Island-wide youth dev’t training

Dr. Lilli Iyechad, director of Cooperative Extension Services of the University of Guam, 14 members of the NMC-CNMI CREES 4-H program and the combined Family Consumer Service staff from Saipan, Tinian and Rota, all gathered to attend the Youth Development Program: Staff and Volunteers’ Workshop recently.

The workshop puts the CNMI and Guam in direct contact with each other, which can help improve the expertise of the staff, and increase the availability of resources beneficial to both communities. In the near future, the program intends to expand its collaboration to American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Hawaii.

The workshop was designed to train the individuals for the upcoming island wide training workshop on volunteerism. Dr. Iyechad conducted training on the essentials of program development and volunteerism.

The topics covered during the training were resource capacity and recruitment, and assessing personal and personnel characteristics for effective team building.

The introduction of “Cyfernet,” (http://www.cyfernet.mes.unm.edu) a web page sponsored by the USDA, provides youth and family programs with numerous resources that address issues on teen pregnancy, youth at risk, nutrition, drugs and teaching models. Dr. Iyechad also expressed the importance of collaboration, which is considered the key to funding for grants and programs. In addition, techniques to attract more volunteers and outside funding sources included building your image and increasing your organization’s credibility in the community.

The workshop also helps the NMC-CNMI CREES development staff prepare for the stringent requirements of the USDA and the federal government. At present time, the USDA requires all services and communities to answer one question: “So What?” For example, you have completed a program or a particular phase in a project, in order to move forward, you must answer questions such as; what are the results? What is the impact of what’s been done? What next and what are you long term plans? This training program helps entities deal with such issues and more.

The future island wide training session will be sponsored by the 4-H Program Development on Volunteerism and is developed for all types of volunteers, such as private and governmental agencies, schools, fundraisers, and any interested individuals.

We must take the time to learn the proper way of recruiting volunteers, conducting training, and keeping volunteers for life. For more information, contact Michael Ogo at the Rota 4-H at 1-532-9470; Linwood Seaver of the NMC-CNMI CREES at 234-5498, Ext.. 1706, or Winnie Matsumoto at the Tinian 4-H at 1-433-0639.