Beyond the Lemonade Stand: Involving Your Community in Entrepreneurship Education November 4, 2007 Presenters: Malinda Todd and Leslie Scott

3,600+ of North Carolina students take Small Business/ Entrepreneurship 2,000+ Students take REAL Entrepreneurship Courses 10,000+ Participate in 4-H Entrepreneurship/Economic Programs 80,000+ Student impacted by Junior Achievement  Number reached by entrepreneurship programs Around 100,000  Number of North Carolinians under the age of 19 2,410,000

 Testing  Entrepreneurship often discounted as vocational training  Classroom structure not set up for hands-on learning

Change it Yourself

Think of people in your community that are interested in youth entrepreneurship. Some possibilities include: Teachers Young People Chamber of Commerce Members Small Business Owners Small Business Service Providers (SBDCs, Incubators) Members of Service Organizations

 Created a team to build entrepreneurship development  Team included local chambers, local governments, economic development office, community college.  Held workshops throughout the county  Encouraged teachers and community organizations to learn how to teach entrepreneurship  Brings local business owners and business support providers into the classroom

 Knowing what exist in your community gives you a good starting point  Involve a wide-range of people in the assessment– school teachers, church representatives, after school programs, community colleges  Think strategically about all age groups  Think about the number of students reached

 The energizing Entrepreneurship for Rural America is a national curriculum that North Carolina has used to inspire locally based entrepreneurship development strategies  Communities send diverse teams to the three-four day workshop  Teams leave the workshop with a strategy to build entrepreneurship in their communities

 4-H– Offers programs in entrepreneurship, economics, and financial literacy  Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts both offer badges in entrepreneurship and business  Junior Achievement  REAL (Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning) there are programs in several states  DECCA and FBLA- Programs that teach business and marketing in the high schools

 Put together community support teams with people knowledgeable about small businesses to provide advice and to small business  Match business mentors to young people or to teachers  Provide materials to classes that are teaching entrepreneurship  Help plan and raise funds for field trips to small businesses

 Approach the local school system- Superintendent, business and marketing teachers, board of education  Approach local organizations that can access existing curriculum- boy scouts, 4-H  Approach organizations that have the capacity to add new entrepreneurship programs– community colleges, after school programs, community development corporations

 Partner with local organizations if possible  Good partners should either work with youth or be involved in entrepreneurship (or both)  Possible partners include ◦ Summer camps ◦ Universities ◦ Workforce Development youth councils ◦ Churches ◦ Councils of Government ◦ Community Development Groups

 Many organizations offer curricula and facilitator training for entrepreneurship ◦ NC REAL ◦ NFTE ◦ Kauffman ◦ More at

 Worked with regional Conservation organization to create a youth camp that taught entrepreneurship and conservation  Students created business ideas in the growing eco- tourism industry  Students learned the importance of developing sustainable businesses that celebrate their community

Contact Information Malinda Todd NC REAL Enterprises 3739 National Drive, Suite 110 Raleigh, NC phone: ext Leslie Scott N.C. Rural Center 4021 Carya Drive Raleigh, NC Phone: