This article describes Youth as Resources, a nationwide initiative involves youth and adults as equal partners in projects that improve community life. Some examples of the projects include the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, which engages teenagers to install solar heating in low income homes, and the Haydenville Preservation Committee, which implemented neighborhood cleanup and landscaping projects in rural Ohio.
This Planning Grant will enable the Ohio State University to address the shortage of professional engineers in the United States by designing an engineering curriculum for dissemination through the 4-H system. Planning activities include the establishment of a nationwide advisory committee, solicitation of input from the target audience via focus groups and the development of a plan for the curriculum and its content, designed to address the needs of young women and underserved groups. Pilot testing of sample units will occur in Ohio, Louisiana and Indiana. A recruitment plan will also be developed to aide with national dissemination.