Wausau Southeast Asian Youth Development Project
Wausau CYFAR develops leadership skills in middle school youth through
an after school 4-H club experience.
The Wausau CYFAR community
Wausau is a city of 38,500
located in Central Wisconsin . Wausau is becoming an increasingly
diverse community, where there are currently 4,452 (11.6%) Southeast
Asians, primarily ethnic Hmong. In most cases, the parents came to
Wisconsin as children and young adults.
In 2000, Marathon County 4-H established summer
4-H programs at Lincoln and G. D. Jones Elementary schools , serving
the lowest income and highest Hmong populations in the city. Summer
4-H interns staff the program, which established 4-H clubs of 3rd
through 5th graders at each site. Youth had activities in nutrition,
music, and culture. They exhibited at the County Fair. The County
4-H Leaders Association supported the effort with $20,000 over the
three years.
In 2003, CYFAR partnered with the Marathon County 4-H effort to
expand the program to meet the needs of more youth. The partnership
reached the largest group of youth ever, (over 50 at Jones and over
25 at Lincoln )! In addition, the youth at Wausau YWCA and
Salvation Army were reached with programming related to learning
about the heritage of regions across the United States . Participants
created service projects for pre-schools, learned new skills, and
learned to work together in a team setting.
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