4-H UNITY (Urban Neighborhoods Improved Through Youth) uses Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Signature Program, Youth Community Action, with a two-generation approach to address poverty, childhood obesity and food insecurity in two high-need communities in Endicott and Rochester.
The approach focuses on the needs of vulnerable teens and their parents together, with the unifying goal of strengthening family well-being, improving the community and breaking the cycle of generational poverty. UNITY combines 4-H youth development, civic engagement, STEM education, nutrition and parent education to ensure teens demonstrate the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary for fulfilling, contributing lives, and promotes healthy lifestyles among teens and their parents/guardians.