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Publication #CIR 1269

Give Forests a Hand Youth Action Guide1

Janice Easton, Martha C. Monroe, and Alison W. Bowers2

"Give Forests a Hand" is a community service learning program that engages groups of youth in explorations and action projects based on trees and forests. The entire booklet is a 105 page project book for youth. It describes an eight-step process that guides youth through problem identification, the search for more information, prioritizing activities, selecting a project, planning that project, implementing the action, and finally celebrating success. The booklet includes four surveys for different types of forests: school forests, community forests, neighborhood trees, and rural forests that guide youth toward potential questions, concerns and opportunities for action projects. Reflection questions at each step of the process help youth think about the skills they are building and the information they are learning. A companion Leader Guide can be found at CIR 1270/FR118.

Note: CIR 1269/FR117 is available in Portable Document Format (pdf) only. It can be obtained as a single pdf by clicking on the "Printer Friendly Version" link above (file size = 9.28MB)

Footnotes

1. This document is Circular 1269, one of a series of the School of Forest Resources and Conservation, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. First published July 2002. Minor revision September 2006. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis. ifas.ufl.edu.

2. Janice Easton and Alison Bowers are former graduate students, and Martha Monroe, Assistant Professor, School of Forests Resources and Conservation, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611-0410.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Larry Arrington, Dean.