Recognizing the need to establish programming in Clark County that focuses on financial literacy and allows potential young leaders and entrepreneurs opportunities, Clark County 4-H Agents established the American Private Enterprise Youth Program (APES) in 2019. 

Clark County 4-H received a $500 start-up scholarship from the Kentucky Council of Cooperatives to help get the program founded. 

The high school juniors (Youth Scholars) and seniors (Junior Leaders) who participate in The American Private Enterprise Youth Program are some of the brightest future leaders Kentucky has. They come together first at a local level and then at a state or national level to study how our economy works. They get the opportunity to meet and question local business and professional leaders in their communities and to serve on the board of directors of a corporation or a cooperative and solve problems that real corporations and cooperatives face daily. (http://ukapes.ca.uky.edu/home)

Clark County 4-H partnered with guidance counselors at George Rogers Clark High School to recruit 13 youth to participate in the local-level program. An added benefit to establishing the program was the partnerships formed between 4-H and school personnel, Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Clark Foundation, and leadership from Clark County businesses and industry. 

A primary program objective is to provide high school juniors, sometimes seniors, with an appreciation of cooperatives as one of the important forms of doing business in the American enterprise system.

Outstanding young people who excel in the local program attend the American Private Enterprise System Youth Seminar at the University of Kentucky, where they compete for over $10,000 in scholarships and cash prizes. One young lady from Clark County was able to participate in the seminar, and came home with over $600 in prizes and scholarships. She intends to return to provide leadership at the local level APES program and as a Junior Leader at the seminar in 2020. 

The American Private Enterprise Youth Program is developed and coordinated by the Kentucky Council of Cooperatives and the University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment Office of Diversity.