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4-H LogoFlorida 4-H

Community Pride: Service-Learning Grant Program

Community Pride is a service-learning program aimed to support 4-H members and clubs across the state in giving back to their communities.

Project proposals are due December 1. Final reports are due June 1. All information regarding these submissions can be found below.

  • Program Objectives

    The objectives for this program are for youth to:

    • Learn about their community and the impact it has on their lives
    • Learn to work with a team in community activities, programs, organizations
    • Develop skills and knowledge in community leadership
    • Gain experience carrying out projects to improve their community
    • Develop an interest in and love for their community

Questions

Citizenship/Leadership Coordinator | Derby Sale, sderby.sale@ufl.edu

 

Partnership Opportunities

Partnership opportunities, including title sponsorship, are available for this statewide program. Contact Caylin Hilton at grow4h@ifas.ufl.edu to learn more.

 

Guidelines & Procedures

4-H members of all ages may participate in a Community Pride Project.  During the project a community issue is identified, a service project is selected, a plan is implemented by the group, and reflection and reporting take place.

This is a competitive project. To be eligible for one of the Top Five Community Pride Project Awards, groups must have submitted a proposal and a final report. Even groups who do not receive funding are eligible to submit a final report and compete for one of the Top Five Awards.

  • Step 1: Community Needs Assessment

    During the fall, youth study the challenges facing their community and identify needs and assets. Youth then select one community need to focus on.

  • Step 2: Planning Process

    Youth research the community need they are going to focus on and develop a plan to combat this community need.

  • Step 3: Submit a Community Pride Proposal

    Each group must submit a proposal for funding their Community Pride Project.

    Proposals must be submitted online through the following link by December 1 to be considered for the current 4-H years funding, Community Pride Proposal (ufl.qualtrics.com). County 4-H Professionals (faculty/staff) will receive an email to approve the application once it is submitted. Applications will not be considered complete without approval from your county 4-H professional. 

    For submission, you will need to upload additional documents that can be found at the following links, Proposed Project Budget and Proposed Media Strategy.

    For reference only, you can see what information needs to be submitted at the following link, Sample Proposal - Community Pride. All submissions must be made through Qualtrics. No other types of submissions will be accepted.

    Proposals will be scored by volunteer judges and then receive an average score. To help prepare and ensure that your proposal is clear to judges, you can access the score sheet at the following link, Proposal Score Sheet - Community Pride.

    Please Note: Funding is awarded based on available funding, number of proposals submitted, and score received on the proposal. If a project does not receive full funding from the Florida 4-H Foundation, groups are still expected to follow through on the process by working with you to build additional support.

    Groups that are awarded funding will be notified via email in January. Groups that are awarded funding MUST follow up with the Florida 4-H Community Pride Final Report available below.

     

  • Step 4: Implement Your Project

    Youth should implement their service project between January and June.

  • Step 5: Evaluate and Report

    All submissions must be made at Community Pride Final Report (ufl.qualtrics.com) by July 1 to compete at the state level for recognition. All proposals are invited to submit a final report; those that received grant funds are expected to submit.

    As part of the report, you will need to download the Final Project Budget, fill it out, and upload it within the online submission form. For reference only, you can see what will need to be reported at Sample - Community Pride Final Report. No PDF submissions will be accepted.

    All participants in the Top Five Projects will be invited to a recognition meal held during 4-H University.

Leader's Guide

You can access the Community Pride Leader’s guide by following THIS LINK.

This guide is meant to support Club/Project Leaders to help club members succeed in the Community Pride Project. 

  • This guide includes:
    • Community needs assessment instructions
    • SMART Goals Worksheet
    • Project calendar worksheet
    • Sample reflection questions.

2023 - Top 5 Projects & Honorable Mention

Four youth cleaning a police vehicle

  • Helping Hands – Gilchrist (Top 5 Project)

    Outreach to Officers

    Recognizing a lack of appreciation and funding for their local police officers, Helping Hands 4-H Club set out with their Outreach to Officers project. Through their efforts, they were able to meet their two goals of providing items for the police officers to supply to children in need and show the police officers how much they were appreciated. To support the officer’s efforts with the youth in their community, they provided them with 300 teddy bears, 71 duffel bags, 96 combos of coloring books and packs of crayons, and 180 essential hygiene bags. To show their appreciation to the officers, Helping Hands 4-H also provided lunch and patrol car washing. The impact on the officers was apparent through their words and emotions. One officer spoke to the importance of teddy bears through his story of a previous residential fire in a city where officers were handing out teddy bears left and right to give the affected kids some comfort.

     

Two youth making soap

  • Goat Busters - G.O.A.T. Soap (Top 5 Project)

    Mission Foster Closet

    As the Goat Busters 4-H Club assessed the needs in Lake County, they noticed that there were a few communities that were financially struggling with securing day-to-day needs. Through a conversation with a local community partner, they learned that food stamps were partially helping, but that non-food items could not be purchased and that there was a need for body soap. Recognizing that their club’s namesake, goats, were a great resource in making soap, the club set out to make 500 bars of the Greatest Of All Time Soap, better known as G.O.A.T. Soap, to meet their community’s needs. Through increased partnerships, they were able to hand out all 500 bars of their G.O.A.T Soap with backpacks full of other items to those in need.

Four youth making bags to promote literacy

  • Teen Leadership Club - Lee (Top 5 Project)

    Dig Into Reading

    As Lee County’s Teen Leadership Club discovered the need for literacy access within a traditionally underserved community of theirs, they set out with their “Dig into Reading” project. Through their efforts, they collected over 750 books, printed 300 literacy worksheets, and purchased 300 4-H bookmarks to be put together into kits for youth to engage with. These kits were handed out to 300 1st and 2nd graders, who received access to resources they would not have had otherwise.

     

Two youth using tools to clean up a local community gathering spot

  • Homegrown - Polk (Top 5 Project)

    Vandal Control

    As Homegrown 4-H created an extensive list of challenges facing Polk County, they were particularly drawn to the graffiti in public areas. They were concerned about the swear words, carvings, and pictures that were making these spaces seem un-kept and inappropriate for younger kids in their community. With their Vandal Control project, they set out to stop vandalism, beautify their public spaces, and improve the environment. From the students at a local nature school, various scout groups, the military that uses the space for training, and daily visitors, approximately 350 people benefited from Homegrown 4-H’s efforts.

Four youth with a cart full of plants

  • Sumter STEM - Sumter (Top 5 Project)

    Helping Hands for Healthy Meals

    While Sumter STEM knew that their local food banks and soup kitchens were providing essential services for their community, they found a need for providing more support for healthier options. Through their Helping Hands for Healthy meals project, they started a club garden so that they could grow vegetables and donate them to local families, food banks, and soup kitchens. Through feelings of happy, dirty, helpful, hot, tired, sweaty, excited, hopeful, and accomplished, Sumter STEM learned how to create a sustainable garden, discover organizations that could benefit from their garden’s supply, and promote awareness a local issue.

Anti-littering campaign ad that says

  • Teen CERT & County Council - Wakulla (Honorable Mention)

    Let's Clean Wakulla Together

    This project is receiving an honorable mention due to their Outstanding Partnership Award through Keep Florida Beautiful. 

    Noticing an increased amount of litter along the roadsides and in the forests of Wakulla County, the 4-H program set out to bring awareness to the effect litter has on the beautiful area that they call home. Cleaning up litter and securing trash would also help provide a safer place for the many wildlife species that share their home in Wakulla. In partnership with Keep Wakulla County Beautiful, the 4-H'ers met with community leaders, attended public meetings and events, and created promotional podcasts. They also worked with a local artist to design a 4-H inspired anti-littering sign (pictured above) that would be placed along roadsides within the county. Their efforts have created a strong base of advocacy to make long lasting impacts within their community.

  • Previous Community Pride Projects

    2023

    COUNTY PROJECT GROUP DESCRIPTION
    Alachua Gator Skeet & Trap Rejuvenation Alachua County Shooting Sports Beautification of local shooting range
    Escambia Life Skills 101 Northview Coordinating a week-long life skills summer day camp
    Escambia Bringing 4-H to the Kids Northview Coordinating STEM activities for youth at a local homeless shelter
    Manatee The Rabbit Cooperative Learning Project Bradenton Bunnies Coordinating a rabbit care and showmanship clinic for local youth
    Sarasota Community Action Projects for the Environment (CAPE) Pollination County Council Building a pollinator garden and creating educational advocacy videos about pollinators
    Washington Little Free Library LEGO Masters Creating two Little Free Libraries in locations over 25 miles from a local library

    2022

    COUNTY PROJECT GROUP DESCRIPTION
    Broward Top 3 - Tree-Plenish Tree Giveaway Dream It, Style It, Make It Providing their schools and community with trees and pollinator friendly plants
    Lake Top 3 - Mission Foster Closet G.R.I.T.S. Providing welcome kits to families with new foster youth that included items like toothbrushes, sippy cups, snacks, stuffed animals, coloring books, and toys
    Wakulla Top 3 - Blessing Box County Council Creating and stocking a blessing box at their Extension office to help combat food insecurity
    Hamilton Foster Love Bags Explorers Providing foster youth with backpacks filled with pillowcases sewn by 4-Hers and personal items
    Wakulla Disaster Buckets for Seniors County Council Provided senior citizens with disaster buckets and taught them how to make their own to be prepared for disasters

    2021

    COUNTY PROJECT GROUP DESCRIPTION
    Broward Top 5 - Craft Workshops for Mental Health Assisted Living Dream It, Style It, Make It Providing educational craft workshops to enhance living at a local assisted living facility
    Broward Top 5 - Butterfly Garden for Mental Health Assisted Living Tropical Troopers Creating a butterfly garden to enhance living at a local assisted living facility
    Lake Top 5 - Retire, Respect, Replace Green Clover Legacy Educating local community about the proper care of the American flag along with its meaning and purpose
    Osceola Top 5 - Gateway Shields and Masks Why Knot Sewing window covers and face masks to help protect schools in crisis
    St. Lucie Top 5 - Water Quality Water Quality Team Creating educational flyers and trash collection sites to educate local community about their responsibility in keeping their waterways clean
    Brevard Brevard 4-H Adopt a Camp Sharp Eyed Shooters Cleaning up and improving local public wildlife lands
    Broward Food Forest Plant Propagation Flagler Village Monarchs Propagating plants from their local food forest to feed and educate community members on preparing healthy meals with fresh fruits and vegetables
    Escambia Purple Up for 4-H Military Youth Discovery Assembling and delivering Clover Care Kits to 4-H miliary youth to support them through the challenges they face
    Lake Mission Foster Closet G.R.I.T.S. Collecting requested items for local foster closet and bringing community awareness to foster family needs
    St. Lucie Lending Library County Council Building a lending library in a local park to give children access to free books
    Wakulla Rainwater Collection System Food Forest Project Installing a rainwater collection system to create a sustainable water source for their community food forest