A story last week in the Contra Costa Times got a few things wrong, but a story the newspaper published over the weekend was spot on. Reporter Rowena Coatsee crafted an article about the California Youth Fair, held last week in Antioch, and the local 4-H program.
The California Youth Fair was formerly a 4-H event, but it was reorganized in 2007 into a non-profit organization with its own board of directors. The fair is open to all youth, including 4-H members, Future Farmers of America (FFA) and Grange. At last week's event, all but three participants were from 4-H clubs.
One 4-H participant spotlighted in the article, 11-year-old Roy Chapman, is the son of the rancher, but said he didn't know his cuts of pork, lamb and beef until he joined Briones 4-H.
The article clearly spelled out 4-H's tie to UC Cooperative Extension in Contra Costa County and concerns that dwindling county funding could signal the demise of the local program by this fall.
According to Paul Tringali, a Danville 4-H parent who founded California Youth Fair, even if the clubs stay afloat without UC Cooperative Extension's support, they no longer could use the 4-H name — a proprietary label protected by federal statute. Without the county funding, the youth currently in Contra Costa 4-H program wouldn't be able to participate in 4-H camps, public-speaking opportunities, leadership training or any other event the organization sponsors, the story said.
A news story published in the Contra Costa Times on July 8, and referred to in this blog the following day, didn't get all the facts right. The article, which appears to be no longer available on the Times Web site, was about the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors' proposal to cut its $325,383 funding for the UC Cooperative Extension program.
The director of UCCE for Contra Costa County, Shelley Murdock, said she and her staff greatly appreciate newspaper coverage of their work, but the piece in question contained some inaccuracies she wished to correct.
The article said the Contra Costa County 4-H program serves 150 youth
"In fact, last year we served 3,081 youth via clubs, afterschool, the Countywide Youth Commission, and our Farm to Fork programs," Murdock said. "Of these, 515 were club members."
The article quoted 4-H members and some adult volunteers as saying that if funding for the Contra Costa 4-H program is eliminated, they would join with Alameda County.
"This is incorrect. If funding for Contra Costa County Cooperative Extension is eliminated, then 4-H will not be offered to Contra Costa youth," Murdock said.
Shelley Murdock
The Contra Costa Times yesterday ran a story about the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors' proposal to cut its $325,383 funding for the UC Cooperative Extension program.
The story centered on the cut's potential impact on the county's 4-H program. Writer Nanci Valcke reported that she gleaned from "UCCE literature" the breadth of the program's role in the community. "As a land-grant institution, the UC Cooperative Extension mandate is tied to the welfare, development and protection of California agriculture, natural resources and people," Valcke wrote.
The reporter also noted the wide-ranging UCCE involvement in the local community, including:
- Services to Countywide Youth Commission, Head Start in Concord, Employment and Human Services and flood control
- City programs
- Collaboration on the Markham Arboretum in Concord
- Help with the golf course, open space and trails, parks department and Heather Farm in Walnut Creek
- Collaboration with the East Bay Regional Park District and Mt. Diablo State Park
The story raised the possibility that the county's 150 4-H members could be absorbed by the 4-H program in neighboring Alameda County.
"I don't think Alameda is as cool. It's going to be difficult to be called Alameda 4-H. (But) I try and think of what Alameda is doing for Contra Costa, which is keep us going," the article quoted Orinda 4-H member Madison Gibson.
UCCE's media services manager Mike Poe recently shared a video success story with the Communications Services team. Sacramento UCCE was struggling to maintain county funding. At budget hearings, the 4-H advisor in Sacramento County, Marianne Bird, handed out copies of a five-minute video that Poe had helped put together about the 4-H Water Wizards project.
Bird e-mailed Mike last week: "Our acting county director just came in to tell me that the Department of Water Resources has committed $20,000 to Sacramento UCCE as a result of seeing the Water Wizards DVD."
This experience definitely shows how a visual communications piece can pay dividends. Here is the video:
Director of the UC Cooperative Extension office in Yolo County, Kent Brittan, has found a way to maintain the jobs of county-paid staff even as the Board of Supervisors cut the organization's budget 11.4 percent compared to last year. The five people will each cut their hours - and therefore their pay - by 20 percent, according to a story in the Davis Enterprise.
That means no one loses a job, but also that the Woodland UCCE office will be closed on Mondays. The reduced schedule will affect all extension programs, from the county's 4-H program to pest control on farms and at the Davis Community Gardens, Brittan said told reporter Jonathan Edwards.
"That affects research projects, that affects people's salaries — it's a huge impact to the university," Brittan was quoted. "It will be a huge number by the time we're done. And it's not just this year — it's going to be next year and the year after that. It's going to take the state a number of years to crawl out of this."
The article notes that the 11.4 percent budget cut is to the county's fraction of the total UCCE budget. Academics' salaries and supplies are financed with $1.6 million from UC and USDA.
"Both the county and UC are tied to the state of California, which faces a $24.3 billion budget deficit. Eyeing that number, UC President Mark Yudof said an $800 million reduction in state funding will mean tough choices," Edwards wrote.
