The mission of the Iowa 4-H Youth Development Program is:
4-H empowers youth to reach their full potential working and learning in partnership with caring adults.
To fulfill this mission the Iowa 4-H Youth Development Program has developed the following priorities:
- To provide learning experiences and environments for youth to develop competencies in the areas of leadership, citizenship, communication, personal life management, and knowledge.
- To build state and community level capacity to ensure policies and opportunities that are based on the principles and practices of positive youth development.
To accomplish the first priority of learning experiences, the Iowa 4-H Youth Development Program creates and maintains 4-H clubs that are lead by volunteer adults who engage youth in experiences of the young person's interest.
To accomplish the second priority of capacity building both inside the 4-H club program structure and outside the club program structure, the 4-H Youth Development Program staff provide a number of training and consulting services that are needed by other youth groups and youth workers.