Public speaking and communication skills have been proven to be the most needed skills in order for citizens to obtain a job in the workforce. In order to provide this experience for youth at an early age, CES planned and implemented lessons in which over 1423 youth throughout the county were educated on the importance of communicating well, and on how to properly give a speech and demonstration. CES also implemented 4-H Speech and Demonstration contests at all 6 of the county elementary schools, as well as holding a county run-off contests for both speeches and demonstrations (demos being held in february)  Of the 4^th and 5^th grades in Jessamine County, nearly all classrooms chose to make either the speech or the demonstration contest mandatory in their classrooms.  This year we had 1100 plus youth compete in their in school speech contest. 5 youth from our county won at the area level and went on to compete at the State 4-H Communications day! They all earned blue ribbons, one received 1st place and 2 received 3rd place.