Health Rocks

Health Rocks is a series of leader’s curricula for a healthy living program aimed a 8 to 16 year olds, with the goal of bringing youth, families and communities together to reduce tobacco, alcohol and drug use by youth. The program helps youth build life skills which lead to healthy lifestyle choices.

4-H Youth Development has worked for decades to help children and youth develop skills that serve them for life. Some of these skills – such as communication with others, relating to change and responsible decision making – help youth develop internal strength to resist risky behaviors. A healthy living program built upon the strong foundations of life skill development and decision making, results in a program that truly helps to reduce tobacco, alcohol and drug use by youth.

This summer, the UW-Extension Youth Development program coordinated Health Rocks-Healthy Life Series for seventeen youth at Alice’s Community Garden. The youth and adults had the opportunity to participate in a summer healthy living camp, where they were engaged in a practical learning model to teach them about tobacco, alcohol and illegal drug use. During the training, model youth were able to then share, process and generalize their experiences. The program being located in a garden affected the youth in very profound ways.

A questionnaire was completed by all seventeen participants. Based on a questionnaire, the participants stated that they learned about illegal and legal drugs, what to do when placed in various situations and ways to say no to tobacco (cigarettes and cigars), alcohol and illegal/legal drugs use when offered a substance. Participants enjoyed the learning activities, but most did not care much for work sheets. For more information on Health Rocks, please contact: Demetrius Brown, Sr., Youth Development Educator, at 414-256-4640 or demetrius.brown@ces.uwex.edu.