Local 4-H agent to receive citizen award

Almost two years ago, Heather Jones decided to begin a program that would allow 10th-graders to ask their elected officials questions about issues that affect them, practice balancing a local budget and interact with county employees.

Tomorrow night, Jones will be honored for that program as this year’s Outstanding Citizen at the Spectrum of Democracy Awards, presented by the N.C. Center for Voter Education.

“We were very impressed by the fact that she took the initiative to launch this,” said Bryan Warner, director of communications for N.C. Center for Voter Education. “Often times, young people don’t have the opportunity to engage in government. It gives young people insight to county government and how it affects their lives.”

Jones said she was surprised and honored to receive the award. She also hopes her program will be a model for other counties in the state.

As a 4-H extension agent for the county, Jones’s job involves working with youth between the ages of five and 18 to teach life skills. She and her colleagues share resources and work with community clubs led by volunteers in the area, after-school 4-H clubs, local teachers, and special interest groups that offer home school classes and summer camp programs.

“Every day is very different for me,” Jones said.

In the summer of 2009, Jones attended a training session put on by the NC Civic Education Consortium, where she met civics teachers from Mount Pleasant and Northwest Cabarrus high schools. Jones and others at the training participated in activities like balancing a local budget, and she proposed having students in civics classes in Cabarrus County take a field trip to the governmental center to do some of the same things.

Her Cabarrus County 4-H Citizenship Focus program launched in the fall of 2009, with one 10th-grade, civics class from Mount Pleasant High and one from Northwest Cabarrus High participating.

Now, more than 800 students have come through from those two high schools, Central Cabarrus, Concord and A. L. Brown high schools.

Jones’s hope is that all high schools in the county will soon be able to partake in the program.

When students come for a few hours to the governmental center, they participate in three activities.

One of the activities is a panel discussion with elected officials that includes county commissioners, school board members and city or town council members. Students come to the center prepared with questions to ask their elected officials.

The students come dressed for the day and are not allowed to wear jeans or t-shirts, Jones said. They also address their elected officials from a podium.

Jones said the students have asked many questions about the school budgets, former graduation projects and their futures as employees in the community.

Another activity they participate in is a budget simulation. Students break up into groups of about 18 and take on the role of either county commissioners or department heads asking for money.

The third activity the students partake in is having conversations with county employees from various departments. Jones said the students ask about their qualifications and what made them enter that job.

“(The program) brings meaning to what they’re learning in civics,” Jones said.

Meredith Bost, civics teacher at A. L. Brown, agreed. Her students participated for the first time last semester.

“(Students) hear a lot about national government and state government,” Bost said. “They have a hard time grasping how local government affects them. It made local government more relevant for them.”

She added that the budget simulation and panel with local officials were especially beneficial for the students.

“They liked the concept that they had a voice,” Bost said. “(They could) ask questions and get answers.”

Jones said that when she visits the classes before they participate in the program, most students do not know where the governmental center is or who works in it.

“This makes it meaningful,” Jones said.

Jones said that what makes the program successful is everyone’s willingness to be involved in it.

Daniel Helms, who taught the first civics class at Northwest Cabarrus that participated, said he loved the idea from the start.

“It is a way to pull everybody together,” Helms said. “The kids really enjoy it every time, and we’ve heard great things from the officials that attend.”

Jones said she does not have to beg anybody to participate.

The only concern has been funding the program. Currently, several grants have paid for the approximately $2,500 it costs to transport the students for the program and pay bus drivers and any substitutes at the school, and Jones is currently applying for other grants.

Either way, she said the program will continue.

“It’s been positive,” Jones said. “We do a survey for participants and the presenters, and they all think it’s worthwhile.”

In addition to the immediate benefits, Jones hopes the program will have long-term effects on those who participate.

“Ideally, in 10 years, we’ll have a much more educated voter population,” Jones said.

Contact reporter Jessica Groover: 704-789-9152