A core belief of 4-H is Health, as evidenced by the four H's in the 4-H clover: Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. 4-H is committed to the physical, mental and emotional health of our nation's youth so they may lead healthy and productive lives into adulthood. 4-H has become a national leader in health-related educational issues including chemical health, mental and emotional health, foods and nutrition, physical health and safety.

Health Rocks!^® is curricula for a healthy living program aimed at 8 to 14 year olds, with the goal of bringing youth, families and communities together to reduce tobacco, alcohol and drug use by youth. Special emphasis is placed on tobacco use prevention. It helps youth develop life skills in the areas of critical thinking, decision-making, communication, managing feelings, stress management and goal setting to help them develop the internal strength to resist risky behaviors. It also provides accurate health information regarding norms and consequences of youth tobacco, alcohol, and drug usage. The curriculum is designed for teen/adult facilitation, with teaching tips and key health messages embedded within the hand-on activities. State level implementation grants are available.

The goals are:

• Reduce youth smoking and tobacco use.
• Help youth build life skills which lead to healthy lifestyle choices with special emphasis on youth smoking and tobacco use prevention.
• Help youth understand influences and health consequences of tobacco, drug, and alcohol use to make healthy choices.
• Engage youth and adults in partnership to develop and implement community strategies that promote healthy lifestyle choices.
• Build positive, enduring relationships with youth involved as full partners through widely varying "communities of interest" to address youth risk behaviors.

To see how Health Rocks!^® and other 4-H programs support Positive Youth Development, please visit
The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development

To purchase the Health Rocks!^®curriculum, please visit the 4-H Mall

Current Grantees: Access materials on the secure site at Health Rocks!^® at MSU Cares
(user must have login and password to enter site)

Health Rocks!® Curriculum Preview Click to view Summary (pdf) Click to view Beginning Level Preview (pdf)

Building Partnerships for Youth is a partnership between National 4-H Council and the University of Arizona designed to build the capacity of youth serving organizations in the fields of education, health, faith, and youth development to facilitate the intentional integration of youth development concepts and approaches into policies and programs. BPY focuses on three essential strategies designed to help build the capacity of organizations working with and on behalf of young people—to help ensure that all youth ages 9-13 years old have the opportunities and experiences to arm them with the tools to make healthy choices, including abstinence.

The project leverages and disseminates research-based youth development resources to support organizations and individuals in their work to encourage the development of individual youth assets. Key highlights include the program self-assessment, a tool to gage a program’s level of integration of each of the 21 elements of positive youth development, and a searchable database of evidence-based program models and curricula.

Go to the Building Partnerships for Youth website.

This project is supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement Number 5U58/DP000456 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The contents of this website are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.