Illinois is in its sixth year of the 4-H Shooting Sports program. Growth has been very strong in all phases of the program, which includes: volunteer recruitment and training; addition of the new Hunting and Outdoor Skills discipline; 4-H member enrollment; obtaining shooting equipment and shooting sites for county programs; and, adding new training opportunities when so deemed necessary.

Over the past five years and more, the following has occurred in the Illinois 4-H Shooting Sports program: approximately 800 different adult volunteers have been trained/certified (of the 800, over 150 have returned to a different weekend training to become certified in additional discipline/s); 96 of Illinois' 102 counties are now "eligible" to have the program in their respective counties; last year's Illinois 4-H enrollment was approximately 2,800 enrolled 4-H members, taking approximately 5,100 4-H projects in the Shooting Sports arena. For the adult volunteers and 4-H member enrollment, a steady/huge increase of 25 percent per year for adult volunteers and 20 percent per year for 4-H enrollment has been demonstrated. Illinois has overtaken 12 states in the number of trained adult volunteers and 4-H member enrollment in the over five years. Some of the 12 state have been in the program for more than 20 years.

Overall planning, organizing and implementation of the adult volunteer certification trainings are a very important part of the program. Two trainings were held this past year, adding 132 new adult certified volunteers. Also, many of the counties are now using the opportunity for utilizing assistant adult volunteers, which are in the hundreds, statewide. These trainings offer approximately 16 hours of training for the volunteers. Evaluations of the training are always top notch.

Our certification trainings teach our primary philosophy, and that is to provide youth the opportunity to gain life skills by being taught by a caring/trained adult. Sometimes it's hard for some of the volunteers to grasp this concept, but eventually "they get it," as you hear them discussing it during free time. Advanced training in both the archery and rifle disciplines will either be offered this 4-H program year or the next. During this 4-H training, the instructors will teach the participants a number of skills including: advanced competition, advanced equipment and advanced instructor capabilities. Due to the continued high numbers of our State Trainings, we will need to offer the advanced trainings in rifle and archery on a different weekend.

Illinois will be adding the pistol discipline to the Fall 2016 Certification training as we sent four adults to be trained at the 4-H Shooting Sports Pistol National Training in Bryant Pond, Maine, in June 2016.

Without the continued support of organizations like CMP, NRA, NWTF, Pheasants and Quail Forever, etc., our county 4-H programs would not be able to keep up with the youth who want to join the 4-H Shooting Sports Program.