developing life skills, and forming attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society. This mission is accomplished, through “hands on” learning experiences, focused on agricultural and environmental issues, agriculture awareness, leadership, communication skills, foods and nutrition, health, energy conservation, and citizenship.

Exploring and discovering, encouraging and challenging, that’s what Georgia 4-H is all about. As a program of the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Cooperative Extension System, 4-H is part of the nationwide Extension network.

4-H’ers are known for sharing their research-based knowledge and technology to people where they live and work. 4-H combines federal, state, and local expertise and resources.

Who is eligible to join 4-H?

Any youth ages 9 through 18 may join 4-H.