Youth Investment Programs

Teaching youth entrepreneurial skills is not taught in the traditional school classroom today. To equip our youth, we offered them the opportunity to sell their 4-H/FFA market livestock and country hams at Mercer County Investment in Youth Sale. The program's objectives are to learn how to engage in a contract and understand their requirements to participate in the sale. An integral part of the program is youth are creating a networking system. The participants are required to learn marketing techniques and identify potential buyers. In addition, participants learned how to network and market themselves by approaching potential buyers and the language they should use when promoting their project. In the long term, we have equipped students with the mindset that they can be successful and more engaged and take ownership of their success. In addition, the program provided a mechanism to promote agriculture and cooperative extension and its programs to individuals outside our traditional extension clientele.

Over the year, youth not only learned the skills with their 4-H projects but also improved their personal communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and critical thinking skills. The year-long path paid off for the youth. The 2024 program involved nine livestock participants and 39 country ham youth who sold their market animals and country hams for $90,406. 

We incorporated "add-on donations" to the youth without purchasing the project due to holding a live auction. The buyer added the " add-on donations " to the total bid amount on their project; the youth received all the money. Add on option allowing individuals to support youth with a much smaller financial commitment.