4 H Mission Statement

1-a. History
4-H, the name of the largest youth development organization in the United States, is a term that means the four concepts of a clear “head” (clearer thinking), a true “heart” (greater loyalty), willing “hands” (larger service), and joyous “health” (better living). These concepts compose a green four-leaf clover of the 4-H emblem, representing intellectual development, moral development, development of a hardworking spirit, and physical development. That is, 4-H indicates the overall development of young people, which has the meaning of believing in their potential and supporting it (National 4-H Council, 2023a).
According to the history of its website (National 4-H Council, 2023b), youth community clubs began to be organized in

1-b. Size
4-H has over six million members of young people from five to nineteen years in the United States. There are approximately 50,000 volunteers and 3,500 professional staff for providing caring and mentoring to help kids and teenagers learn skills for their lifetime and ability to make their communities better (National 4-H Council, 2023a).
As 4-H has a nationwide network of organizations, National 4-H Council is functioning as its national headquarters to support 4-H at every level – national, state, and local. In other words, National 4-H Council supplies leadership and resources for implementing 4-H programs across the United States through brand management and marketing, fundraising, communications, legal and fiduciary services. National 4-H Council itself is a charitable nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) and is governed by the Board of Trustees which currently consists of five officers and nineteen trustees. Based on this leadership structure, it annually spends about $2 million of budget for cause marketing and $0.75 million for growing national youth educational opportunities (National 4-H Council,

In particular, this perspective could show which laws and policies had an impact on 4-H being formalized and developed.
As can be seen in the history of 4-H (section 1-a), it originated in sort of boys and girls clubs of communities between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was the passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914 that mainly influenced the status and development of these organizations (National 4-H Council, 2023b). This Act was intended to build a partnership for cooperative extension service between land-grant universities and USDA (National Institute of Food and Agriculture, n.d.).
The purpose of the national cooperative extension system was to disseminate advanced agricultural practices and technologies. Also, this partnership has served the educational and developmental demands of rural citizens and communities by supporting clubs and classes (National Archives Foundation, 2014). In line with this change of law and policy including the agricultural sector, 4-H emerged and advanced into a national network organization as a means to foster young people who are more open to new technologies and ideas for the