National Health Outreach and Engagement Conference 2024

Harris-Speight, Sansing, A, and Buys, D.
The Junior Master Wellness Volunteer (JMWV) program is a community health education
youth volunteer program offered through Mississippi State University Extension 4-H. The
program is for youth, ages 14-18 years who have an interest in health literacy and volunteerism.
The JMWV program enhances students’ knowledge of important health information and
prepares them to deliver community health interventions and advocate for healthier
communities. Participants receive training on 12 health-related modules with 1 optional
module. After completing the training modules, students are asked to give back 24 hours in
community service by engaging in various community service activities or through peer-to-peer
interactions.

The program started in 2014 as a pilot program in two Mississippi counties until 2016. In 2016
the program was offered statewide and was implemented in four Mississippi counties. To date
1,307 volunteers have been trained with over 11,610 community service hours reported and
over 168,106 contacts have been reached in 42 out of the 82 Mississippi counties. Starting in
2023, the program was made accessible through the learning management system, Canvas.
With the Canvas integration, Extension agents and teachers can offer the program in a hybrid
method to students. The teacher and Extension agent work together to deliver the program
content online and work in-person to facilitating the community service planning process. The
online course was created with the students in mind. The course creates an engaging learning
environment for students to be successful in learning more about healthy living and
volunteering. The online course consists of module overviews, learning objectives, activity
checklists, lesson readings, videos, interactive practice activities, supplemental resources, social
media messages, discussion boards, and other key information students can use to progress
through the course.

To enhance the partnership with the school districts. The program curriculum was mapped on to
the educational standards for the Mississippi Department of Education curriculum in career and
technical education and general secondary courses including family and consumer science,
contemporary health, health science, health care and clinical services, sports medicine,
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and 21st century skills.
The content is tailored to youth in all cultures. The material is selected and designed for
relevant and trending material in today’s youth that is related to health. Activities, supplemental
material, and community service projects are designed to help students apply material learned
in real world situations. Each course offering is unique in that it is led by a local extension
agent. The agent can customize the course by incorporating relevant information specific to
their community. The 13 lesson modules included in the curriculum are: (1)Privacy, Health
Literacy, and Cultural Competency, (2)Hypertension and Diabetes, (3)Obesity and Healthy
Eating, (4)Oral Health, (5)Mental Health Wellness, (6)Asthma Awareness, (7)Bullying
Prevention, (8)Heat and Sun Safety, (9)Substance Misuse Prevention, (10)Functional Foods,
(11)Teen Relationships, (12) Community Service Volunteering, and (optional) Illness and Injury
Simulation (I2).

This presentation will include an overview of the program development process, the content
outline, the Canvas course, strategies used to connect Extension agents and teachers, and
program output and outcomes.