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To support youth in developing healthy relationships, state and county staff collaborated to offer a statewide overnight teen retreat to teach health relationship skills. Evaluation of 64 youth participants from rural and urban counties found significant increases in posttest knowledge of relationship skills for both male and female youth. Youth also reported that the content was very helpful and worth repeating. Program success may be attributed to addressing the interesting and needed subject of dating relationships as well as involvement of state ambassador and collegiate 4-H members as teachers. Implications and replication suggestions are outlined.

The 4-H Mentoring: Youth and Families with Promise program is a school, family, and community partnership designed to enhance the strengths of at-risk youth. Youth with below-average school performance, poor social skills, and/or weak family bonds are targeted. Participants are engaged by caring adults in three structurally different settings; youth are matched with a young adult mentor, enrolled in a 4-H club, and participate in monthly Family Night Out activities with their parents. The results of this strength-based study, with 345 male and 326 female youth, highlight changes in interpersonal and intrapersonal strengths. Programmatic predictors of post-program strengths varied by gender and age of participants. Findings are interpreted from an ecological systems perspective and the involvement of various adults, particularly parents, in youth development programs is encouraged.

We outline the process and development of the Well Connected Communities health initiative as undertaken in three Utah communities. This transformative community-focused alternative to addressing public health issues through Extension situates local communities as the origin for health decision making. The initiative recognizes the need for varied community statuses (i.e., planner, implementer, and innovator) based on varying levels of readiness and diversity of populations. We concluded that the Utah Well Connected Communities initiative aligns well with the 2014 Extension Committee on Organization and Policy National Framework for Health and Wellness. Replication requirements and implications for other Extension programs are presented.

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