prepared by Craig Schroeder, Lisa Heinert, Lisa Bauer, Deborah Markley, Karen Dabson
This publication brings together significant work on youth entrepreneurship completed by the staff of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and the staff of HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC), a partnership between the Nebraska Community Foundation, the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, the Center for Rural Affairs and the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. Any time we conduct a workshop or training, or visit with community practitioners, interest in youth entrepreneurship is always high. We have gained some valuable ideas from youth and their communities across rural America, and thought it was time to share those lessons along with some tools and strategies for engaging young people. We have done this by creating one online publication that can be easily accessed by community practitioners and policymakers alike. In this guide, we will particularly focus on the HTC model. You will also find some snapshots and stories of young entrepreneurs and the communities that support them so you can experience the passion and creativity that we see in rural places all across the country. We hope you are inspired to invite a young person in your community to lunch and really listen to his or her dreams of becoming an entrepreneur!